A True Account: Everyone's Compact Wallets. Seeking Comfort After Taking the Leap

Given the choice between big, heavy luggage and small, light luggage, most people would agree that less and lighter is better. Still, there are things we carry every day, and sometimes we end up with unexpected finds while out, adding to the volume of our belongings.

If we can make the everyday essentials we carry more compact, it should be possible to keep our total load within an acceptable range—and the wallet, which we always carry, is a good example of this.

For those who long for a small wallet but have grown accustomed to a spacious long wallet or a fold wallet with many pockets, and just can't take the plunge—we spoke with four people who actually made the bold switch to a compact wallet, asking how they use it and whether there are any points where they have to compromise. 

Everyone's Compact Wallets, and How They Use Them

The Transition Period to a Compact Wallet — The Case of Mr. M from ART&CRAFTS

First, we asked Mr. M, a male staff member at ARTS&CRAFTS, which makes leather bags and leather accessories, to show us his beloved wallet. He has long introduced ARTS&CRAFTS to ZUTTO and is a specialist well-versed in leather. Given his profession, he has seen and used all kinds of wallet designs—so what wallet does he actually use and love?

That's right. I'm a cash-oriented person and a bit of a worrier by nature, so originally I was firmly in the long-wallet camp, since it lets me carry all my cash and cards. But I felt that going against the recent trend toward cashlessness wouldn't give me the broad perspective I need as someone representing a brand that also makes wallets. On top of that, the bags I want to carry on my days off have gotten smaller, so now I carry both a long wallet and the COMPACT TWIN PURSE.

In my main wallet, the COMPACT TWIN PURSE, I keep bills of 5,000 yen or less, coins, and just five carefully selected cards that I use often. I put this in my pants pocket and carry it with me at all times.

In the long wallet, I keep 10,000-yen bills along with cash cards and various point cards that I only use occasionally, all stuffed in together. I basically only carry the long wallet on weekdays, keeping it in my tote bag and taking it out only when needed. So most days I never even take it out, but I still carry it along just in case.

Yes, somehow I just don't want to fold 10,000-yen bills (laughs). When I put bills into the COMPACT TWIN PURSE, they need to be folded into quarters, so whenever a 10,000-yen bill gets broken into 5,000-yen or 1,000-yen bills, I move them over from the long wallet.

After all, I'd rather mainly use the COMPACT TWIN PURSE since it's easier to carry, so I actually feel happy whenever a 10,000-yen bill gets broken.

I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to compact wallets, so a large part of it is keeping the long wallet just in case. If I let go of it decisively, it might actually turn out fine. But as long as I have a bit of anxiety about it, I want to use both in a way that I can feel satisfied with, as part of my transition period toward a compact wallet, so for now I think I'll keep carrying both.

That's right! The COMPACT TWIN PURSE uses a leather called Elba Matt, and it ages beautifully. I've been using it for about a year now, and compared to when it was new, it looks completely different. The NAVY one I have has darkened with use, becoming almost as dark as black. The edges of the leather (around the stitching), which felt stiff at first, along with the flap, have softened up and become much easier to handle. I don't really do much special care for it. Since it's something I use every day, I handle it constantly, and I think the natural oils from my hands are enough.

【The COMPACT TWIN PURSE Featured Here】

This wallet is a more compact version of the "TWINPURSE," a design the brand originally offered. Its distinctive feature is a pocket with a gently curved flap, and using a different stitch color for each leather color gives it an approachable, casual feel. Zippers that open in an L-shape have become common lately, but this one opens even wider, in a "J" shape. It makes taking bills and cards in and out extremely easy.

*NAVY is currently out of stock but is expected to be restocked in early September.

Understanding That Comes Only After Trying an Even Smaller Wallet — The Case of Ms. U from PATRICK STEPHAN

Next up is Ms. U, a female staff member at PATRICK STEPHAN. The brand's leather goods are born from the meeting of French designer PATRICK and Japan's outstanding craftsmanship, which continually studies how to sense and handle the texture and character of materials.
Given her profession, Ms. U is also someone with a discerning eye, having used a great many wallets over the years.

Leather Tri-fold Wallet cartable / PATRICK STEPHAN

It comes with a coin case, 6 card slots, and 1 bill compartment.

I really like that it has good storage capacity and lets you organize things properly. I mostly pay by card and only carry the bare minimum in cash, so before this wallet I was using a smaller pouch as my wallet, but it had no compartments, which made it difficult to use. That's why I switched to this wallet—it's small, but everything has its own designated place.

