I bought a regular wallet a few years ago, and it came with a removable bit that’s just a sheet of leather with a couple clear plastic pockets for your IDs. That has become my wallet now. It’s the perfect size for my driver’s license, health insurance card, credit card, and debit card, plus a couple of big bills. I keep smaller bills folded over themselves in my side pocket.
@Terrence Kelleman
Hey I bought a dot matrix wallet awhile ago and it suffered from both cards falling out and falling apart. What really made it fall apart was the two glue spots becoming unglued. This new design seems to fix the first problem, i’m wondering if there is still any glue used to hold the wallet together? I’d love to go back to a wallet that gets stares and compliments instead of this boring old leather one I have!
Personally I switched to stuffing everything I had in my wallet into an old Altoids tin and keep that in my front or cargo pockets. No one really wants to pickpocket one and it has room for all the cards, notes and even my mini magnetic phone book and minipen
Easy to keep track of and just big enough for Debit/credit cards ID etc. Plus being metal it wears far better than anything else.
Really, am I the only woman reading Jeff’s blog???
As a woman, I love the new fashion of ultralarge bags! Seeing as we walk around with one anyway, why not one that can not only carry all the wallet stuff (mine’s about as thick as Jeff’s original one, btw), but also:
- food
- hair tie, travel brush/mirror
- perfume samples
- A4 paper block
- 2 pens (in case one doesn’t work ;-))
- food
- sunglasses in the summer, car keyhole defrost spray in the winter
- chewing gum
- store coupons
- HIS sunglasses (because the box doesn’t fit in his pockets!)
- more food (d*mn my sweet tooth!)
- …
You should try the smart money clip and put it in your front pocket. It holds more cash than any wallet and holds up to five cards.
Yeah, the optimal wallet would be no wallet at all. I carry a credit card wallet. It has my insurance card, drivers license a couple credit cards, business and personal, and a money clip. Thats it. I try to keep it empty of cash for the most part. In fact if it weren’t for DC taxi cab drivers I wouldn’t ever have a need for cash. International travel calls for a whole different ball game as you need someplace to carry a passport and stash some cash, like one of those silk body pouches. In that case I always have cash because outside the US things change considerably. Here in the US I know I can always call my bank or wife or someone and get some money wired to me or something, so I don’t worry about it.
For me, nothing beats the simple Weekender wallet from Johnston Murphy:
http://www.johnstonmurphy.com/italian-leather-weekender-case/3147.html
I use a slim money clip for cash, so it holds everything I need. I also carry a Fisher Space Pen, which others have mentioned.
I recommend the Pentel Mini M.V.P. mechanical pencil which is small enough to be carried in a pocket, but won’t burst like a pen
Wow, only one guy with a bag?
I nearly always have a bag, either a backpack or small shoulder bag, as I carry far too much junk around. But I always keep my wallet in my pocket, as I’d never find it in my bag.
When I was a full time crusty biker I used to have a really useful hand-tooled leather pouch that fitted on my leather belt. Whenever I changed my trousers my belt would go onto them and my pouch with cash, cards, etc. It was secure and just capacious enough and the rivetted ~2mm hide was immune to the worst ravages of excess small change.
Shame it doesn’t fit with the look I truck these days…
Another vote for carrying a messenger bag. The only thing I carry in my pockets is my BART card, which is the size of a credit card but the thickness of a piece of paper. I can’t understand how anyone can put up with filling their pockets with keys and wallets and cellphones; it’s both unsightly and uncomfortable, and it’s a pain to move so many things between pairs of pants every day. Women have been ahead of the game here for many years, and I feel a fool that, being born a man, I didn’t make the switch sooner.
The best tip I can offer is to make sure to get a bag that has some internal pockets for organization; I’m much faster pulling my cellphone, wallet, or keys out of my messenger bag than my girlfriend is at finding the same things in her purses.
There’s only one downside to the messenger bag that I’ve found: rampant sexism. Sometimes when entering a business (the most recent incident for me was a few weeks ago at Fry’s) the employees will demand that I leave my bag with them, even as several women with purses walk past unimpeded. This is ridiculous; I have every bit as much right to carry a bag as a woman, and my bag is in the same size range as a purse. In addition, if my bag is stolen while under their care, they generally guarantee no compensation of any kind. My usual response is to decline their request and shop elsewhere; I reserve my money for merchants that treat their customers with fairness and respect. I bring this up as a warning to others, but I hope you won’t let it stop you from carrying a messenger bag; carrying one has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and I wouldn’t return to carrying my things in my pants for any reason.
I’ve been wanting to get a better wallet for a long time now, but couldn’t find one that I liked. I don’t carry much cash, but tons of plastic. After reading this post, I decided to get the Leather Hybrid World with Zipper Pocket from Big Skinny.
http://www.bigskinny.net/leather-hybrid-world-zippered-pocket.html
Some sort of place to keep coins is essential for me. Although our bills are not tall enough to require this taller wallet, cheques and receipts are taller than bills. I keep my wallet in my front pocket and it’s bulkier than I would like. Cell phone shares the same pocket. Keys go in the opposite front pocket along with my ballpoint pen and Sharpie.
I also ordered the passport holder.
http://www.bigskinny.net/passport-holder-tuxedo-black.html
Trimming down when I travel international is not a problem.
Instead of spending $40 for an official wallet pen you might try the pen refills for Swiss Army knives from Victorinox. A set of 3 will cost you $3. They’re metal, 2.75 long and less than 1/8 wide with no bulging clip. I’ve used the same one in my wallet for three years now with 2 spares whenever I finally need them.
Here’s a post with a good description and a link: http://www.bookofjoe.com/2004/12/worlds_best_tin.html
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Waterfield Designs’ wallets in either leather or indium (a nylon fabric):
https://www.sfbags.com/collections/wallets
I’ve been using these for a few years now, and they’re great. As well as cash and cards, they also hold my Fisher Space Pen (along the bottom), as well as a USB storage key (vertically). A bonus for me is that they zip up, so if you drop your wallet, your cards don’t fly everywhere.
If you removed that ‘computer listing’ from your original wallet
it might have continued to do sterling service !
I use the smaller 2-pocket All-Ett (European?), have had it about 2 years or so. I have a small amount amount of cards in it (maybe half a dozen plastic cards, and half a dozen heavy-stock paper business and other cards), and only really need to access 2 or 3 frequently (debit card, credit card, and license). When I need other stuff, I do need to slide out a stack of cards from one of the pockets and flip through them, which takes some time. It does get softer and less crinkly over time. Some of the threads have started to come loose by now, but the wallet is still perfectly intact so far.
They’re not that expensive- the minimalist one I have is only $15.
Thanks for this article, Jeff. I am picky about my wallet, and I try to keep it thin too. As far as keeping it in my back pocket, I have buttons on my back pockets, and that keeps it from falling out, and keeps pickpockets out.
Lately I’ve discovered cargo pants, and those have lots of room for pens and such. One can never have too many pockets (in pants or jacket)!
JimGf
+1 to front pocket. I’ve never understood why you would want it in your rear pocket.
I’ve been carrying the all-ett wallet for a few months and really like it. The crinkliness goes away. I’m totally happy with it. Doesn’t have the digits of pi but that’s nothing a sharpie can’t fix…
I had one of those velcro 80’s wallets in high school. It was obviously out of fashion, so while in the military I got a few eel skin wallets in Korea. Eel skin is very thin and supposedly durable. They wore out in record short time. I tried one or two other wallets before digging up my old high school velcro standard.
I’m not sure how many years I’ve used it for now (at least 15), but it’s indestructible. If you’re into form over fashion it’s the best wallet around.
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