To understand why I’ve used the Nomatic travel wallet for nearly 10 years, you first must understand who I was before. I was the butt-bulge guy – the one who could never sit comfortably for long periods without the wallet in my back pocket sending a ripple of asymmetrically-induced pain to my rear, up through my back, and finally, into my neck. I had a Costanza wallet, and it was bad. Like, real bad. Due to the lack of eyes in the back of my head, I never noticed how ridiculous it must have looked to anyone walking behind me. But after many years I did, at last, come to terms with the fact that I simply didn’t need to have 17 business cards, three months of receipts, and a photo collage documenting the life of my sister’s long-since-deceased dog with me at all times.
This Minimalist Travel Wallet Looks Sleek and Carries Only What I Need
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It must have been my fourth or fifth time through international customs that brought this realization to light. In 2015, I first heard the term “digital nomad” and immediately clung to anything containing a variation of the phrase. This is how I originally chose the Nomatic wallet from the slew of minimalist travel wallets available. But it was the wallet’s eight years of durability and efficiency that led me to buy another one last year.
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The Nomatic Wallet is perfect for those always on the go
When you move around a lot, you start to pick up on the fact that less is more. Switching my wallet from the Costanza to the austere simplified the process of ditching anything unnecessary. The Nomatic Wallet has but one pouch – an elastic card-sized pouch that comprises the entirety of the wallet itself. It’s big enough to fit up to 15 cards, though I tend to carry only about seven with me. That leaves room for business cards I pick up at conferences or while working on stories on the road.
A pull-tab that also serves as the wallet’s base helps you access cards inside the wallet. It pulls them up for easy access, so you don’t have to use your nails digging a card out of the middle of the pile. Once you’ve retrieved the card you need, push the stack back down, and you can easily slip the retrieved card back in once you’re done using it. The wallet has a separate slip for cash located on the outside of the elastic pocket.
That’s about it as far as the wallet’s features. It’s a minimalist wallet, after all. It’s slim, comes in black, light blue, or gray, and looks quite clean and presentable even after years of use. My first one began to wear after eight years of constant travel and daily use, and because the wallet only costs $19.99 I had no issue replacing it with another of the same. As is the primary appeal of minimalist travel wallets, the biggest win of the Nomatic Wallet is what you don’t see, don’t carry, and don’t have to deal with. I have only what I need – from a debit card to a credit card to my Global Entry ID and Driver License – and not the pain-inducing nonsense that tends to pile up when you have more space than you need.
What to note about the Nomatic Wallet
One important thing to keep in mind about the Nomatic Wallet is that, due to its elasticity, it cannot return to its original form once stretched. If you immediately put 15 credit cards in it, you’re committed to keeping 15 with you going forward because the wallet will stretch to accommodate that number of cards and won’t be able to go backward. This means that a drastic reduction in cards or items in the wallet can lead to what’s in there falling out when inverted. The same is true of the cash slip – if I only have one or two bills, I’ll keep them in the card slot because I don’t want them to fall out of the cash slip.
Overall, I’m very happy with the Nomatic Wallet and have no plans to change to another anytime soon. I’m on my second, and now that I think of it, may as well buy another just so I have it on hand down line. 