Allett Original Slim Wallet Review

One of the most probable causes for excessive wallet bulge is the number of cards inside. Cards come in many forms and perform many functions these days; thus, eliminating some of them might not be the most practical solution for everyone. What could be a solution is to play around with the wallet’s form and profile.

To accommodate a lot of cards—up to 24 to be exact—Allett’s gone for a taller but slimmer approach. The result is the Original Slim Wallet, which still roughly has the same number of card slots as a typical wallet. However, the slots are instead placed side-by-side to spread out the load. It works, though there are some caveats in terms of structure and size.

Materials & Aesthetic

Allett’s Original Slim Wallet doesn’t stand out too much from your typical wallet in terms of style. The sample we have pictured here is the nylon variant in the Slate Black colorway, though we also tested the black leather variant. There’s nothing particularly eye-catching about the design. It’s a discreet rectangle with an Allett logo on the bottom right corner, while the inside is the same sort of speckled patterned nylon fabric as the outside. It’s when you compare it directly to another wallet where it begins to distinguish itself.

Pictures of it on their own don’t do the Original Slim Wallet justice, but this is a tall wallet. It’s bigger than what we’d call a typical-sized wallet like the Tom Bihn Nik’s Minimalist Wallet and is closer to something like the Bellroy Travel Wallet. Despite the extra surface area, the Original Slim Wallet is, well, slim, thanks to the simple nylon and leather constructions. This design has its ups and downs, as you’ll see later on.

One more thing, we did notice some slight but still noticeable wrinkling on the leather version’s outside after a month of usage. Visible wear like this is not entirely unexpected, but just something to keep in mind if you’re keen on having a pristine-looking wallet for a longer period. Considering the slim construction of the Original Slim Wallet, this is an acceptable amount of wear.

Usage

The Original Slim Wallet’s headlining feature is Allett’s claim that it can hold up to 24 cards thanks to the card slot arrangement it has. This is achieved via the two-by-two card slots it has inside, totaling four card slots. Whereas a typical wallet stacks slots on top of each other, having them side-by-side minimizes thickness while maximizing space.

The slots themselves are simple in design; Allett simply stitched the nylon halfway down on each side to create separation. In terms of volume, the slots can hold a lot of cards. We don’t personally carry 24 cards on us, but we were able to fit three in a single slot with room to spare. Even three or four thick PVC-based credit cards should pose no problem for each slot the Original Slim Wallet has.

On the subject of plastic-based cards, those have a smooth finish, and so does nylon. There’s rubber lining in the slots to keep your cards inside. However, whenever we opened the wallet, cards still tended to slip out of their slots with minimal resistance. This issue is more apparent when you only have a single card in a slot, and things are, therefore, looser. It took us some getting used to being more careful with this, but we eventually got there.

Aside from the impressive card-carrying potential, the extra size also offers room for larger stuff. You still get the usual bills pocket, which is thoughtfully stitched shallower to consider the taller profile of the wallet. US dollar bills fit in perfectly as you’d expect. If you use taller currency, there’s also a deeper pocket to accommodate those.

Currencies like the Japanese Yen and British pound sterling are swallowed whole by this deep pocket. So much so that we tried out different items just to see what we could get away with. Small travel notebooks and passports don’t quite fit and stick out a bit, but they are inside for the most part. Next, we tried some large receipts we keep for warranty purposes. Lo and behold, they fit inside with less folding than when we tried them on smaller wallets.

Those are all the ups of the larger surface area of the design, now for the downs. For starters, due to how much taller it is, it might not fit your pocket as well as regular wallets. We’ve had no issues fitting the Original Slim Wallet in our pockets, but we did notice that it sometimes snagged its corners at the edges. We have the exact dimensions listed above if you’re curious to see if it will fit in your own pocket.

Combined with the relatively thin fabric used, the wide surface area also emphasizes the rather soft structure of the wallet. The Original Slim Wallet can feel kinda floppy even when you load it up with cards and bills. Then again, it’s not too much of an issue considering the slimness you get in return.

Allett has taken an interesting approach to fit more stuff in a wallet while retaining roughly the same volume. The clever rearrangement of that volume, making it slimmer and taller, has its trade-offs worth considering. If you carry many cards and use taller currencies, then the Allett Original Slim Wallet can serve you well so long as you have the pocket space.