Is it time to think minimalist?
If you are as old as me then you will (hopefully!) remember having loose change rattling in your pockets or your purse bursting with coppers. Where did it all come from? How to get rid of it? I suspect a lot of us had a tray, a pot or a huge whisky bottle in which to deposit the coins. Amazing how quickly those pennies and tuppences added up. If you saved silver then it really mounted up! Sadly the excitement of counting up the accumulated stash is something a lot of young people will never experience.
Cash is endangered. The rise of debit cards has slowly eroded the need for cash, even small payments can be paid for with contactless so cash is no longer needed. Cash is slower, "Here is your change sir", "oh wait a minute i think i might have the right amount.....oh sorry i don't". With a card its a quick tap and off we go. Cards are safer, more secure. We can stop a card, if you lose cash it's gone.
All this has resulted in us carrying less. Fewer banknotes, fewer receipts, less change. If we carry less we don't need a large wallet or purse, the traditional full sized wallet started to decline a few decades ago when people stopped wearing jackets as often, they were replaced with the notecase, which incidentally, is what most of us call a wallet these days. Now the notecase is being replaced with the minimalistic wallet. These wallets do just what their name suggests. Why carry a large notecase just to put a few cards in? The need tor a wallet to hold a decent number of banknotes has gone. A folded note or two is now the most carried. We can now carry a wallet barely larger than a credit card. Like the mobile phone before it the wallet has shrunk.
One thing hasn't changed though and that is no matter how small our wallets become they still need to durable, able to stand upto the rigours of everyday use and able to protect the items inside them. Nothing does this quite like leather. Nothing ages and gains character like a leather wallet. If you are still carrying an old notecase stuffed full of faded years old receipts, crumpled business cards and lots of accumulated pocket fluff then maybe it's time for you to think minimalist!
Take a look at our range of fully handmade minimalistic leather wallets and cardholders here