Holtz Leather has been around for many years, and this family owned business has a great backstory, wonderful products and practical wallets. This review is about the Holtz Gates wallet.
The wallet comes packed in a great blue looking box with gold inlay. The insert, mentioning that it’s made in America, shows a great backstory about the leather used and how the organization’s craftsmanship and values are driven by their Christian beliefs.
The wallet is brown in color and also comes in black and tan, has a good weight and feels good to the touch. It has good pliability, therefore, it will take the pockets shape and mould nicely. It seems suitable for both front and rear pocket carry.
In regards to the features of the Holtz Gates wallet, it has two card slots on the exterior, which is great as it allows quick access, with good accommodating space, without having to open the wallet every time. The wallet interior has two interior card slots as well, with one on each side. On the right side, there is a money clip to slip in folded notes.
The wallet accommodates 8 cards and 3 plus slips of cash comfortably. The money clip is attractive because it is strong, preventing cash from accidently falling out, which is required. However, this feature makes quick cash access laborious because it demands both hands and some practice. For example, putting cash in requires the use of two thumbs. All these difficulties raise some concern regarding the money clip. The company recommends up to 16 cards, which sounds reasonable once the leather has stretched over time. As a note, leather stretches over time and will only slightly contract unless other methods are applied, such as soaking in water, which will shrink it back but also dry out the leather, therefore, it will require moisturizing.
It is designed and made in the United States from full grain vegetable tanned leather. The hides and the tanneries are all from the United States. It is a four ounce leather, which is considerably thick. It is nice and durable, not burnished and the edges are rough cut. Very reminiscent of what is seen in Saddleback Leather wallets, for example, as they show a similar type of rough finish, if that is the personal choice rather than a more refined presentation, then this is a wallet to consider.
This wallet has a defect at the bottom, a hole in the leather, which hopefully is not something that occurs frequently. Although it does not go all the way through to the front, it does on one particular piece of leather. Therefore, it is hard to conclude if it is a stamp issue or if it is an actual design or functional requirement. The stitching is reinforcing in all the right places, addressing the possible pulling that the wallet is subjected to in the pockets, avoiding tearing, and giving it a usability advantage.
Holtz has different wallets and the Gates wallet is named after the floor shop manager who wanted something different. He created it for his own convenience and ended up showing it to a customer who was looking for something different resulting in selling about 10 Gates wallets on that first day.
The money clip is removable. When removed and pulled out, the entry point can be seen facilitating putting it back into the wallet. Without the lip on the front, trying to push the cash in can be difficult as previously mentioned. The problem with the lip is two fold. If the lip is on the exterior (facing out to the interior of the wallet), it will start wearing and rubbing against the leather on the opposite side. If the lip on the interior of the wallet, meaning it’s facing in the inside of the pocket, then it will rub against the credit cards in addition to the leather since it is not flat. Therefore, a consideration could be to simply use a money clip that is flat on both ends, which might solve some of that problem.
Another positive consideration is the fact it has good dimensions. It measures 4.2 x 3.0 x 0.5” and weighs 73 grams. The right size means it can be utilized with one hand rather than two. It is large enough to allow fingers and thumb to access the inside, which is very practical especially in situations such as being in a line and having one hand accessibility. In addition, it has enough supple and flexible leather, so you’re not fighting the rigidity of the leather.
Holtz offers realistic products true to their portray, quality construction, materials and simple elegance. Moreover, they are a wonderful God respecting family sharing lots of beautiful stories about love, service and adoptions.
The wallet scores 4 for the quality, due to the money clip concern, otherwise it would have been a five, 3 for the price, 4 the features, 4 for usability and 4 the perception. That gives a final score of 3.9 out of 5.
The Holtz Leather Gates wallet is very comfortable handmade wallet that's easy to use, and an excellent card carry with an integrated money clip.
