Wallets
In-pocket essentials move with us. Design, materials, size and format all make meaningful differences day to day.
How to make your decision
1
Pocket Essentials
What must you carry every day? Lay it out. Minimize where possible, include what’s necessary.
2
Size Concerns
Less pocket bulk = more ease. Step 1 chooses the size for you.
3
Feel & Materials
Some materials “patina.” Others just decay. Below are our favorites in several categories.
Most Minimal Carry
Statistically, you carry a phone.
The most minimal setup is a phone wallet. Here’s some we like.
- Bellroy Cases — very nice feeling designs. Patina well. Folios (cover flaps make camera use funky) and 3-card case (my daily driver).
- Nomad Goods Cases — Folio (cover flap) with MagSafe is unique (3 card slots and a cash slot).
- Ekster Cases — They have a folio (cover flap) and a MagSafe removable wallet.
- Cheaper Stuff — We’ve had surprising success with cheap cases like this. Could be a good first phone wallet to try, but not the most protective.
- Peak Design’s magnetic phone wallet is stronger than the Apple magnetic wallet.
Minimal + Classic Wallets
Thin, light, simple and well designed everyday drivers.
Soft Card-Holders:
- Bellroy Slim Wallets — Card Sleeve, Micro Sleeve, Slim Sleeve… Super soft, innovative and well designed, great patina. Lovely.
- Pioneer Carry Wallets — Slim, tight, nice vegan materials. Well made stuff. Modern, tough, extremely durable.
- Andar Slim Wallets — Turner, Monarch, Scout and Duke (nice money clip feature). Nice feeling leathers.
- Slimmy Wallets — Two simple designs. Thin and nicely built.
- Vaultskin Card Holder — RFID, simple, solid.
- Misc Goods flap wallet (great leather)
- Also check out: Flowfold sailcloth wallets. Tom Bihn’s minimal wallet.
Hard Card-Holders:
- Ridge — Landscape profile, thumb cutaway and smooth card movement. Nice elastic money-clip built in. Very solid.
- Aviator — Portrait profile, tabbed card pull, elastic money clip built in. Coin drawer optional. Very solid.
- Akeeni Xsto — Innovative. Works great. Cash stowage, business card stowage, and then cards (multiple card capacities available).
- Ekster Card Poppers — I don’t know how these things work, but they fan out the cards with the push of a button. Cash strap and top flap optional. Slightly more pocket-bulk than the above.
Minimal fold wallets:
- Bellroy Fold Wallets — Note Sleeve, Hide & Seek, Slim Sleeve + other models. Cannot overstate how considered the design and how nice the materials feel and patina.
- All-Ett Original — minimal pocket thickness (depth), but larger footprint (height + width). However, always fit in my pockets like a glove. USA built. I used a leather one for years, loved it.
- Pioneer Carry Fold — Great materials, all vegan, super sturdy. I’ll bet it takes a long time to break in and feels great as it does.
- Nomad Goods Tile Wallet — simple fold leather wallet with Tile tracker built in. Well designed.
- Waterfield Via Wallet — simple, beautiful design with a tap/transit card slot on the back. Very capable for it’s size.
- Popov Leather — Excellent leather and stitching, gorgeous patina, several styles.
- Andar Wallets — Lots of styles, some with a cash strap. Leather and patina.
Unorthodox Wallets
Pouches and notebook wallets can simplify and gather.
- Bellroy Notebook Cover & Zip Wallets — The notebook cover makes a great wallet for up to 4-5 cards I’d say. Zip wallets for coins, etc.
- CR-Brand Notebook Wallet — Paper notebook with slots for cards and a flap for cash. Very minimal and useful.
- Tom Bihn Ghost Whale — A zipper pouch in several sizes, some of which are pocketable.
- Waterfield Finn — zipped pouches in multiple pocketable sizes. Nice leathers and zips.
- Code of Bell Annex Case — too big for a pocket, but someone out there needs to know this exists.
