The Best Leather Wallets for Everyday Carry

Your wallet is at least one third of your everyday carry essentials, alongside your phone and keys — so it makes sense to put some effort into finding a wallet that’s going to serve you well for years to come.

We’ve tested a wide range of everyday carry wallets, from minimalist and metal to more traditional varieties. And time and time again, we keep coming back to leather wallets for our everyday carry.

With that in mind, we decided to test eight different leather wallets to figure out which one is best for everyday carry. You can watch our video comparing the wallets hands-on to get one perspective, then read up on the details of each wallet in the sections below. 

How to Choose A Leather EDC Wallet

To compare the eight wallets we got our hands on, we decided on three main criteria: The exact materials the wallet is made out of, how durable its construction is, and its size and storage capacity. Let’s unpack each of those in a little more detail, so you can take them into account as you’re deciding on which leather EDC wallet is right for you.

Materials

All of the wallets in this review are made of leather — but not all leather is created equal. The best leathers combine a handsome look with lifelong durability, and preferably do so at a reasonable price point as well.

Buy an average leather wallet from a big box store, and you’re likely to be dissatisfied with its look, feel, and durability. Why? Because lower grades of leather — genuine and bonded leather — are thinner, stiffer, and often treated with harsher chemicals and colorings. They can be inexpensive, but aren’t really a good long-term investment.

Look instead for wallets that are made with full grain or top grain leather. These are the highest quality grades for leather, and they guarantee that your wallet will be supple and durable.

Construction

After the quality of a wallet’s leather, the next most important thing is the quality of its stitching and construction. A well-made wallet will use heavy duty stitching that’s built to last a lifetime. They can be hand-sewn or machine-made, so long as the attention to detail is there.

This is where a hands-on test of a wallet really comes in. You can learn a lot about the quality of a wallet’s construction by turning it over in your hands, looking closely at the seams, and generally getting an overall picture of how much care and attention was put into making it.

Size and Storage

And on the practical side, how big do you need your wallet to be? There’s a whole range of leather EDC wallets out there, from slim and minimalist ones that hold eight cards or less, to big and bulky trifolds. 

No one wallet style is necessarily better for everyone. Instead, consider how you’re usually going to be carrying your wallet: If you’re a front pocket carry guy, then a slimmer wallet will likely be better for you. But if you’re usually carrying your wallet in your bag or coat pocket, a larger wallet can offer more space for cash, cards, and credentials.

8 Leather EDC Wallets, Reviewed

With those criteria in mind, let’s get into the specifics of each wallet. This will give you a broad overview of how each wallet performs, including some useful specs — for more on our opinions of each wallet, check out our accompanying video as well.

Popov Leather Trifold Wallet

Popov is a Canadian company that started as a passion project, with its founder looking for the perfect leather wallet and not finding any available. After refining a design and making his own, that founder went on to turn it first into a small business, and now into a standby brand in the leather wallet space.

Their leather trifold wallet is a real beast, measuring in at 3.45" x 4.25" x 0.75" and holding more cards and bills than you’ll ever need to (20+ bills and 12+ cards). It’s heavy, and its full-grain leather makes it feel like a well-worn baseball glove. Hand sewing adds a nice look and feel here, and makes for a wallet that is genuinely designed to last a lifetime.

Ekster Senate

Ekster was one of the first minimalist wallet brands to really make a name for themselves, and they continue to make an impressive lineup of metal-core wallet options. We’ve tested two of their leather-wrapped wallet options, and think they’re both really solid wallets for more minimalist-minded guys.

The Senate is Ekster’s most popular wallet, and it’s available in a wide range of colors and finishes. Its aluminum core is wrapped in top grain leather, making it lightweight while still keeping that leather look and feel that guys love.

Ekster’s wallets are about as slim as it comes for a leather wallet, with the Senate measuring in at just 0.29” x 4.1” x 2.3”. It can store up to 12 cards, all accessible via a clever fold-out display, and a few bills of cash can be held in the wallet’s elastic band. 

