Fetters Leather Arm Binder

The Fetters Arm Binder

Vendor: Regulation

Construction

The center piece of the Arm Binder is a restraint body made out of soft and deliciously smelling garment leather. While it gently wraps around the sub’s body, at 1mm thickness it is sturdy and strong! The restraint roughly has the shape of a sleeping bag’s bottom. The opening at the top is 42cm wide and tapers over the length of 69cm to 12cm at the bottom. This lavish amount of room allows the restraint to be used on all body types, from beefy muscle bulls to slender twinks.

To adjust the sizing and increase the level of bondage, there are two mechanisms. On top of the body there is a rivet reinforced lacing ladder which goes 2/3 down. It is underlaid with a sheet of leather so hair or skin folds do not get caught in the lacing. Onto the back three loops – one on top, on 1/3 and one 2/3 down – out of sturdy bridle leather are riveted. Through these loops belts with roller buckles are threaded. Again, the belts are long yet the holes are punched so far that they are long enough for bigger builds yet can be closed tightly for petit physiques.

The restraint body is fettered to the torso with a simple X-harness using roller buckles. One pair sits on each side of the lacing, another of the leather sack’s back. The roller buckles are held in place by riveted leather loops for a secure fit. The loops are made out of the same 30mm wide bridle leather belts as the harness and the tightening belts.

The Roller Buckle on the Stiff Version of the Bridle Leather Belts

And now we are coming to a part difficult part in this review: The bridle leather on the Arm Binder I am basing this review on is stiff and uncomfortable. Because of this I reached out to Regulation/ Fetters and they assured me that they switched the leather to a softer and thus more flexible variety earlier this year (I have gotten my Arm Binder in March 2021). To make my Arm Binder more usable, I actually commissioned new belts and the harness in the new, softer leather but due to Covid I have not yet gotten these.

Long story short: As you can read below, I like the Arm Binder a lot because they are a hot and kind of degrading toy. But especially for long term scenes, they are only fun when the softer leather is used! As soon as I have gotten the new belts and harness, I will annex this review. As always, if you want to be kept in the loop about such things, follow me on Twitter.

Lateral Belts for Extra Secure & Tight Bondage

Playing with the Leather Arm Binder

Putting the Arm Binders on is easy: The sub simple needs to put his arms behind his back and you pull the restraint body over them. To make it easier, the bottom should fold his hands. The bottom of the leather sack is quite tight yet it is spacious enough for larger hands. But if you want to tie the sub’s hands together, leather cuff restraints or special ones like the awesome Fetters Handlock take up too much space. So if you feel the need to tie them, I recommend soft Velcro quick restraints. But to be honest: Such additional restraints are purely for the mindfuck. Once the harness and the restraint body are connected, there is little chance for the sub to get his arms free.

For safe and long-term play, the harness should rest lightly against the torso and the restraint body should hang as loosely as the arms would. There should be a little wiggle room so the sub can move his shoulders before they become stiff and to ensure circulation. You can tighten the straps more, pulling the arms up. This is a form of stress bondage and should not be done over extended periods of time and monitored closely. The same rules apply to the belts. Tighten them loosely for lightly restraining the sub while increasing both the bondage feeling and inescapability. Tighten them more and you end up with intense stress bondage. Please keep in mind that through the leverage of the belt you can quickly wield strong force on the elbows and shoulders. Both are frailer joints so be careful and don’t overdo it force and time wise!

The Lacing for a Tight Fettering

So much for health and safety. Now on to the fun part. If you fetter the belts in a non-stress tightness, the Leather Arm Binder are great “mobile” restraints. You can put your sub in them for extended periods of time, render his arms useless while he can walk around and has his body more or less exposed for play.  This makes the arm binder the perfect bar/ club restraint. Unlike straitjackets which are equally comfortable over long periods of time but limit the access to the torso, the bottom in these can be easily be expose to chest and gut punching, TT or CBT. Naturally, it is a good piece of bondage gear for group scenes when a sub needs to be “parked”.

On my first look at the toy, I would have wished for D-rings on the side. But in play, I rarley missed them. In the cases where I had to secure my bottom laterally, I simply used carabiners or shackles on the tightening belts as anchor points. Yes, D-rings would be more refined and keep the restricting belts from movement. But they are not essential for enjoying this restraint. As I have written: The Arm Binder is a perfect toy for mobile play. If you want to secure a sub safely laterally on his arms I would recommend  Fetters’ Full Sleeve Bondage Mitts which have plenty of D-rings.

At the Bottom there is a D-Ring for multiple Nifty and Nasty Intricacies

The one D-ring at the bottom is a nifty one though. For a bit of CBT, it can be connected to a chastity cage or a ball stretcher. Since the arm movement is quite limited, the chances of an accident are low. My preferred bondage layout though was running a piece of rope or chain through it to for connecting two ankle restraints. This will properly limit his step range and keeps him from running away. If you want to humiliate him even more, use the D-ring as the anchor point for the leash instead of the collar, focusing the attention onto his groin.

Finally, if you sub needs fuck machine training, this is a good piece of bondage gear to keep the arms out of interferings way when the sub is on a bench. Even when bound in doggy position, the arms can be used to pull forward and escape the machine a bit. With the arms behind the back (preferably lightly suspended upwards) there is little wiggle room. And quite frankly, the image is very hot!