It’s hard not to like the slimness of the Airo Collective Stealth wallet, and all that was missing were more materials! With the leather version out, you can be super slim while still enjoying the smell and feel of leather!
(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
We’ve reviewed Airo Collective’s Stealth Wallet in the past, and the company recently launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign on a new Carbon Fiber version. While we’re waiting for that one to show up, I have three colors of their leather version, the Stealth Leather ready for review. The three colors are Midnight, which is black, Pacific, which is a beautiful blue and Espresso, which is a marbled brown color.
The wallet is constructed of two pieces of leather which are bonded to UHMWPE material, to provide incredible strength even when used with leather.
In evaluating the features, there are none on the exterior. As we open it up we see two cards on the interior, one on each side. If you look closely you can tell that the slots are offset, so when cards are placed in the slots and the wallet closed, the wallet closes more flat as the surface area of cards overlap each other instead of stacking, very clever idea. We also notice there is no plastic in the ID slot, which is a nice choice as we know plastic windows will usually fail before the wallet will.
The crisscross material we see on the interior, under the leather is UHMWPE, which is also RFID protection capable. We normally don’t like RFID material as it takes away from better material that could be used by the manufacturer and it’s a marketing scam to create fear, uncertainty and doubt with consumers, making them believe they need it, they don’t. In this case, due to the thinness of the leather and design, I believe it provides good structural support. The cut outs on both sides provide thumb push capabilities to more quickly access cards. In the middle of the wallet we have an elastic strap where cash goes under for storage, billfold capable without the need to fold cash first.
In our previous review, we noted how difficult it is to get your finger underneath this elastic. And for all their wallets starting in 2021, they will come with this pull tab. Wonderful.
A lot of time was spent experimenting with all the currencies and with the exception of the larger pound sterling and euro notes, it accommodates almost all currencies including the Yen, which is usually the outlier. Minimum card carry options would be three cards. Five is reasonable, as I had four during the insertion test and the wallet handled it without a problem.
Airo Collective recommends up to eight cards plus four slips of cash. I’m sure you could put more of either, depending on how you distributed it. From a quality perspective, the wallet is manufactured and designed in the United States. It’s made from two laser cut pieces of leather, fused to UHMWPE and sewn together to make up the interior and exterior pieces.
Airo Collective has gone to a great amount of effort to ensure its materials are the highest quality and that all manufacturing happens in the United States. The leather is a full grain veg tanned leather sourced from Italian tanneries and then shipped to the United States. It’s fused to the material which is not easy to do. You’ll notice the edges are also painted.
The bungee cord used to hold down cash is not a run of the mill bungee, it’s incredibly strong. The company has tested it by holding taught, then using a razor to rub against it and it took over 1,000 times to finally break it.
Measurements are 3.9 x 3.1 x 0.08”. Very thin. I’m sure you can guess that it weighs next to nothing, 17 grams.
Perception on this is how good the operation of this wallet feels. Even though it’s small, and even though it has this RFID material, I still really like it. It’s super durable, and if you like leather, this is a good option, even though you’re most familiar with them having non-leather products. The company also donates 3% of all of their profits to non-profit organizations that provide humanitarian relief and building resilience in local communities. There’s a two year guarantee and their customer service is very responsive.
Now onto the final score. For quality a 5, price a 2, features a 4, usability a 4, and perception a 4. That gives us a final score of 3.9 out of 5.
It's hard not to like the slimness of the Airo Collective Stealth wallet, and all that was missing were more materials! With the leather version out, you can be super slim while still enjoying the smell and feel of leather!
