Product Review:

Big Skinny: Super Skinny Wallet

Guest Reviewer: Kyle Marnoch

Man, this wallet is thin. Good thing it’s called the Big Skinny. As regular readers of this site will know, one, the GadgetBoyz review mostly techie goodies, and two, I’ve never reviewed anything for them before. So how did I end up reviewing this decidedly non-techie item for them?

GadgetBoy Jason, a colleague of mine, brings it over to my desk one morning and says, “Check it out—this wallet is über-thin, you should try it out.” Since my trusty old brown leather wallet was falling apart, I agreed.

First things first, is it really that thin? Damn-straight it is. I pulled out the wad of credit cards and other bits of plastic from my old wallet, and the huge wad of cash I had in there (actually, I think it was mostly receipts and debit card slips from the local pizza place, and gas station), and proceeded to fill up the Big Skinny. It really was about half the width of my old wallet. When I put it in my pocket at first, I had to keep checking to make sure it was there, being that I was used to Old Lumpy.

They manage to make the wallet thinner than your average one using a few tricks. One, there’s only one fold, unlike my previous one that had two folds.

Next, there isn’t multiple slots to put individual cards in like most wallets, instead, there’s four vertical pockets spread evenly across the length of it. The last one has a clear window, good for your license or any other photo I.D., not so good for anything else though. But that’s okay, because there is still all sorts of room in the other three pockets.

My concern at this point, was that having several cards all jammed into one pocket would make looking for and retrieving my cards difficult. Nope. I had zero problems. Finding my necessary cards was as easy as ever.

I also thought that over extensive uses, the fabric would stretch, and if I had less cards in there than previously, the cards would start to fall out. That hasn’t happened either.

That brings me to my next point, another reason the wallet is thin is the fabric used. It isn’t thick leather. After pretty constant use for several weeks, it’s in good shape, no tears in the fabric, it appears very durable with good stitching.

My only problem with the wallet is the change purse on the outside of the wallet. It has this wee little zipper, that lets you access the wee little pocket. If you were putting pennies in there, they would be a little tricky to get out, and our big Canadian dollar, and two-dollar coins would be even more of a pain. That being said, I don’t use change purses on wallets, I’m a pocket type of guy. Then I bring my change home, put it on a table, and my wife takes it to buy coffee. It’s a good system. Frankly, the whole zipper thing adds a measure of lumpiness to the wallet that’s unnecessary.

Regardless of zippers and change purses, this is a rocking wallet. I didn’t think a wallet could actually impress me, I mean a wallet’s a wallet right? Apparently not.