I’ve discovered that I have a real affinity for leather wallets. They’re flexible, durable, attractive and they smell great. I’ve also discovered an affinity for those wallets that carry my plastic cards vertically rather than horizontally. The Riveci Olympus – Bowie Pull-up Brown wallet is such a wallet and I was given the opportunity to review it. Will this minimalist leather wallet accommodate all that I need?

The Riveci Olympus – Bowie Pull-up Brown wallet was sent to me in a metal case that contained batting to protect the wallet. I noticed that when I took the wallet out of the case, the wallet’s seams were coated in an oily substance. It took me by surprise because I didn’t notice it before I started handling the wallet and thus my hands were then coated with the same substance. I have well-oiled hands now.

Specifications

• Handcrafted In the USA
• Capacity: 6 Cards
• Cash Slot: Yes – Front
• Size: 3.8in x 2.8in x.25in
• Leather: 4oz Veg Tanned
• Finish: Smooth High Sheen
• Quick Access Cards: 4
• Edges: Burnished and Oiled
• Stitching: Saddle Method

Design & Quality

The Riveci Olympus wallet is a rugged looking full-grain leather wallet made from soft, flexible, pull-up leather. It is handcrafted in the United States using materials “sourced from U.S. vendors”. This wallet is rather small measuring only  3.8″ L x 2.8″ W x.25″ D. It has a money slot in the front (the slit in the front of the wallet) and the front pocket has a curved opening to allow you quick access to your credit cards.

The jagged burnished edges and slightly uneven stitching make the wallet look like it is purposely made to look handmade.

I have never owned anything that was made from pull-up leather before, so this wallet proved to have a very interesting feel to it – smooth with a very slight oily feel to it. According to textileglossary.com, pull-up leather is defined as,

a waxy or oiled-finished leather. These leathers lighten when stretched, bent, or “pulled up”. They are categorized as natural because they do not have a thick top coat. They have a nice hand, and develop a unique distressed look with time.

The leather also felt more “stretchy” than other leather items I have used. The thick thread felt waxed and the stitch length was rather long (I tend to prefer a smaller, tighter stitch), but this seems consistent with its styling.

The back of the wallet shows the last slot. It too has a curved opening to allow quick access to your cards.

It is difficult to tell in the photo above but there was one stitch that was loose – the “tie off” or finishing stitch (located along the right edge of the wallet in the above photo at the corner of the curved edge of the back piece of leather) which makes me question how long the stitching will last. The Riveci wallets only have a two-year warranty on them.

Empty, the wallet is around 0.7 cm. I like that the wallet is made of thicker leather (their specs say it is made from 4 oz leather which is 1.6 mm thick). It makes it feel more robust.

None of the pockets are lined with any material. The interior of the last pocket (the third photo above) shows how only the top portion of the piece of leather that divides the two main pockets is sewn into the seams of the wallet, the lower portion of which is not sewn in – perhaps to avoid adding too much bulk to the edge of the wallet.

Use

I was able to fill the money slot with one $20 bill (I could have put more in there, but that’s all the cash I had at the time), and the front pocket with four plastic cards. The back pocket I filled with one plastic card and four paper cards (which are the size of credit cards). The wallet contains all of these cards perfectly. If, however, I insert a business card into the wallet, the card is slightly taller than all of my other cards, thus it might be beneficial to make the wallet 2 mm longer for those who would like to use this wallet for business/customer appreciation cards.

I don’t tend to like having all my cards inserted into one or two pockets because they are not organized and easily accessible which means that I then have to dig into the wallet to search for the appropriate card when necessary. However, I rather liked how compact the wallet is after being stuffed with all that I deemed necessary to carry. I also liked the cracked distressed appearance and pull-up effect of the leather (lighter color in the stretched areas) after placing my cards into the wallet. Rubbing over the stretched area with your hands or fingers will often rub out the lighter color of the stretched leather if desired.

The thickness of the wallet remained fairly compact (in my opinion) especially with all the cards I placed in it (a little less than 0.75″ thick).

When compared to my Garzini Essenziale Finestra wallet, the Riveci Olympus wallet is small indeed.

It’s even noticeably smaller in my hand.

Final Thoughts

The Riveci Olympus – Bowie Pull-up brown wallet grew on me as I continued to use it, so much so, that I like it almost as much as my current Garzini Essenziale Finestra wallet. I was a little concerned about the one loose “tie off” or finishing stitch and the wide stitch length – wondering if the stitching will last, especially since the wallet only has a two-year warranty. But the fact that the wallet is small and compact yet stretches to fit five plastic cards and four paper cards, as well as a $20 bill, was very appealing. It also has rugged good looks with its cracked distressed appearance and pull-up effects. I’m not sure that I will use it as my everyday wallet, but it seems to function well as my coupon/customer appreciation card (I had to trim these down to fit into the wallet)/bandaid wallet which I use frequently. Time will tell how long this wallet will last and since it is $48.95, which is a little expensive for me, I’m hoping it will last a very long time.

