Want a Minimalist Wallet? These 10 are THE BEST in 2025

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Gone are the days when you are expected to carry a thick, heavy, and unwieldy leather bifold in your back pocket (at the sacrifice of your back). The minimalist wallet train has gained steam over the past few years, and I have jumped on board. 

While you used to find me with a massive bifold in my back pocket, you will now find me testing out many different minimalist wallets (in my front pockets, and my back is thanking me). In this article, I will share my thoughts on which wallets you should spend your hard-earned cash on.

Why should you trust me? Every single men’s minimalist wallet found on this list has been tested in person by me (Austin) or one of my team members. Finding the right gear can change your day, week, and year (I’m not joking). Your wallet is something you use every single day, and I want to help make that change for you.

Please Note: Every wallet on this list (other than the Ridge Aluminum) was gifted to us by its respective brand (the Ridge Aluminum was gifted to me by my wife). As you’ll find, I have good and bad things to say about each, and my opinions are all my own.

How do we test these wallets? Testing a wallet should be done outside of a lab. We have all these wallets in hand and have used them daily during their testing. We note what I like, what bothers us, and which we use the most. This article culminates years of using these minimalist wallets to see which is best.

1. Double Oak Essentials Wallet

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I’m normally not a fan of minimalist wallets that also offer a leather outer shell. However, the Double Oak Essentials wallet has changed my mind so much that it is my all-time favorite wallet at the moment (unseating the Ekster Carbon Fiber, finally). This is a wallet that does just about everything well!

The Top-Grain leather may make the wallet thicker, but it feels awesome in the hands, and looks better with age. However, when you aren’t in the mood for a thick wallet, you just slide the cardholder out of the wallet and place it on the back of your phone (as it is MagSafe), or just keep it in your front pocket.

The cardholder itself can hold up to seven cards (most only handle six), and you can even add an expansion plate to your order, so you can add even more cards without the need for the leather portion.

Regardless, I don’t think I have ever been quite so impressed with a wallet right out of the box. All for the starting price of many other big-name brands, much cheaper quality offerings.

2. Ekster Cardholder Pro

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Last year, Ekster released (with great fanfare from myself) the Pro versions of their cardholders. This expanded their capacity to seven cards, updated the warranty to a limited lifetime warranty, and gave it an all-aluminum card ejector mechanism (and button).

Pair that with one of my favorite versions of an expansion plate that allows for far more cards than most other brands and a rubber cash strap (that doesn’t move around freely), and you have a recipe for an awesome minimalist wallet (Paid Link).

This wallet has proven to be one of my all-time favorites, as its clicking reminds me a lot of a mechanical keyboard.

So what don’t I like about it? Due to Ekster’s ejector mechanism being located all in the bottom (including the button), it adds to the length of the wallet, making it larger than some of the competition (with no way around it).

3. Ridge Carbon Fiber

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While most of my experience with Ridge has been with their aluminum base-model version of their wallet, I HAD to test out their carbon fiber version. Thankfully, the brand was kind enough to gift one to me, and oh, was I thankful they did.

The only real difference between the carbon fiber version, and the aluminum is the external plate material. It maintains the same two-plate and an elastic strap build, but just has a much higher-end material on the exterior of the wallet.

My wallet is the Forged Aurora color, and the green shimmers and stands out extremely well. As for the feel, it has a much more textured feel than their aluminum version, and tapping on it has that carbon fiber sound to it.

That said, it’s about 50% more than their base model wallet. So if you don’t mind having slightly more weight and losing the cool factor of carbon fiber, the Aluminum wallet is a fantastic alternative that does EXACTLY the same thing.

4. Proof Leather Wallet

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The Proof Wallet surprised me! When the brand first offered to send it to me, I thought it was just like any other minimalist wallet. However, I was wrong.

This thing is extremely high quality; the top grain leather feels great in the hand and patinas extremely well. Everything is well thought out, and it even fixes a couple things that some similarly constructed wallets have issues with, such as the pull tab getting stuck and clanking around in your pocket. This wallet can hold up to 30 cards easily (while maintaining a small form factor), has a top-grain leather-top cash strap, and has a durable rear aluminum plate.

The only issue I ran into with this wallet is that it doesn’t fan out the cards like some of its competitors, so it is a bit more challenging to get to some of the interior cards.

5. Ridge Aluminum Wallet

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I used this Ridge Wallet for over a year as my daily wallet and have enjoyed everything about it. Ridge makes an amazing and simple wallet. Everyone wants one, and it’s fun to show it off. If you are looking for a genuinely minimalist wallet that is flashy and where you don’t have to worry about reliability, this wallet is it.

This wallet has a clean design, only broken up by small screws that hold the faceplate onto the wallet, and you can easily take cards in and out of the wallet. 

The cards on the outside of your stack are quick to access. However, the cards on the interior of the stack require you to remove the whole stack to access them (this is its main drawback).

Everything is exceptionally well thought out in this wallet, and all materials held up better than expected after a year of consistent usage and living in the same pocket as my metal key organizers.

6. Ridge Wallet Lite

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While the rest of the wallet reviewers on the planet didn’t like the Ridge Wallet Lite (mainly because it competes directly against the rubber band), I found it to be one of my favorite wallets I’ve ever tested. While it may be small, it makes up for it with easy access to your cards, a lack of bulk, and, of course, carries over the same quality I expected from the other Ridge Wallets.

Now, the major downsides are that it lowers the card capacity from 12 down to 8 cards (and does away with cash storage), but the even bigger issue is that it leaves your cards exposed to the elements on the ends, which will speed up the damage to your cards. It should also be mentioned just how much more expensive it is than a rubber band (249,900% higher, to be exact).

