Despite a difficult Kickstarter, the Grip6 wallet finally hit the market. Overcoming specific problems from the original wallet, the final version, with it’s different models, offers something for everyone
(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
This is the Grip6 Wallet. Some of you might be familiar with it. I was a Kickstarter customer for this campaign that launched earlier in 2020 and it turned out to be quite the odyssey for the company and the backers. The company went through two versions of the wallet to get it right, it was quite the perseverance exercise for the company.
I recently toured their facility including their manufacturing floor, and talked to them a little bit which I show in the video. But right now let’s get into this wallet.
This is the wallet, leather and loop model of the Grip6 Wallet. They have a non-loop version, which we’ll review later. The press button/lever on the side is what ejects the cards, but it currently functions more like a launch button, which we’ll talk about. It has a loop at the top of the plastic piece which includes the card ejection lever.
It has a finger loop, which is part of the ejection lever. It was advertised as a metal case inside the leather sleeve. You can remove the box from the sleeve, but the weight of leather and top grain leather makes it very versatile and attractive.
Features include the leather sleeve which has two slots in it to handle cash folded twice to fit, with a single slot on each side. The box itself is the main feature which can hold up to 6 cards, less if you include embossed cards. In the version 2 rework Grip6 added a finger and thumb notch at the top of the card box, providing a second access method to cards.
Minimalist carry would be less than six cards, with a maximum of six, you could carry additional cards in the leather slots if desired which helps with tap card payment. The company says it can hold up to 14 which means the leather would have to stretch a whole lot to make that happen. From a quality perspective, it’s not only designed and made in the United States, but the company designs and makes equipment they need that they can’t buy. They manufacture all the pieces of this wallet in the United States.
The initial Kickstarter campaign produced a version of this wallet, let’s call it version one, that had a few problems, namely around the leather strap that goes across the middle of the plastic component which has the trigger. The leather was actually depressing this triggered just ever so slightly and by doing so, the cards fell out. So what did they do? They redesigned and re-manufactured the trigger so there’s a wider gap, fixing the problem and getting everyone back on track and with an excellent product in the end. But they also did something more. What is that Mark? But wait, there’s more. Well, between version one and version two, they added this thumb and finger notch right here. This is really impressive and a dedication to quality.
From the Kickstarter version to version 1 Grip6 also added a finger and thumb notch to the top of the wallet as a secondary card access method to the ejection button. One of the side effects of the design is that the ejection button does have a tendency to launch the cards, and when looking at the interior of the box, missing are friction points at the top to help reduce the velocity of cards when being ejected so they don’t launch.
Back to the finger and thumb cutout that was added to the version two wallet. These are things you just don’t see in other box wallets. So why would you need a reason to grab it with your finger and thumb? I don’t know, but it’s kind of a neat feature. Instead of using the launch mechanism you can actually just grab the cards you want with this finger and thumb and pull the cards out. It’s very clever, and honestly is an alternative to the launch button. You could have a version of this wallet without the finger loop, with just this finger and thumb notch availability and you would be set.
I do wish it had a money clip option with beyond the leather slots. The wallet measures 4.5 x 3.8x 0.5” and it weighs 97 grams. They have the Grip6 Guaran-damn-tee, which means that they’ll replace or refund the wallet at any time for any reason in any condition. You can’t get a better customer service profile than that, honestly.
Now onto the final score. For quality, a 4, price, a 3, feature’s a 4, usability, a 3, and perception a 5. That gives us a final score of 3.7 out of 5.
Designed to be easy and simple to access your cards as quickly as possible. It's a high quality product designed and tested to last a lifetime. At .40" thin, it's about as thin as a common smart phone.