I keep the two cards I use most often together in the leftmost pocket (①), a point card in the pocket next to it (②), and normally leave ③ empty. Depending on where I'm going that day, I'll put whatever card I need into ③ before heading out. The coin case side also has two card slots, but I haven't needed to use those yet. I like having that extra space available.

It's not really something I have to put up with regarding the wallet itself, but since the cards I need change depending on where I'm going, on days when I don't have a fixed destination, I sometimes need to carry a separate card case with all my cards together. Other than that, I don't feel any particular inconvenience or dissatisfaction with how it works.

Since I'm in the position of trying out PATRICK STEPHAN wallets, I imagine my wallet will keep changing at fairly short intervals going forward as well. Still, I've really come to appreciate the comfort of a compact wallet and the freedom of not carrying around unnecessary items, so I don't think I could ever go back to a large wallet myself. That said, there's certainly demand for long wallets out there, and I'm not dismissing them either. What feels comfortable differs from person to person, so as a brand, I'd like to keep proposing options that suit each person's needs.

The sheepskin used has a smooth texture that feels like it clings to your hand. It ages relatively quickly, and after two and a half months of use, it has developed beautifully.

【Featured this time: Leather Trifold Wallet cartable】

With compact wallets, "small and functional" tends to take priority, so I often feel that cuteness or decorative details get left behind. But with this "Leather Trifold Wallet cartable," the plug-in style clasp serves as a design highlight. It comes in two colors: black and gray.

Using a Key Case as a Wallet — The Case of ZUTTO Staff S

Next up is Staff S, who is in charge of product selection at ZUTTO. Because of the job, Staff S handles all kinds of items on a daily basis, including leather goods and clothing. Of course, this means examining a huge number of wallets as well—but what Staff S actually uses, surprisingly, isn't a wallet at all. It's a "key case."

Right, its original intended use is as a key case (laughs). But instead of the type with a hook, it's a pouch type where you tuck the whole bunch of keys inside, and since it has two storage compartments, it also works well as a compact wallet.

The reason I originally decided to switch to a compact wallet in the first place was that I started keeping a credit card doubling as a transit IC card in my phone case, and since I ended up paying for almost everything with cards when out and about, I started forgetting to bring my wallet with me more and more often. Still, there are definitely situations where you need cash, so while I was trying to figure out how to solve the problem of forgetting my wallet, it hit me: "If I keep it together with my keys, I won't forget it!" I always take my keys with me when I leave the house, and when I thought about what could combine keys and a wallet into one, a pouch-style key case seemed like the best option.

Of course, I stopped forgetting things! As long as I have this key case and my phone, I'm all set, and since I'm the type who likes to travel light anyway, the stress of carrying too much stuff has disappeared too.

In the snap-button pocket on the front, I keep two cards: my bank card and my health insurance card. With just two cards there's quite a bit of extra room, so I think I could fit about three more.

In the main zippered pocket, I keep bills folded into quarters together with coins. It can hold about 10 bills, but if you don't fold each one individually before putting it in, things get fumbly when you actually need to grab one in a hurry.

As for keys, right now I only carry one, so I attach my house key to the key ring and always keep it on the outside. If you have multiple keys, they jingle around noisily, so I think 2 to 3 keys is about the limit.

I did at first, but I've gotten used to it. I only take out cash when I can't use an IC card or credit card, so it doesn't feel like much of a hassle. That said, as you can see, the zipper hardware doesn't allow the entire edge of the opening to open up, so bills can sometimes catch a bit when putting them in or taking them out.

I use this key case as my everyday wallet, but I think it's also a good idea to use it as a regular key case on weekdays and switch to it as a second wallet for a compact bag on weekends!

【Featured Key Case】

STANDARD SUPPLY (Standard Supply) is a Japanese bag and small-goods brand known for its expertise in giving minimal, simple designs a wealth of functionality.

Among its lineup, this PAL series comes in a rich variety of colors—alongside the black shown here, there are also pops of pink, red, and yellow. Made from Italian nappa leather, it has a soft texture that feels comfortable in your hand right from the start of use. Despite its colorful hues, the leather has a depth and translucency to it, and true to its name, it becomes like a PAL (friend) that's always by your side.

