I have been a fan of minimalistic wallets for years now. I finally threw away my Costanza days and now I only carry what I absolutely need with me in my front pocket. My back has thanked me and with smartphone apps…what you actually need to carry has gotten smaller over time.
My last couple of wallets came from a company called Bellroy. They make very nice leather wallets that encourage the slim carrying movement. The first one I bought was ruined in an accident and the second recently took a trip through the washer and dryer. Needless to say…it’s ruined so this time I looked for a wallet that would be a little bit more durable to the elements which is how I landed on The Ridge.
The Ridge RFID Blocking Slim Wallet
The Ridge makes two plate metal and carbon fiber slim wallets designed to stack your cards together. Elastic holds the plates together and allows for up to 12 cards to be held at anytime. The edges of the top of the wallet are also rounded to facilitate inserting the cards into the wallet easily. With a lot of color and carbon options, I went with the forged carbon version for $115. There are also aluminum ($75) and titanium ($105) versions available. The carbon (weave or forged) are the lightest of the options. From there you have to pick a money clip or a money strap and you are set.
The wallet has a notch at the bottom where you push the cards out. Once you have the cards angled out, you pinch the bottom to fan the cards out and select the one you need. Other than that, there isn’t too much else to it as you would expect from a minimalistic wallet.
The wallet does come with some extra screws and a screw driver (really small torx head) if you ever need to tighten or replace any of the outer screws.
Review – The Ridge Forged Carbon Slim Wallet
Now that the boring stuff is out of the way…how has this wallet been performing for me.
Function of The Ridge Slim Wallet
It took a little while to get used to the push up and fan operation of the wallet over conventional pockets…but after a couple of days it really wasn’t too much of an issue. You really just start to get used to the process. I will say that getting thinner items out like an insurance card or even your license is more difficult than a credit card. When it comes to just pulling out methods of payment…it got really easy.
How much can you really carry with The Ridge Wallet?
I only carry 7 cards at a time and I find that is about the sweet spot. Any more than 8 cards and the wallet starts to kind of defeat the purpose of the design. Between the plates and the cards it starts to get too tall. So while it can hold up to 12…I can never see myself carrying that many. I believe the most I ever put in one of my Bellroy wallets was 9 so that wasn’t a big change for my daily use to go down to 7. It does have a more compact profile than the leather wallets that I would carry the same amount with.
With the money clip, you have to quad fold your bills. I rarely carry cash and when I do it isn’t very much. If you are a heavy cash carrier, you will find that the wallet gets thicker quickly due to the folds. I do prefer the money clip look over the strap. I think it just overall looks cleaner and that is just one last elastic piece to move around.
The Design of The Ridge Forged Carbon Slim Wallet
If you look at the pictures of the forged carbon version on The Ridge website and you know my history with cars…you know exactly why I picked the forged version. The forged carbon pictures look great and reminded me of the forged carbon on the Lamborghini Huracan Performante. Unfortunately, what got delivered looked nothing like the spangled pictures online. It looks more like flat black plastic that has been scratched. I did get in touch with The Ridge regarding this and they want to swap it out so we will see what it gets replaced with.
I do really like the lightness of the carbon. When it comes to minimal, slim wallets…I want the overall package to be as light as possible. The extra price for the carbon is well worth it for me in that aspect. The carbon, elastic, plastic design also solves the problem I have had previously with any moisture or other elements damaging the wallet. It is much more durable than leather counterparts.
One thing to keep in mind if you have to deal with business cards a lot…this wallet is the exact size of a credit card so business cards are too long to put in the wallet or the money clip. I really with the business card standard would just go to credit card size…
Living with The Ridge Slim Wallet
Daily use is pretty simple with the wallet. It is a front pocket carry and with it as light as it is…you barely notice it. If you are one of those tight, skinny jean wearing guys, you might want to steer clear as it will not mold to you like a leather wallet does. The sharp edge will show through your tight pants like a really tall credit card.
While we are on the subject of sharp edges…one drawback of the wallet is that it really needs to be in your pocket by itself. If you have any other item in there such as a key FOB or phone, there is the possibility that the wallet could scratch those items where a leather wallet would not.
The RFID portion is nice but it isn’t the reason that I bought the wallet in the first place. As of right now RFID blocking isn’t a huge worry as you can see in my video here…but it could be in the future so it is a nice addition.
Overall Review – The Ridge Forged Carbon Slim Wallet
I really like this wallet. All wallets have drawbacks one way or another and with this one it would be the hard edges and the fact that it didn’t look as advertised. That part might be fixed at least. Once you get used to using a wallet differently with the push up and fan technique…the rest of the very slim form factors, durability and lightness become huge positives.
Buy The Ridge Wallets here on their website or on Amazon.