Distil Union Slim Wallets for Men – Minimalist Bifold Wallets with Money Clip

Like many of you I have searched for that ultimate thin wallet that looks attractive while being durable and easy to use. Of course, there is no perfect answer for everyone and some things come down to personal preference and trade-offs. In my search for my perfect minimalist thin wallet I considered the following wallets and ordered each of them to compare against each other and to evaluate in person rather than just web sites of photos. I already owned a Bellroy Hide & Seek, which has been an excellent wallet and after about a year and a half of ownership it has held up well but was a bit thicker than I wanted so I wondered if there was anything better in the market. To make the comparison as apples-to-apples as possible I decided to use the exact same content in each wallet tested. The content is as follows:1. Two raised letter debit cards2. Two metal smooth credit cards3. A CA driver’s License4. A Government CAC ID card5. A laminated medical Insurance Card6. A Tesla Model 3 Entry/ignition Card7. A folded blank check8. A single business card9. 4 US Currency Notes (20s + 100)The wallets tested:1. Distil Union Wally Bifold with RFID Shielding $59.992. Serman Brands 1.S Travel Wallet slim bifold with RFID Shielding $24.993. Ridge Carbon Fiber $115.004. Yinuode Carbon Fiber Ridge look alike with RFID Shielding $18.655. Bellroy Hide & Seek with RFID Protection $89.00I ordered two other wallets to test but I haven’t received them yet so I can’t include in this review, but I may edit it later to add them. They are the Apex Wallet 2 by MSTRMND and the Identity Card Wallet by Identity. These latter two are more like the Ridge in size and construction.A few things I learned or discovered along the way. First, there is a limit to how thin a wallet can get. The two limiting factors are the thickness of the materials used to make the wallet and the number of cards and amount of currency desired to be carried. Every card is going to add approximately 1.27mm to the thickness for a raised imprint CC so if you want to carry 10 cards you are starting at around 12.7MM plus. Raised letter steel cards are 0.96mm and flat ID card are 0.76mm. The next factor is how the cards are laid into the available footprint or dimensions. Obviously, if the wallet were made such that cards were laid out flat like on a sheet of 8.5” x 11” paper it could be thinner and hold a lot of cards. Generally speaking most of us don’t want a wallet to exceed 115mm x 90mm in area and we would prefer something as small as 86mm x 54mm though that is the minimum possible given the size of our credit/debit/id cards. The Ridge and its cousin the Yinuode meet this smallest dimension criteria being about the size of the cards stacked with a plate on top and bottom and an elastic to hold it together with the cards sandwiched in-between. Because the cards are stacked on top of each other the resulting thickness is nearly as thick (within about 1-2mm) without being easy to use. Yes, I know there are tricks and techniques to make it easier; however no impartial person could say it was easier than any of the other wallets reviewed.In comparing the Ridge against its knockoff, my observation and opinion is that the Ridge was clearly of higher quality and better finished but whether it was worth $100 more is questionable. I did correspond with Ridge and asked that question. I was impressed that they replied quickly and argues two points, one their higher quality and two that the knockoffs have stolen their design and they intend to ask Amazon to remove them from their site. In any case, I returned both as I found neither suitable for my use.All of the following is my opinion and only based on my observations and handling and not scientific by any means. I am not an expert on leathers, threads or materials and with the exception of the Bellroy I don’t have enough time with the others to judge durability of these materials. I have no vested interest in any of these products and I paid for each of them and I have not received any compensation or free review products.Size comparison: The Bellroy (4.5” x 3.3”), followed by the Wally (4.2”x2.9”) followed by the Serman Brands 1.S (4”x3”). While each publish a thickness, in person measurements did not always confirm manufacturers claims. They don’t always specify how or where their measurements were made. I took two measurements on each with precision calipers. My first measurement was as close to the center and thinnest area and the second was to the thickest area which was usually the spline except in the case of the Bellroy. I took measurements empty and with the contents described above. Interestingly, I would estimate the thickness of the leather to go from thinnest being the Bellroy to thickest being the Wally. These differences are small and it was most difficult to judge with Wally because of the way it is made.Quality: It is clear to me is that if the quality of the leather is high, as it clearly is in the Bellroy, it will hold up well and if the quality if poor, even thicker leather will fail. All three of these wallets appear to use high quality leather. The Bellroy and the Serman Brands use a silk like cloth lining that is very thin to keep the bulk down and allow easier removal of a card. The Wally appears to use a felt like material for the same reason. The stitching is straight and even in all three and appears to be with good quality thread with ends properly finished.Innovation: Each wallet offers some innovative features, and this is where preference and how well the particular innovation works for you that will differentiate the feature into a great one or a poor one.I will start with the Bellroy. It uses thin leather to reduce the empty thickness and