Beyond the key case, we also carry the slightly larger FLAP WALLET, as well as the LONG FLAP WALLET, a long wallet style.

Switching to a Small Wallet, Despite Some Uncertainty — The Case of ZUTTO Staff Member M

Next up is Staff M, who handles the Yomimono (Reading) column and also plans our special-order products. Her go-to compact wallet is the "SOLUM Mini Wallet" by REN. It's a tri-fold wallet with a coin pocket on top, and cards are meant to be slotted in vertically behind the bills. She's only had this wallet for three months, so let's hear how she's been using it.

Actually, before this I was using a long wallet. I'd always used a bifold wallet, and the long wallet was the first time I switched things up—but right after making the change, I felt it was too big for me. I disliked how the many pockets became a breeding ground for unnecessary point cards, and above all, the wallet had such a strong presence inside my bag. Still, I liked the leather and design itself, so I used it for several years.

Then, a few months ago, when I visited REN's exhibition and picked up this SOLUM Mini Wallet again, I thought, "Maybe something this compact could work for me after all." It's been a popular item we've featured at ZUTTO since the end of 2017, but once I started actually using it and thinking about what I'd put inside, my heart was quickly won over by this wallet.

Yes, mainly my cards. I cut down to a total of five cards that I want to always carry with me: my driver's license, health insurance card, credit card, cash card, and a security card. I wasn't really the type to carry a lot of point cards to begin with, but when I looked into it, I found that the supermarket and drugstore I frequent both have apps, so I switched to those instead. It seems like a lot of places have gone the app route these days, so it might be worth checking—you never know what you'll find.

That's exactly it! Looking at the product page images, I also thought only four cards could fit, but it turns out you can actually put two cards in a single slot. So the three card slots behind the bills can hold six cards total. Since I ended up narrowing my cards down to five, I still have room to spare.

There's also room for one more card behind the coin case, but when I tried putting one there, the top of the card stuck out a bit, which bothered me, so I don't keep anything there right now. It's reassuring to know there's still a bit of extra room left in case I really need it.

I'm not quite as much of a "cards-only" person as Staff S, who I mentioned above, so I use roughly half cash and half card for payments. So the capacity of the coin case was somewhat of a concern for me.

It's the type where, when you undo the snap button and open it, the sides pop up into a box shape—which seems like it would make finding coins easy, but on the other hand, I worried that if the coins piled up, it might not close properly.

But once I actually started using it, it's never gotten so full of coins that it was bursting. It's not that I'm making a point of paying with exact change to keep the coin amount to a minimum—it's more that the case simply has enough capacity to comfortably hold the amount of change that would normally end up in a wallet. It looks small, but it can surprisingly hold more than you'd expect.

I'd love that! The things I was worried about before buying it are probably things many other people wonder about too, so if we can put those worries to rest, that would be great.

Left: the coin case empty, Right: the coin case holding 25 coins

We found that the coin case can be packed full and still have the snap button close with 25 coins inside. That's 2 five-hundred-yen coins, 15 hundred-yen coins, 1 fifty-yen coin, 1 ten-yen coin, 1 five-yen coin, and 5 one-yen coins, for a total of 2,570 yen in coins.

At this point, the shape of the coin case has changed quite a bit, so it's not an amount we'd recommend carrying, but it is possible to fit that much in. In reality, you're unlikely to ever carry this much change, so we can say the coin case has more than enough capacity for everyday use.

(By the way, it also closed without any trouble even with 10 bills inside.)

Not at all! It's easy to use, and I'm glad I switched wallets. Like everyone else, I want to go out with as little and as light luggage as possible, so I'm able to get through both weekdays and weekends with just this one wallet, without needing to switch between different ones. I'm sure things will continue to change in the future, but this is the wallet I arrived at after pursuing what best suits my current lifestyle.

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We've shown you the actual everyday use of compact wallets by four different people. While their reasons for switching to a compact wallet and how they use it all differ, what they have in common is that they're each searching for something that suits their current way of living. When it comes to wallets, we tend to assume that the shape and size we've used for years is the easiest to use, and often don't consider other options when it's time to buy a new one. But by taking that opportunity to reconsider the contents of your wallet—thinking about whether there's anything unnecessary, or anything that could be made more efficient—new options may come into view.

As payment methods diversify and the number of options increases, it's important to search for what feels comfortable and easy to use, and we hope this article can serve as a helpful reference in that search. 

▼See the full list of wallets here