My real question is this:
If I get Harry Benz straps for my cameras, will my photos look like Vieri's?
I am not sure whether you'd want that to happen in the first place!
About the Leica haters, I truly cannot understand what their real problem is. Has anyone forced anyone to buy a Leica camera, ever? Not that I know of. Not buying them is enough to show Leica that you don't like their products, going about hating them tells me that the problem is somewhere else, not with the cameras themselves. I don't see Mercedes users hating BMW's ones, or Porsche users hating Maserati drivers that bad.
While I cannot speak for others, for me personally there is no hype involved in my choice to use Leica equipment. My Leica SLs and their zooms are just amazing image making tools, and for me once one works with Leica optics it is nearly impossible to go back to anything else, and I won't if I can help it. But that's just my opinion, everyone can have different opinions of course, there are amazing cameras and lenses from other brands that do the job perfectly well. I am not losing my time hating anyone who uses other brands, nor am I thinking any less of them.
About the strap, reading the article would have answered any questions about money's worth: Leica SL has a different arrangement for strap lugs, and regular straps (including Leica's own) besides making the camera less comfortable to carry, will get strained at the point of contact and, eventually, erode and break there. Harry Benz provided a genius solution to that problem, and that alone - to me - it is worth the money. The fact that the straps are truly a work of art is just a bonus for me. By the way, Harry Benz is an incredible craftsman putting a huge amount of work and love into his products: as with Leica, nobody forces anyone to buy his products but if nothing else I wish people at least respected that.
Best regards,
Vieri