Andrew Jorgensen
It's better than bad, it's good!

Scrubba Weightless Wallet

We have a new contender for my favorite slim wallet - the Scrubba Weightless Wallet. It's not perfect, but it has so much going for it. Let's review it.

What I Like

Scrubba Wallet (green, with money)

Materials

I love ripstop nylon as a wallet material. The addition of a thin vinyl layer to the exceptionally thin ripstop makes for a nicer feel than the crinkly material you might be familiar with.

But more importantly this is a truly exceptionally thin wallet, with only six total layers (when folded) of already thin material and zero seams adding to thickness.

A minor downside (or upside?) is that it's waterproof. You'd think that could be nice, but in practice if your wallet gets a little moist that moisture is trapped there and makes the inside of the wallet a bit sticky. It's a minor annoyance at worst.

Simplicity

There's space for some cards, and technically space for some currency, but the design is so simple you could sketch it on a napkin in a couple of seconds. Without cash, you can't even tell there's a pocket for it.

Thinness

The wallet, empty and folded, is eight layers thick at its thickest (at the top edge), but that's only 1.15 mm! Loaded with my standard set of cards, it's only 6.05 mm, including the RFID blocking sleeve provided with the wallet.

Price

Only $22.50 USD, shipped from China. For materials and construction this seems fair, though the shipping is a bit steep. For a modern minimalist wallet, it's refreshingly affordable!

What I Don't Like

Scrubba Weightless Wallet (green)

Capacity

The wallet was designed in Australia and boasts compatibility with global currencies. For folks like me in the United States, or who rarely carry cash (and never carry receipts), that means the wallet is too wide. Cards have some room to slide around. And the seams are wide, adding to the overall size.

If you're going to stuff it with more cards than you should, or USD is not your currency, that capacity can be a positive for you. And since the material is so thin and flexible, you don't feel the extra width in your pocket.

I like to carry a pen in my wallet, and there isn't a great place for one here, but I made do by putting my pen next to some of the cards. That works well, so for me the capacity problems balance out.

Durability

I haven't had it long enough to know for myself, but the website claims "edges designed to lightly fray over time" as a feature that will give it "a unique character". That's such transparent spin that it's kind of disgusting. But apart from the fraying they say you can look forward to, the material seems like it should last. And for $22.50 USD you can afford to buy another.

Origin

The Weightless Wallet claims to be upcycled, by which they mean it's made of materials that would otherwise have gone to waste from the production of their Wash Bag. That's not quite how I'd define it, but I'll let it slide.

The wallet was launched on Kickstarter a few years ago, which is where I stumbled across it.