That said, it looks so much nicer than a rubber band, so whether it is worth it is up to you!

7. Aviator Wallet

Most of the wallets on this list are rather mainstream options; however, this is one of the more obscure options. Aviator wallets are built (and shipped from) Germany. They are extremely high quality and compete (at least in their base form) with the likes of Ridge Wallet.

They have a similar setup as the Ridge, with the two-plate and an elastic strap design (that strap has a carbon fiber plate). However, you access the cards vertically (rather than horizontally), and the cards are pulled out with a fabric strap (kinda like the Bellroy Card Sleeve above). This wallet also comes with a coin tray (which I have found works well for guitar picks).

Now, the quality of this wallet is amazing, and I am thoroughly impressed with it.

The only major drawback I have seen with the wallet is that the fabric strap has a metal tip to it, which likes to rattle around when using it. It is in my pocket and can be a bit annoying.

8. Bellroy Card Sleeve

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The Bellroy Card Sleeve stood out as my favorite minimalist wallet for quite a long time! It does a fantastic job at doing everything a minimalist wallet should do by staying compact yet giving easy access to your most used card at the front, your lesser used cards on the interior (easily accessible via a leather, non-mechanical pull tab), and then simple access to some cash on the rear.

The leather is high quality, and there is some apparent attention to detail throughout the wallet. If you prefer a leather wallet, there isn’t anything better out there than this.

My only reasoning for dropping this wallet down on the list comes down to one major drawback of having an all-leather wallet build. Leather stretches when you put more items in it. I had to add a few more cards, and quite a bit more cash for a couple weeks in this wallet, and unfortunately it stretched the wallet out.

When I went back to utilizing fewer cards and cash like I normally do, the wallet and cash pouch had stretched out and made me a bit worried the cards and cash would fall out. This is when I realized it needed to be slightly lower on this list. Now, if you want to hear more about this one, I have its full article here!

9. Fantom M Wallet Bamboo

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If you need a MagSafe minimalist wallet, there isn’t a better one out there than this wallet from Fantom! This wallet fans out your cards horizontally at the pull of a tab (you can choose your capacity at purchase), and is customizable, dpeending on what color, material, and if you want a money clip or not (I don’t like them personally).

This wallet was high quality, never failed me (even when dropping it) and its MagSafe compatibility was something I used quite a bit. The main issues I had with it, was that the bamboo liked to get marked too easily, and that inserting or taking cards out caused them to get caught in the little hole on the bottom of the wallet. Didn’t happen much, but was annoying when it did.

The Fantom M wallet is a seriously good wallet for anyone who might be looking for a MagSafe wallet.

10. Ekster Aluminum Cardholder

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I had spent extensive time with Ekster Carbon Fiber before using their base-model aluminum version. However, the moment I picked up this Aluminum version, I thought this was going to dethrone the carbon version as my favorite! Of course now the Cardholder Pro wins out over both of these.

It does everything the carbon fiber wallet does, including easy access to six cards, with capacity for an additional 6+ cards in the expansion plate, along with easy access to cash on the other side.

Plus, the aluminum actually feels better than the carbon fiber. The aluminum body has a cooler (temperature-wise) feel to it and feels higher end than the carbon wallet, and at a much lower price, it was an obvious choice.

However, it’s one drawback started to show up after a couple of weeks of usage. The aluminum started to get nicks around the edges of the top of the cardholder, which is quite noticeable, and I’m sure over years of usage, it will become more obvious. Unfortunately, that lowered it down on this list.

Another quick drawback is the more fabric-like elastic strap this wallet has. Instead of a more rubbery feel, its fabric-style strap feels nicer but also tends to move around a bit more on the wallet, which regularly needs to be adjusted.

If those things don’t bother you, then this is going to be your best choice (likely of any wallet on this list).

Past Winners?

Just in case you don’t care for the ten wallets above, you might be interested in some of the winners in the past! Here are some that have been edged out of the list over time.

• Ekster Forged Carbon Fiber (Read Review Here)
• Axwell Aluminum (2.0) Wallet (Read Review Here)
• Groove Life Wallet (Read Review Here)
• Axwell Copper Wallet (Read Review Here)

What should you know when shopping for a minimalist wallet?

1. Different Available Materials

While most bifold wallets are made strictly from leather and cloth, minimalist wallets are made from various materials. One of my top choices on this list, in particular, is made primarily from forged carbon fiber (the Ridge Carbon); the other Ridge Wallets are made of aluminum, and the Axwell features copper. 

You will find even more wood, plastic, steel, and materials. You will want to decide what works and feels best for you, as you likely can find a minimalist wallet with whatever material you prefer.

2. Ease of access

Your old bifold has one thing going for it: the ease of access to every card you own, as it has an individual pocket for each. However, minimalist wallets generally stack your cards on top of each other for storage, which makes finding the right card a bit of a process (which looks like sifting through your cards). 

You will want to ensure you account for that in your purchase. If you wish for an easy-access minimalist wallet, you might enjoy the Ekster I use at the top of this list above.

3. Price point

While cheaper minimalist wallets are out there, the ones you can count on tend to be a higher-priced option, many of which are north of $100. Make sure to set a budget for yourself and stick to that. I made sure to add an array of different budget options to this list!

4. Different designs

While older wallets all tended to follow the same pattern, minimalist-style wallets are free to test whatever design they prefer. The most popular method is two plates of metal held together by an elastic band; however, you will find others where cards are pushed outwards to you via a button (or even a whole side of the wallet). 

You will also find minimalist cloth (front-pocket wallets) similar to bi-folds, but they have cards on the outside rather than hidden inside. It would be best to decide what works best for you.

Frequently Asked Questions