even though fully lined, it stays thin. The card storage is of the staggered accordion style and they only use leather in a strip along the top edge of the card holder to keep the card pocket thin. Another innovation is the hidden currency and extra card pocket and not using a money clip allows the spine to stay thin. Nonetheless, this wallet was the thickest because the combined overlapping card edges along with the leather strips added to the thickness and the thin leather allowed a lot of print through to see the card locations so the hidden pocket was not well hidden. The wallet being the largest also tended to take a curved shape when carried in the back pocket as there was a substantial amount of leather that was beyond the card edges and there is no support for those areas.The Serman S-1 includes several innovative features. First is having two outer single card slots with one having a transparent window. The internal card slots are also interesting in that the cards slide into two slots/pockets at the end of one flap and two or more cards can be slid into a ribbon lift pocket on the other end flap. It uses a money clip to avoid having the extra fabric or leather that would be needed to form a currency pocket. In prior reviews, I have seen the lining and ribbon come lose and I don’t know if the company has addressed this issue, but my observed copy appears to function properly and shows no sign of coming lose. It is missing a feature on this pocket that the Wally has and that is a spring steel closure to keep cards from falling out once the leather gets softer and stretches a bit from use. The outer clear pocket needs to incorporate the bottom edge slot similar to the one on the opposite side to make ID card removal easier. It can be difficult to remove an ID card even with the push opening as the card does not want to slide against the clear vinyl window. The have another model with the clear window on the inside but I could see that being even more difficult to use and remove the ID card. I am impressed with their product and it produced the thinnest and smallest wallet when fully loaded with my items listed. Its thickness ranged from 17.19-21.33mm (thinnest to thickest area). At half the price of the Wally, this one is clearly a bargain.The Wally’s innovation was to incorporate two pull tab pockets, one on each flap with a spring steel closure to keep cards from falling out as the product ages and the leather softens. The quality of the ribbons and fastening appear to me to be better than the one used in the Serman S-1 and it definitely operates nicer. Functionally, it has some advantages in that I can carry two credit cards in one pocket and two debit cards in the other. Quick easy access to whichever I need. Yes, I know the pockets will hold more but why carry more cards to risk losing if your wallet is ever stolen or lost? Inside there is a single slot on each side and a money clip. Each slot can easily accommodate two ID type cards which is the most I would suggest you put in them even though they will hold more. If you want a fat wallet, stuff more in. Adding an outside quick access pocket would have been nice and a clear window slot that provides for easy ID card removal would also be a bonus. Interestingly, the Serman S-3.0 appears to copy this model with the addition of the clear ID window on one side and two slots on the other but does not appear to have the spring closure. The Wally measured 19.76MM when loaded. Due to its card carry design it is a little more uniform in thickness than the Serman S-1.It is my understanding that both Serman Brands and Distil Union are American companies with their products made in the USA and that makes it a tough choice to pick a best. For me personally, I am keeping both and I purchased one in dark brown and one in a Carmel color, so I can easily go back and forth between them. I haven’t had time yet to use the Serman S-1 to see how well it works for me in the real world, but I have had time to use the Wally and it does work very nicely. I will try and update this review after I have more experience with both. My biggest concern with the S-1 id the difficulty of removing the ID. I frequently have to remove the ID so if it is too difficult, I will probably be drawn to the other. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these and based on my limited communications with the companies it appears to me that they are dedicated to providing a good customer experience and stand by their products.UPDATE 11/17:I have now received the Identity wallet $35.00. I have added photos. It is by far the slimmest when fully loaded it measure 9.84mm. However, it only holds 6 cards (you can put maybe 2 more cards in but getting any of the cards out, even if only 2 cards is a challenge. It is made of what appears to be solid carbon fiber and nicely finished. It is an S shaped design with a slot on each side to allow you to push/slide the cards out. However, it takes a lot of pushing to get the cards to slide as they tend to be under so much tension that they don't want to budge. I would have to rate it at 3 stars do to the difficulty of use and limited capacity. It is mighty slim in the pocket though and has a very nice feel to it.11/18 UpdateI thought it might be nice to add some photos comparing the two wallets side by side each loaded with 8 cards and no currency. As you can see they are very close in thickness and while I like the idea of the view window, its implementation that makes removal so difficult causes me to favor the Wally Bifold but this is my personal preference. I think the quality is slightly better too but probably not enough to justify double the price. These really are close and both excellent wallets. I have one more coming this week to complete this review series.