Source: The sample used in this review was provided by Riveci. Please visit their website for more information or to purchase one.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Wallets

Tagged: Wallet

Riveci Olympus – Bowie Pull-up Brown wallet review originally appeared on on March 10, 2017 at 9:02 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

Have you been shopping for a new minimalistic wallet but don’t want one with the same old tired style as everyone else’s minimal wallet? Then look no further my friends because I have a wallet that you’ll want to check out. It’s the PITAKA carbon fiber magnetic wallet and it’s definitely unique. But is it the perfect minimalist wallet? Let’s find out.

What is it?

The PITAKA carbon fiber magnetic wallet is a minimal wallet that’s made of carbon fiber, which is RFID blocking. It also features a modular layered design that allows you to customize what it can hold.

Design and features

The PITAKA wallet resembles a deck of playing cards in shape, size and even with the layered “card” design.

Made of carbon fiber, the wallet is lightweight but tough.

The main wallet ships with four layers that include the top and bottom layer end pieces that can hold one card each and two internal layers that each hold two cards. That means that the wallet can hold a maximum of six cards.

PITAKA also sells additional layers that can hold coins, a key, SIM card, micro SD cards, and cash.

There are three magnets embedded in each layer. The larger magnet in the center bottom edge and two smaller magnets on the side edges. The location of the magnets allows for the card fanning effect that you can do with one hand (see video demonstration below).

Each internal PITAKA layer can hold two standard-sized embossed or non-embossed plastic credit cards.

The cards are held in place with very small tabs that you can barely make out in the image above. Look on the straight rails across from the nose in the face cutouts and you will notice that the plastic has a slightly wider section.

See it in action

As you can see in the video above, you just hold the wallet in your hand and fan the “deck” with your thumb which is also used to raise the card. Although I didn’t do a very good job in the video, with a little practice, you can use this wallet with just one hand.

There are two issues/problems with this wallet that that should be discussed.

First of all, you need to pay attention to the orientation of the wallet, If you hold it in your hand so that the larger center magnet is on top, spreading open the wallet will either cause the wallet to fan open upside down or even worse, will cause the magnetic layers to disconnect. I show this towards the end of the video at the 36 second mark. I really think there some be a visual or tactile indicator of how to hold the wallet.

The bigger issue with the PITAKA wallet is not how to hold it, but what types of cards it can hold. The box that the PITAKA is packaged in has a warning (click the image for larger view). Basically, it says that you should not use cards with magnetic strips in this wallet. Why? Because the PITAKA wallet uses magnets to hold the wallet’s layers together and those magnets can demagnetize the cards. I contacted PITAKA to get some clarification on this issue and this is their reply:

Great to receive your email and reply you on demagnetize issue.

Since there are magnets on our carbon fiber wallet, they are enabled with one-hand cool operation, meanwhile bringing another issue of demagnetizing
card with a magnetic strip. But that could be fewer and fewer situations as the RFID chip cards (credit cards, metro cards…) are reported to be the trend.
Most European countries have been used RFID credit cards everywhere and Americans have been on the way. Below are a tech news FYI.
https://www.nfcworld.com/2016/06/23/345759/emv-claims-third-global-card-present-payments/

Also we surely understand it’s still a great trouble if demagnetizes. We tried so much find magnets won’t demagnetize and checked with many material experts, all told us no such magnets exist. If you know some please do inform us for research and resolution. But kindly noted Chip technology is an advanced, and it is more safe than stripe.
As an innovation company, it’s impossible to develop a product that will be conflicted with the trend and technology.

The problem is that my main CitiBank Visa credit card has both a magnetic strip and a chip. I still find stores where I have to swipe instead of use the chip. So that’s a big problem for me and I’m guessing will be an issue for others as well.

Final thoughts

The PITAKA carbon fiber magnetic wallet is a wallet that has a lot going for it. It’s lightweight, has RFID protection, can be customized to add or remove layers and is fun to use. But the main problem with it is the potential to demagnetize cards with magnetic strips. If you don’t use those types of cards anymore, then yay for you! I think you’ll enjoy this unique wallet. But if you use cards with magnetic strips, I don’t think this is the wallet for you.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Pitaka. Please visit their site for more info and to order one.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Wallets

Tagged: Wallet

PITAKA carbon fiber magnetic wallet review originally appeared on on March 1, 2017 at 1:22 pm.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.