Review: Nomatic Minimalist Wallet

If you're like any regular cyclist, jersey pocket space is at a premium. This leads to certain routine behaviors like getting a zip-lock bag and just putting in a bit of cash, health insurance cards, id, and just one or two credit cards into it before going on a bike ride so the jersey pocket can contain other stuff like food or your garage opener.

I saw the Nomatic Wallet on sale (2 for $15), and decided that it might be a nice alternative to a zip-lock bag. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do, to the point where I've pretty much retired my 3-year-old BigSkinny.

The wallet has a main compartment that will hold a few cards (the claim is 15, but I'll be surprised if you can stick more than 8 cards in there). On the other side, there's a key and cash wallet. You shouldn't attempt to stick coins in there (unless it's very few coins) or you will almost certainly lose them.

In use, it's fast to get cards out of the wallet, but much slower to get cash or keys out. The wallet bunches up the cards together so that you'll notice if the wallet falls out of your pocket when you're sitting down, for instance, which is a good feature, and better than the zip-lock bag solution, where if the cards are diffused, you might not notice the entire bag falling out of your pocket.

For travel use, I still think the BigSkinny passport wallet is the right solution for most people, but for domestic use where you're not carrying passports this has turned into my daily use wallet, to my surprise. Recommended.