I would love to give this wallet a positive review because the design is excellent. It's slim, holds a lot of cash, and provides lots of easy access to credit cards, IDs, insurance cards, etc. It really is a convenient way to carry around the items you typically put in a wallet.However, there is a severe quality issue with this wallet that I have. I've had it Since Oct of 2014 and the wallet has already begun falling apart in several different ways. For starters, the red pull tab in the picture was not sewn properly. This was quickly remedied with a little super glue and I haven't had problems with it since, but still a disappointment. Second, there is a rubber strip that runs along the edges of the wallet that has started peeling off. The problem is that once this peeling starts it will all eventually peel off as it is one continuous strip. Although at first this was just a disappointment and really only seemed to be an aesthetic issue, I now realize that this rubber stripping does serve a purpose. It helps hold the wallet together. Although there is stitching around the edges to also do this, I've noticed the interior fabric where the credit cards are held has begun to fray and pull apart because this rubber stripping is no longer present. In addition, once the stripping completely comes off the wallet, the edges will begin to separate. Again, it is still held together by stitching, but its unsightly and likely decreases the durability/life of the wallet.I have bought other wallets from distil union and they all look and function great. While I find them to be really cool products that are designed for people who try to minimize the bulky stuff they have to carry in their wallets, I have had quality issues with each wallet I've owned from them (3 now). My hope is that they develop better quality control processes in the future because these wallet look great and help minimize the bulkiness of a typical wallet. My disappointment is compounded by the fact that this wallet is not cheap at $60.Because of the quality issue with this wallet I gave it one star, but due to the fact that it is still my favorite wallet from a design standpoint I bumped it up to 2 stars.UPDATE 6/30/15: I contacted Distil Union and they immediately sent me out a replacement wallet. As of right now I have been using the wallet for about 2 months and have not had any problems so I may have just had a bad unit. Because of the wonderful customer service, I added a star back and would now recommend trying the wallet if you are interested in it. If you have a problem, Distil Union will likely work with you to get things fixed as quickly as possible. Will update this review toward the end of the year after I get a few more months of use out of it.UPDATE 11/2/2015: Still using the replacement wallet that was sent to me. Technically it has not broken down yet, but I am starting to see cracks in the rubber stripping that was mentioned above. A new and unexpected issue has come up. The interior of both card holders where the pull tabs are used are lined with a red felt like material. As I was looking at one of my credit cards the other day, I noticed that all the white letters on it are now pink. Tried using alcohol to rub it off, but it seems like it has permanently dyed my card pink. Personally, it does not bother me that my credit card has a pinkish hue to it now, but if this was my license or my global entry card (used to go through customs when entering the US) I might be more irritated by this.UPDATE 11/12/16: Distil Union contacted me to let me know they had an update to this wallet and wanted me to try it out. The new Wally Bilfold Slim they sent me has addressed all my earlier concerns about this wallet and I now feel this is a 5 star product. They removed the red felt material that was dying my license pink and also addressed the rubber stitching on the sides of the wallet. I've been using it for about 2 months now and I think its really a fantastic product and a fantastic company. As I have said in the past, this is a company that you can trust and they are always looking to turn a bad situation into a good one. While my preference is still for the wally micro over this wallet as I am a minimalist, this is still an excellent wallet. Its really about personal preference at this point. Either way, I feel like you can't go wrong and the best part is that you have a company that you can trust backing up the product.

This would be a great slim wallet except for two flaws. The first and most annoying is that the card pockets are not forgiving. If you add too many cards one day they become permanently stretched and will never hold less than the same number of cards without risk of everything falling out. Secondly after only 6 months of use the coating on the rubber edges (see photo) is peeling off. I expected better quality from a $55 wallet.That said I think the original design has merit if it could be implemented a little better.