While tech says the age of card-carrying is dead, Ekster offers sleek clean alternatives to the digital wallet.
Now in my thirties with a beard swiftly going grey I don’t get ID’d all that often. But carrying ID is worth doing day to day where you can. Contactless payment and features like GooglePay and ApplePay mean I don’t need my debit or credit cards with me. But it’s probably worth keeping around. Even public transport is making the switch to contactless and smart devices so I don’t need a train ticket for my morning commute. But I carry it just In case…
| Pros | Cons |
| Beautiful Material Smart designs Great aesthetics | Overpromises on storage Wallet bulk on the parliament Thick boi tracker card |
I’ve mentioned before and will no doubt mention again that I moved wholesale to MagSafe following its introduction to the iPhone. Beyond just MagSafe charging I adopted the Apple Wallet to keep the aforementioned cards on my person when needed. It’s a useful little wallet that magnetises to my iPhone and is even tracked by the ‘Find My’ App so I can find it when it’s lost. 3 cards, however, isn’t a lot. Club cards, loyalty cards or finding myself with cash from time to time have all convinced me that while I love the Apple Wallet I need something a little more practical. In steps Ekster.
Ekster looks to refine the wallet, slim it, sleek it and make it nicer to carry around. It’s a decent approach especially as tech products work harder and harder to convince you that carrying a wallet isn’t necessary at all! I’ve spent the last couple of weeks using three different products from Ekster and have found them all to be great! There are slight differences from one to the other and some bits and pieces to keep in mind so here’s a breakdown of my time with Ekster and their wallets and some detail around why I think I may have found my new daily carry.
Ekster Parliament, Classic Brown
The Ekster Parliament is probably the most ‘traditional’ looking wallet. The Parliament wallets come in leather and I used the ‘Classic Brown’ colour. Ekster boasts ‘vegan’ leather made from recycled materials from suppliers that are LWG certified, one part of a big environmental push for the company. you can check out their website for further details on their seemingly extensive environmental efforts.
All the wallets I used are built around one fundamental mechanism and design feature. You may have seen other ‘smart wallets’ that use a similar design but it’s essentially a little metal box, about the same size in the hand as a regular credit card. It holds up to six cards and is about the same thickness as about 10 cards in a stack. If that makes sense? My point is it’s a lot smaller than a traditional wallet. A lot narrower and easier in the pocket. At the bottom left, is a little switchy/levery button that, when pressed, pops all your cards out for easy access. I cannot express the satisfaction this little mechanism provides. Chuck the fidget spinners in the bin, you have an Ekster wallet now. A nice touch is the way it fans the cards out so it’s easy to see what’s what and simple to grab the card you want. I’ve not heard any cards slip or fall out unexpectedly, everything stays snug and slick and the wallet even offers RFID protection so you can be comfortable that no one is going to be able to whizz past and skim your card details as they go. So far so good!
As I mentioned this simple aluminium box is the foundation of all the wallets I looked at and after a quick look at their website, it seems like it’s the foundation for all of Ekster’s wallets. The Parliament however is a little more traditional. It’s wrapped in this leather which has felt consistently pleasing to the touch. A little card-sized pocket is stitched into the back while a folio flap swings around the front with another two little card slots on its inside. A band of elastic material wraps around the inside of the wallet as well presumably for cash and/or more cards. Now on Ekster’s website, they say the Parliament wallet can hold 1-12 cards and bills. Im not sure so sure.
Six cards sit comfortably. A card in the rear pocket does have the leather pulling quite tight. Another couple on the inside of the folio door and it doesn’t close as nicely any more. Add another couple of cards under the elastic or even a couple of folded £5 notes and we find ourselves in major ‘dad wallet’ territory (as of writing Ekster is offering a Father’s Day discount on the Parliament line). It suddenly feels bulky, clunky, it won’t close properly on the table and feels huge in the pocket. At this point, we’re in traditional wallet territory. The Parliament has lost a lot of what made it so cool out of the box in the first place.
Now I know I’m filling it with stuff. This was deliberate to push the product and I feel like the promises made, while achievable, are a bit of a reach and ruin what makes this product so nice in the first place. But it’s worth mentioning for another reason. Ekster offers a tracker card with the Parliament Wallet, as they do with other products, and they were kind enough to send one of these along. I’m going to write about this tracker later on in this review, but the short of it is this. It’s a little credit-sized tracker that’s about as thick as two or three regular credit or debit cards. As mentioned I used the Apple wallet day to day partly for the tracking features and so to have the same level of security I need to use this with the wallet. When the tracker is in one of the pockets it feels way to this and gave me the impression that it would ruin the leather on the wallet pretty quickly. You could of course keep it in the aluminium card holder and solve this problem but be aware that you’re only getting another two or three cards in there.
