Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Fashion & Style

Cardamon is the Indestructible, Minimalist Wallet You’ve Been Waiting For

By

Cardamon was founded in Squamish, British Columbia, in 2014 by Nathan Kukathas, David Pearson, and Josh Simpson with the vision of challenging conventional approaches to design and production and the goal of manufacturing textiles so advanced that they last a lifetime.

Recommended Videos

Nathan Kukathas, Design Director for Cardamon with over twenty years of experience creating award-winning products and gear for brands like Arc’teryx, Sea to Summit, and RYU (to name a few), said of Cardamon’s flagship project, “We chose the wallet as our first project because it’s a very personal and familiar tool we use every day and saw that we could enhance it by engineering a new material, simplifying the design, and distilling it into its purest form.”

cardamon wallet
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We were given a sneak-peek sample of the Cardamon minimalist wallet that we’ve been toting around in our back pocket for a week now, and we can confirm that Cardamon has indeed simplified and distilled the wallet down to its purest form. Extremely thin, the Cardamon Wallet comes in at only 3.5 mm and barely weighs .7 ounces, meaning you won’t end up with that bulky bulge in your back pocket. Though slim, the wallet is not as minimalist as a mere card-holder, so you don’t have to worry about tossing your grocery membership or all-important health insurance ID in order for Cardamon to be functional. With an eight-card capacity and currency compatibility with all major North, Central, and South American money, the Cardamon Wallet holds everything you need and nothing more.

Cut from a single sheet of MerdianShell, a 300D Nylon-Polyester proprietary fabric made in-house at Cardamon, the wallet is water-resistant, stain-resistant, and guaranteed to last a lifetime. Seriously, if your wallet ever wears out or is destroyed, Cardamon will replace it free of charge–demonstrating their dedication to this high-quality, long-lasting accessory.

The strength and durability of the wallet comes not only from the original MerdianShell fabric, but also from its construction methods. Made with advanced extrusion, thermoform, and welding techniques, the Cardamon Wallet eliminates seams, stitching, and is virtually zero-waste. According to Cardamon, “every square inch of fabric that gets cut, is used to build the wallet,” so you can feel good about its minimal environmental impact and be confident that it will hold up forever without fraying threads or loose corners.

The Cardamon Wallet will be released in five colorways and two sizes. Be sure to head to Cardamon’s Kickstarter campaign to pre-order yours now. .

Chase McPeak
Chase McPeak
Former Former Digital Trends Contributor, The Manual
Chase McPeak is the former Lifestyle Editor. Chase regularly appeared on Beards, Booze, and Bacon: The Manual Podcast where…
Topics

Editors’ Recommendations

When You’ve Got a Job to Do, You Need a Pair of the Best Work Boots for Men
Ansel Hiking Boot

There’s never really a bad time to lace up a pair of the best men’s boots to get out there and tackle your to-do list. But there’s something different, and even empowering, about taking advantage of the fall season to step out in some of the best men’s work boots and tackle plenty of much-needed projects. Be it weatherproofing, home repairs, workshop projects or a bit of all three (and more), the best shoes for men are going to come through in the clutch, keeping you safe and helping your day run that much more smoothly.

To be clear, we’re not exactly talking about your more standard leather chukka boots or even cap toe leather lace-up dress boots. No sir, the best men’s work boots have a rich history that carries on through today. While steel-toed work boots were popularized by companies like Red Wing in the 1930s, work boots date back to around the time of the Industrial Revolution, as workers needed reliable footwear to keep them safe on the job. Those boots were vastly different than the boots you’ll find below, but no less crucial in helping advance worker safety.

Read more
Cozy Up Under the Best New Blanket You’ve Never Heard Of
chantam blankets feature blanket

Spend too much time listening to the news these days, and you’ll be convinced it’s the end of the world: you need a good throw blanket. Current events notwithstanding, on a chilly winter’s night it’s great to snuggle up in one with your favorite warm beverage -- or body -- of choice. The Chatham Blanket may be just the thing for days and nights like these, coming complete with a deep history of Made-in-U.S.A. quality combined with 21st-century resourcefulness.

Alex Chatham is an industrial designer -- whose projects include Peloton -- based in New York City. He is the namesake -- and great-great-grandson -- of Alexander Chatham, an entrepreneur who installed a wool card (the machine that is the first step in turning wool into yarn after it’s been shorn) in his North Carolina mill in 1877. For five generations the Chatham family produced wool blankets that were sold across the United States and were even used by the Army and Navy in World Wars I and II. Like so much American manufacturing in the late 20th century, though, the company suffered from foreign competition and closed its doors in 1990.

Read more
Why these 7 watches are smart style statements
Businessman checking time on his wristwatch. men's hand with a watch.

Owning a luxury watch is an investment often stemming from a passion for horology and a smart financial move. The right watch can significantly appreciate over time to become a wearable asset and ultimately a family heirloom. Despite these grand prospects, not every watch has this benefit, as some depreciate rapidly or lack demand from avid collectors.

According to the CEO and co-founder of Bezel, Quaid Walker, "Watches are made to be worn, so always choose a watch that you love, versus selecting a watch purely as a speculative investment. The market tends to favor the iconic brands due to high demand, limited supply, and brand prestige, but none of that matters if you don’t enjoy wearing it."

Read more