GRIP6 Wallet (Leather and Loop) Review

As a means of carrying cash, credit cards, and IDs around, the humble wallet serves a pretty important purpose whenever we step outside. They’re so good at their job that if you picture a wallet in your head, chances are we’ll all come up with similar designs. The question is, how do you make yours different?

There are a ton of clever wallets with more modern designs out there, and one of them is the Grip6 Wallet. While this isn’t the first rigid wallet, nor is it the first aluminum wallet we’ve played around with, it does feature a squeeze mechanism. We’ll save the good stuff for later, but the gist of it is that this mechanism pops cards out when you need them and secures them when you don’t. This wallet also comes with a leather sleeve, which is one of the weaker points of the whole package. We’ll talk about that and more, so let’s get started.

Materials & Aesthetic

The Grip6 Wallet is quite interesting from a styling point of view. With leather on the outside and gunmetal aluminum on the inside, it’s a sort of “classic-meets-contemporary” situation. If the Grip6 Wallet were a person, it would be a smartphone-toting techie in a leather jacket. But does it pull the look off? If you ask us, it does. At the very least, we dig the gray and black color scheme. However, a closer inspection of the leather reveals something concerning.

We’ve had the wallet for a few weeks, and the leather is already starting to fray. While some of the edges are tapered off, the cuts at the opening of the front and rear card compartments are not, and they’ve started to show wear and tear. It’s also most noticeable around the hole at the center of the wallet, especially when there are pristine banknotes or brightly colored cards inside.

One could argue that the fraying plays into a worn-out look, similar to the appeal of ripped jeans. While we’re not huge fans of the look, we understand its appeal—we just hope it doesn’t deteriorate further and harm functionality. Fortunately, the leather is more of a protective sleeve, and it’s replaceable.

Speaking of which, the Grip6 Wallet is available in a ton of configurations at the time of writing. What we have here is the “Wallet + Leather and Loop” bundle in Gunmetal and Black Leather, but you can also have just the wallet without the leather. The loop is also optional, but it’s not removable after the fact, unlike the leather sleeve. The metal wallet itself comes in a variety of designs, including Gunmetal, Blue Steel, Ninja, Foxtail, Ember, and Bronze. There are even more creative patterns, such as the American flag, Walnut Woodgrain, and Copper Antique.

Usage & Features

Arguably the most eye-catching feature of the Grip6 Wallet is the protruding metal loop. What is it, and what does it do? Well, it’s simply an attachment loop, whether it’s for accessories or attaching the wallet itself to a carabiner. We, however, love to use it to turn the Grip6 Wallet into a makeshift fidget spinner.

Using the wallet this way isn’t recommended; however, it does give us a good idea of how well it holds onto cards and cash. Even at full speed, none of our cards and bills flew across the room—we’ve tested it so that you don’t have to risk injury or inconvenience yourself.

Despite our creative use of the loop, it doesn’t add much functionality to our day-to-day usage. We like to keep our wallets with us, and the bulge of the loop somewhat snags on the edge of our pockets. To be fair, and as stated earlier, there is a non-loop model in case you also find the feature irrelevant.

Fitting cards and bills inside is fairly straightforward. There are two secondary slots on each side of the wallet, courtesy of the leather sleeve. Then, there’s a single slot on the wallet itself where you push cards in until they click into place. For our configuration, we used the wallet and the rear pocket of the sleeve to hold six and one cards, respectively. Grip6 quotes the total card capacity at 13-14 cards, though the wallet itself comfortably holds 6-8 cards by our measure. Your mileage may vary depending on what cards you use and how thick they are.

As for bills, we went for five US dollar bills in the front sleeve pocket, and they fit inside no problem. They need to be quarter-folded, but we think that’s expected and acceptable for a rigid wallet like this.

The front and rear sleeve pockets also have cut-outs so that you can push cards and bills out by hand. They slide in easily enough because they rub against the smooth finish of the aluminum wallet. In contrast, the underside of the leather gives just enough resistance so that they don’t fall out by accident. Aside from the fraying at the edges, we noticed that the slots have noticeably loosened up, which could worsen over time.

While the sleeve pockets rely on good ‘ol fashioned push and pull, the wallet also has a clever spring-loaded mechanism to pop out your cards. There’s a squeeze trigger just under the metal loop, and using it launches the cards upwards. However, there’s a trick to properly using this feature. Squeezing too hard can launch the cards at a fast and surprising speed, while squeezing too gently might not raise some cards enough. We recommend getting some practice at home and not over an open drain.

Grip6 Wallet | Push them in then squeeze them out. Satisfying.

There’s also some irregularity to how cards come up. Some cards come out three-fourths of the way, while some come only halfway. It’s a bit of a guessing game whether the card you want will extend far enough that you can pick it out. Lightweight cards—typically ones that are very flexible—have trouble releasing, so we recommend placing them at the edges so you can at least slide them out the rest of the way.

As far as minimalist wallets, the Grip6 Wallet is among the largest of the rigid ones we’ve tested. We put it side-by-side with the Ridge Wallet, Bellroy Flip Case, Dango D01 Dapper, and NOMATIC Wallet, and it was the largest among them. It’s not unwieldy by any means, but it’s bigger by a noticeable margin—even without taking the protruding loop into account.

Overall, we enjoyed our time with the Grip6 Wallet. The mechanical design is well-made, and the clicky squeeze mechanism is very satisfying to fidget around with. Capacity is about on par with similar wallets, as mentioned above. However, the leather sleeve could use some reinforced edges, and we’ll probably skip the loop next time.