Most metal wallets use elastic strapping to hold the cards in place. Ever expandable elastic leads to overstuffing. We wanted to eliminate the elastic and limit the number of cards.
Halfway through the design process we had created a metal wallet wrapped in leather that used magnets to hold itself shut. We tested our prototypes over the weekend and the magnets zapped our cards rendering them useless. On Monday we went back to the drawing board. Pulling my cards out of my wallet and dropping them on the table I said, "What can a card do to hold itself in a wallet?" Picking one up in my hand I gave it a gentle bend.
Inspired by the chamfer on our key ring we created a ramp to help the cards slide easily in and out giving the wallet a quickdraw feel. However, we were not all sold on this direction so we decided to have a race. A "normal wallet" vs. our prototype. Our friend Stephan was team prototype and Ken was team "normal". The rules were simple, whoever gets the third card deep first wins. Ready... GO! Stephan had his card out before Ken even opened his wallet.
If you would like to read more about how we designed the Minimalist Wallet please click the link below. It will take you to the Grovemade Journal.
Designed in collaboration with my friends Kevin Do and Ken Tomita for Grovemade.
Product photos by Grovemade