This tool-free modular lever wallet is the coolest one I’ve stuck to my phone.
Pull the built-in elastic lever and your cards unfold. Do you want a thicker or thinner wallet? Press in the right place and it disassembles without tools, allowing you to swap out a 3, 5 or 7 card “core” that grips your cards so they don’t fall out.
Do you want an ID card, a work badge, an elastic band for more cards or a money clip on the end? You can replace the front or back magnetic plates with any of them. You can also replace both with ultra-thin aluminum cases if you don’t need the wallet to magnetically stick to your phone.
You can see it in action in my Today I’m Toying With video embedded in this article (also on YouTube and Instagram if you prefer).
My favorite part is that the entire kit fits together using a compliant mechanism: the plastic arms of the card holder core act like springs, pushing a small locking mechanism into the notches of each modular cover you add as you slide the pieces together. Once your cards are inside, they hold the arms out so they can’t accidentally open (unless you drop the whole wallet). This is all very clever.
Even when I dropped the wallet (thanks for the suggestion, Hugo!), it usually didn’t explode. Usually it came off slightly, even if I dropped it. hard on concrete once and was able to make a small explosion: one half came off and two cards came out, but everything landed within a two foot radius. The wallet now has a big dent.
There are certainly downsides. While OhSnap touts the Wallet 2 as “incredibly thin,” that’s only Really surprisingly sleek in its thinnest 3-card variant, without the thicker and heavier MagSafe and MagStack plates (which let you attach other magnets to it).
But the reason I don’t buy one is the price and weight. The 7-card version makes my phone too heavy, adding 127 grams, and even if I made the 3-card my wallet for a few weeks, it would cost me $61 on Kickstarter or $76 retail to get it with a dual-magnet kit. OhSnap also charges more than I’d like ($35 for an ID cover or money clip!) for extras.
OhSnap didn’t understand me this time. But I might consider giving one as a gift.
Gn tech
