If there’s anything that cements my perception through this Serman Brands 2.0 review is they know how to balance quality, usability and price in their wallets
(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
We’ve had many requests for the Serman Brand 2.0 wallet. From a packaging perspective, Serman Brands is very consistent. They have a parchment paper type box with a nice cloth bag the wallet comes in.
The color is gray with rolled over edges on the leather. Sewing is good with slight reinforcement, probably not as much as I would prefer, but it works. There’s quite a bit going on with this wallet. On the exterior we have a card slot. It has a thumb push for card extraction which is really good and expected for a quick access card slot. This slot does NOT have RFID, which is really good and should work fine for tap payment. So yes, the wallet does have RFID, but there are two different frequencies as these folks are dialing in on what features customers want while still trying to keep an RFID feature (which really isn’t necessary).
If we flip the wallet over, on the back there’s a pull strap access on the top where cards are inserted. When we open up the wallet we immediately see two card slots on the left-hand side, and two card slots on the right-hand side with an ID window. The ID slot has a plastic face which should be discontinued in all wallets as they eventually wear out, go yellow, get stiff, crack and overall ruin the wallet before its life is over.
If we move into the interior further we have the billfold pocket, which is where cash goes. There are no secret compartments in this wallet, it’s very straightforward. From a cash and card insertion test perspective, we placed seven cards and five slips of cash. The company says it can hold up to nine cards plus ten notes. When you start to get more cards toward their recommended top end, it begins to get thick. Due to all the card slot options, you would think capacity is large, but it’s not, you just have more places to put cards.
From a quality perspective, Serman Brands wallets are designed in the United States, but they do engage other international designers from around the world because they do have rather functional designs. Manufacturing is done in China and/or India. Let me soapbox on this for a little bit. Just because something is made in China doesn’t make it poor quality. It’s not the Chinese factory, it’s who’s requesting the product. It all comes down to the detail of your production manual and your quality control specifications. Honestly, when something is of poor quality, it’s due to those who provided the specifications, not the factory. Additionally, there’s a big difference between mass produced products, which meet a tight price point in the market and other products that are trying to meet other market needs. For example, think of the iPhone, it’s made in China as almost all Apple products are. And that’s Chinese quality, it’s really good. And I’ve been to China many, many times, and I’ve had products actually made in China. And you get what you ask for.
Now it’s all full grain leather, chrome tanned, which is okay. And as I mentioned before, it has RFID. I know we don’t think much of RFID, but let me explain what Serman Brands has done. If RFID is to persist in the marketplace, at least manufacturers can do what Serman Brands is doing. There are two common frequencies used with RFID, 125 kilohertz and a 13.56 megahertz. Most access credentials, door cards, bus passes, other things that we used within the United States are on the lower frequency, 125 kilohertz. Serman Brand uses materials that only blocks the higher megahertz, thus leaving everyday access cards unblocked. That’s good. Now I still believe that RFID is not needed. I do like that a company like Serman Brands is willing to try and ease up a bit to give us compatibility capabilities.
From a usability perspective, Serman Brands wallets provide many different card slot options, but each slot can only hold one, maybe two cards, otherwise it becomes overloaded. From a measurement perspective, its 4.2 x 3 x 0.5 and weighs 57 grams. It comes with a 12 month warranty which provides insight into the confidence they have in their products. From my personal experience and those I read of others, Serman Brands is a solid mass-manufactured wallet.
Serman Brands initially started out producing only men’s wallets, but recently began offering women’s accessories, too. The company was established in 2015, and they’ve grown a brand that presents themselves well with affordable accessories that perform. So now onto the final score. For quality a 3, price a 4, features a 4, usability a 4 and perception a 4. That gives us a final score of 3.7 out of 5.
If there's anything that cements my perception through this Serman Brands 2.0 review is they know how to balance quality, usability and price in their wallets.