Ekster Parliament

Ekster’s Parliament is a larger and more robust alternative to their Senate wallet, with a look and feel that’s halfway between a traditional bifold and a modern minimalist wallet. Like the Senate, it’s built around an aluminum cardholder with a flip-out card mechanism — but it adds another wraparound flap of leather for even more storage space. 

And while the Parliament is a little bit larger than the Senate at 0.4” x 4.1” x 2.5”, it’s still just compact and light enough to be carried as a front pocket wallet. We think it would be a good fit for a guy who wants to try trimming down his selection of wallet storage, but doesn’t want to go all the way to a minimalist eight-card wallet.

Andar Griffin

Andar has been quietly making top-quality minimalist EDC wallets from their workshop in Arizona since 2015. That’s given them plenty of time to refine each of their wallet designs — and they have quite a few of them, with over a dozen unique styles to choose from.

We focused on two Andar wallets, the Griffin and the Ranger, both of which are very streamlined and affordable.

The Griffin measures 4 1/4" x 2 15/16” x 5/16", making it a good candidate for front pocket carry. It’s made from a vintage full grain leather, and has five card slots and one ID pocket that can carry a total of up to eight cards. A money clip spring is a really nice addition here, allowing for extra storage space for a few bills without adding too much bulk.

Andar Ranger

The Ranger is one of Andar’s more recent designs, and its construction takes a lot of cues from their other wallets — including the Monarch's pull tab feature, the Duke's leather cash strap, and the Baron's V-pocket design.

The Ranger is slightly larger than the Griffin, measuring in at 4 1/8" x 2 15/16” x 3/8" and holding up to 10 cards. It’s still made from the same high quality, full grain vintage leather as the Griffin, and looks really good in any of its six colors. If you liked the minimalist look of the Griffin but need a little more storage space, the Ranger is the way to go.

NutSac Money Clip Wallet

 The Clipster is NutSac’s take on a money clip wallet, designed to provide just the right amount of storage with an absolute minimum of bulk. It’s a darned fine front pocket wallet, and has just enough heft from its full-grain leather construction to provide lifelong durability (that’s backed up by a lifetime guarantee, too).

The Clipster measures in at 4 3/8” x 3 1/4” x 1/4”, making it one of the thinnest EDC leather wallets you’ll find. It comes with a specially designed spring made by an American manufacturing partner, made for long-term durability and extended use holding your bills.

If you’re looking for a traditionally-styled wallet that cuts down on bulk and focuses on streamlined functionality, the Clipster is a fantastic choice.

NutSac Billfold

Classic designs in the EDC space are classic for a reason: They’ve stood the test of time as highly functional, attractive options for everyday carry.

That’s the NutSac Billfold in a nutshell. It’s a classic bifold style wallet made from top quality full-grain leather, backed up by a lifetime guarantee. It measures in at 4 1/8" x 3 1/4” x 3/8”, and can comfortably fit 12 cards and a selection of bills laid flat in its full-length bill compartment. It’s handmade in the USA, and designed to give you just what you need in a simple, well-made, tried and true style.

NutSac Slim Wallet 

The smallest and slimmest of NutSac’s wallets is also the most affordable, with the Slim Wallet being offered at just $59. It’s still made of the same top quality pull-up leather as all of the brand’s wallets, but redesigned with a thinner and lighter profile.

Measurements for the NutSac Slim Wallet are 3 7/8” x 2 3/4” x 1/8", making it the slimmest of all wallets featured in this review. It’s also the lightest overall, at just 1.91 ounces — which feels so “barely there” that it’s perfect for front pocket carry. But even with this trimmed-down sizing, the Slim Wallet has enough space for around eight credit cards, and a center pocket for a few bills of cash or additional storage. 

Final Thoughts

When it comes right down to it, we’d be happy to include any of these leather wallets as part of our everyday carry kit. They’re made with high quality materials, and you can choose from innovative or classic designs to suit your own tastes and EDC style.