It’s not often you see ten year reviews. For the simple truth that in the modern world most things simply don’t last that long. This review takes a look at how this “design classic” cascading card wallet has stood the test of time, and critically would I replace it with another Secrid when it finally dies.
For anyone unfamiliar with Secrid these are the guys who arguably invented the aluminium pop up cardholder wallet. Winning a red dot design award for this in 2010. I have been using one of these as my daily wallet for over 10 years now so this review is based on that experience.
Now one slight plot spoiler. The fact that I have used this for 10 years probably gives the game away that I like the wallet a lot, however, it is not without some minor flaws so I will cover those as well.
I am going to give a quick overview of the wallet and then dive into each element in a bit of detail, good bits, and bad bits.
The wallet consists of three parts, the Aluminium “cardprotector” card holder with trigger action, the leather casing, and a plastic banknote holder. These are stitched and glued together to form the whole wallet. I will take a look at each of these in a bit more detail.
The card protector
The card protector, an aluminium box sleeve, is the real innovation in this wallet. It’s super clever card pop out mechanism is what gained Secrid its design awards. Quite frankly it is a thing of brilliance. I have lost count of the times people have seen me use it and asked where did you get that? Of course it has been copied extensively with cheap Chinese knock-offs readily available, but also some quality options.
The RFID Cardprotector has two key functions, firstly providing somewhere to hold cards securely whilst allowing super easy access, secondly protecting the cards from being skimmed. Skimming is using an NFC reader to take a payment from your card by passing close by. For example thieves can brush up close on a packed train or bus etc. The aluminium box effectively blocks this from occuring.
I did see a few comments from people worrying about how easy the aluminium box might be to bend. In all honesty this has never been a concern for me. Perhaps this is possible if you stick it in your back pocket and sit on it all the time, but not something I have experienced.
The mechanism after 10 years
The patented spring mechanism in the card holder is where the magic happens. One flick of the trigger and the cards emerge, neatly spaced for easy extraction. Now 10 years of almost daily use is a lot. I expect the mechanism has seen tens of thousands of uses, especially as early on it’s something you are tempted to fiddle with all of the time. And the good news is it still works well. They do claim it’s tested to 100,000 uses.
You can operate the trigger with either hand and this is very much a case of personal preference. Am sure everyone finds their way and sticks with that.
You could squeeze 6 unembossed cards in, or 4 embossed, I think 4 is about perfect. A lot of people ask the question “do the cards fall out” and to be honest the simple answer is no. Unless you shake it pretty violently they stay put.
The leather wallet
The leather, sourced in the Netherlands, is good quality. After ten years it is clearly pretty well worn but still intact, as well as suffering no stitching issues. To be honest I quite like the honest battered look. I tend to carry this in a front jeans pocket most of the time.
On my wallet there is a little bit of leather that has worn through on a bottom corner, I noticed this whilst doing this review. Still i expect a few years yet out of it and ifI retired it tomorrow it would have provided a pretty sterling level of reliable service
The leather piece also includes two additional slots for those cards that perhaps only are needed occasionally. You can fit 3 or so cards comfortably in each slot.
The plastic banknote sleeve
This piece is perhaps the weakest link in the whole setup. However nothing here is a show stopper. Firstly you can see that mine has opened up on one side of the botton fold. From memory this was about 4 years ago. After this interview I will put a bit of black tape on here to fix that. This has not really inconvenienced me as to be honest I rarely use cash and the design of the wallet holds everything together.
Given the overall size of the wallet, I’m not too sure there is a better way to include banknotes. Certainly UK notes stick a little bit at one end which is mildly annoying if you suffer OCD. But again as probably 95% of my puchases are made by card or online it’s not something I really notice. When you close the wallet they curl around the edge of the card holder inside the leather so not visible.
The other weakness is possible the glue, although as it has largely held up for 10 years I am not sure I would class it as a weakness. The three pieces of the wallet are connected through bonding the plastic banknote holder strip to a piece of clear plastic which is stitched to the leather. Again after 10 years of use it is faring probably as well as can be expected but has come partially unstuck and I might restick at some point. Of course the wrap around design of the leather itself removes the danger of the wallet coming apart.
Would I recommend the Secrid Miniwallet
So there we have it. 10 yrs of use. A bit battered, with a few little areas that could do with attention, perhaps a new banknote sleeve. Would I recommend it. Absolutely. Would I buy it in preference to one of the many clone knock-offs all over amazon etc. Absolutely. Innovation should be rewarded and as a quality made in Holland product with European materials I think it is worth the extra expenditure.
You can buy the Secrid mini wallet from a number of retailers including Amazon: https://amzn.to/3InqzvZ
Please note, the above link is an affiliate link. If you choose to purchase through the above link I may earn a small commission. The wallet used by be for the last 10 years was a paid for product and no money was taken for the review.