Design Principles In Your Pocket

How a wallet changed the way I look at everything I carry

Taken back in 2013, my unrecognized appreciation for carrying design principles was becoming apparent. Wait no…

…it really started with shit like this back during the blog era mid 2010. Don’t ask me why I remember this small ass detail. This is just how my mind works when it comes to this culture that I studied and care about deeply.

Back in the day, I worked in a coffee shop here in St. Louis where every morning I’d greet people familiar and new. Exchanging greetings, handshakes, and payments. It was a personable job. So much so, that you’d get to see what everyone was carrying in their pockets; keys, phones, gum, and wallets.

I remember back during this time a customer walked in on a Tuesday afternoon in July of 2016 with his family. Normal day. Everyone orders their drinks and food. And he pulls out a wallet made of metal with a casing around it and an elastic band.

After he paid for his items, I had to stop him and ask “Yo, what is THAT?! That thing is crazy looking.”

He told me it was a Secrid brand wallet and he purchased it a year ago in Denmark while on a work trip. From there you couldn’t tell me shit, it was like everything went silent and the lights dimmed around me — this wallet was something I had to have.

To describe what I was looking at, it was the first of those kickstand push card wallet things, you know the one with the lever on it? I think this brand ultimately failed to maybe patent something along the way and their design got played out pretty fast. But in that moment, it was one of those designs that would stop you in your tracks.

Short lived but needed, I went back to a simple leather wallet. Taking principles from Virgil and writing “Wallet” on the simplest wallet I could find. I held onto this thing for about a year.

Fast forward to fall of 2025, I’m sitting on the couch in my living room and my girlfriend comes downstairs, “What do you want for Christmas?” I hate that question. I feel like at this point in life, I’ve bought every dumb gadget money can buy. And even worse, I had no idea what I actually wanted.

Then I started to spiral, “The older I get I feel like gifts become harder to put a finger on.” It got deep for a second.

The affinity for ill wallets has always chased me. I think this was 2016. I discovered that some wallets insanely minimal using only cardboard & rubberband. It wore down quick but it was something fly about it.

I snapped back to reality, “Oh wait! There was this wallet that I saw the other day!” I sent her the link — SOLD OUT. “Fuuuuuuck.”

In all honesty, I don’t remember the last time I got excited for something outside of tech, but this was one of those moments and I was heart broken.

A few days before this, I was scrolling and stumbled upon this brand called Craighill and they had just uploaded a new video about designing this wallet and the vibe… it was just refreshing. And just like when I saw Secrid for the first time ever in 2016, I knew this was different.

They reimagined everything about it. They took the concept of an old school Zippo lighter, reimagined the curvature of it so that it could open without catching on the cards that it’ll hold. Then, they found the perfect spring latch to make it have this satisfying metal clank sound. And the actual weight of this thing? It’s slightly heavier than an iPhone Pro Max. And really, it’s just a satisfying use, hold, and carry. It’s something much more commanding about it versus the metal Amex card, in my opinion. It just has this if you know, you know kind of air to it.

But thankfully, though, I was able to get my hands on a Craighill wallet on the following restock and the rest is history.

Looking back, that five minute interaction never really ended. I still notice the details of well designed things to this day. And I find myself always in observation and research mode. A wallet, a watch, the font on a tee. This must be what happens when design thinking meets the habit of paying attention.