I like the Parliament wallet. It’s traditional, it’s clean and it feels like a premium product. I worry that Ekster has maybe over a bed in their promises when it comes to how much you can realistically expect to get in the wallet but as long as you’re comfortable carrying light or you don’t mind the bulky wallet lol and feel you’re on to a winner.
Tracker Card
I didn’t expect this. AirTags are everywhere and as I mentioned I use the trackable Find My features quite often on my Apple Wallet so my concern was that I wouldn’t feel comfortable having a ‘non-trackable’ wallet. What a time we live in ‘ey!?
The Tracker Card is Ekster’s answer to this. As mentioned it’s about the size of a regular credit card but about as thick as two or three. It’s equipped with a little solar panel for charging, a touch that I love, and a little concave Ekster logo in the middle which alerts as a button. Using Chipolo You can pop this into a wallet (or anything really) and track it once paired to your smartphone using the Chipolo app. It’s a really easy pairing process and I liked that as well as basic tracking there’s a bit of call and response. Head into the Chipolo app and when you’re nearby you can ask the card to alert you. You can change the ringtone and while doing so they even offer a little noughts and crosses mini-game as the ringtone loads onto the card. It’s the little things you know. What if you lose your phone though? Well, you can reach for your wallet, squeeze the Ekster logo and it will call your phone so you can find it! If you lose your wallet and your phone…well that one’s on you.
Aluminium Cardholder/Aluminium Cardholder (with AirTag)
The Aluminium Card Holder is everything it claims to be. It is a Card Holder made of aluminium. As discussed on the Parliament Wallet it can hold six cards and is roughly the footprint of a credit card, a lot thicker of course, and a touch longer. The Length is to accommodate the little switch/button that pops your cards out the top of the and fans them out for you offering great visibility and easy access. The Aliminium offers RFID protection to prevent card skimming and it’s a nice, soft finish. This feels like the heart of these Ekster wallets. It’s a nicely designed product made from great materials and its excellence is in its simplicity. This is a great product. There are no two ways about it for me. I think this is a nice wallet.
Ekster sent me two of these Aluminium Card holders, one in ‘Black’ and one in ‘Gunmetal’. Both are beautiful finishes. They had one defining difference. Each comes with a sort of…Aluminium slate. That’s the only way I can describe it. It has some minimal Ekster Branding etched into its face and is fully detachable and removable. The wallets work fine without it, but using the silicon band the slate holds in place on the wallet and acts as a holder for cash, other cards or the Ekster Tracker Card. It’s a nice touch adds minimal bulk and when removed doesn’t leave the cardholder feeling like something is missing which I liked. Again all materials used feel premium. It’s a nice addition. Now on the Gunmetal Cardholder, it was strictly the silicon band and the slate. On the Black Cardholder, the slate is hugged by a similar silicon band with a key difference. It’s moulded into the shape of an AirTag. This means you can store six cards, tuck some more cards or cash under the slate expansion and slot an Airtag into the little band for tracking. This feels like the best possible way to get as much as possible into any of these Ekster products while retaining a trackable wallet via AirTag.
It’s definitely worth noting that if you’re in the market for one of these wallets we received the ‘New’ Matte Black and Gunmetal Card Holders which include the Silicon band we discussed above. There’s a fair range available from Ekster online but some of the older colour options appear to come with an Elasticated band to hold the slate or ‘backplate’ in place.
In Conclusion
The big question. Have I been converted back to the ways of the wallet? Am I leaving the Apple Wallet in the drawer? Has Ekster won me over?
Yes.
Not everything was perfect on the Parliament, the Tracker Card is a thick boy that takes up precious space and the risk of ‘bulking up’ your wallet is as much of a risk now as it has always been. Ekster has managed to refine their wallets, through good quality materials and intelligent design choices, in such a way that I just don’t want to go back. I like these products. While the world drags its feet in transitioning to all digital cards and IDs I’m just not prepared to abandon all these different cards and Ekster has provided a nice, premium, stylish and smart wallet solution. I’m a fan.
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