Saddleback Leather Medium Bifold Wallet

  After some consideration, and a leap of faith, I finally convinced myself to buy Saddleback Leather's "Medium Leather Bifold Wallet." Before I go on to write a review on the actual wallet, I am going to talk a bit on Saddleback Leather itself. 

  Saddleback Leather was founded by Dave Munson, a man desiring to make some of the best leather bags on the market. Eventually, Dave's vision caught on, and his bags started selling like hotcakes. Once things kicked up, he started coming out with more and more designs for not only bags (business or casual), but also belts, wallets, suitcases, coasters, and many other leather goodies. He recently lost his dog, Blue, which is why many of his newer products feature a small inscription of a lab somewhere on them. However, the main thing that puts Saddleback Leather products a cut above the rest, is not the incredible story, but the incredible quality. 

  Saddleback Leather uses good, thick leather in all of their products, but with thick leather (if you want to be honest), comes a much longer tanning time (and, if your getting a bag, a much greater weight). Saddleback Leather buys fully tanned, full-grain leather hides, and also uses quality materials for the rest of the bag. Most of the metalware is nickel-plated brass. If it is a part that will not receive stress, it is nickel-plated stainless-steel. For their thread, Saddleback Leather uses "marine grade thread made from several long high-tenacity strands of polyester."And if you had any doubts about how long the products will last you, Dave throws a 100 year warranty in with every product, so if anything breaks, snaps, cracks, or anything of the sort, it will be immediately rectified. Most their products are made from as few pieces of leather as possible, reducing the need for stitching, thus creating a stronger, better product. Another nice thing about Saddleback Leather, is that I can honestly say that they have the nicest, most friendly customer service I have ever dealt with. Over multiple emails, I have inquired as to many details regarding their products, and they have always been pleasant, cheerful, helpful, and humorous in their responses.

  Unfortunately however, if something sounds to good to be true, it probably is. One downfall of almost all Saddleback Leather products is their price. Most of the bags are in the $500 range, and his smaller products are proportionally expensive. But, before you scoff at the price and walk away, consider the fact that anything you buy from Saddleback Leather will definitely outlive you, and instead of buying fifteen semi-nice bags throughout your life, it might be better just to, as Dave says, "Buy the best, [and] cry once." Another thing that is less than appealing is one of the 'ingredients' they use in some of their products. Glue. I don't know what it is, but something about the feeling of having glue in an awesome, timeless piece of art bothers me, but hey, if anything goes wrong, you do have a warranty. An additional thing many people complain about is the weight. If your going to get a bag, full-grain leather is not exactly light, especially after you load up your bag. Unloaded, their bags come in around 6-8 pounds. The last thing that is unfortunate about Saddleback Leather, is that they won't tell you where they get their leather from. I inquired once, seeing as I would really like to have some quality leather to make different things of (sheaths, workshop aprons, etc.) and they wouldn't tell me. I understand their reasoning completely, after all, if they told me, I could just make myself a bag for significantly under $500, but it is still too bad that they don't just sell it straight off their site, even if at a greatly increased price.

  Now, on to the review you've been waiting for. As you can tell, I am relatively biased towards Saddleback Leather, and was expecting great things from the wallet I ordered. I waited expectantly, and finally, it came. I excitedly tore open the package. Enclosed was a chestnut, medium leather bifold, surrounded by a small plastic bag. I open the bag and took out the wallet. Pure awesomeness. I quickly tore everything out of my current wallet, and put it in the beautiful, new, real, leather wallet. I almost instantaneously noticed that the wallet seemed quite thick, but I stuffed it in my pocket anyways. It was definitely bigger than my last wallet, and this time bigger was not better. As you can see in the pictures, the wallet is very thick, and tall. This is accounted for by the quality, but thick leather and the pigskin lining that is present in all six of the credit-card pockets, as well as the cash section.  The pigskin leather, unlike the regular leather, does not easily receive scratches. The pigskin leather is very tough and is very hard to scratch, and if scratched, the scratch is nearly invisible (see if you can see the scratch I made in the picture - I'll bet you can't). As thick as the wallet was, I must admit, the stitching on it was literally flawless. Not a bad stitch or lose thread could be found. Unlike other reviews of this wallet I've read, I did not have any problems with credit cards breaking or lamination wearing off. I also tested some European bills of mine in the wallet, seeing if they would fit (with most wallets they don't - they are normally too tall). They fit very nicely, and did not stick up over the top at all.


In summary, I would definitely recommend Saddleback Leather as a company, but not this particular wallet. I would recommend trying out their "Classic ID Wallet," even though I have not had the chance to do so myself, for I've heard good things about it. I am willing to sell my wallet for $40 with free shipping. Please comment if you have any questions or would like to purchase the wallet.

For further information about Saddleback Leather visit any of the following links.

Gear Patrol - Interview: 30 Minutes with Dave Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather
Saddleback Leather - Dave's Blog
Saddleback Leather - Quality Built to Last
Saddleback Leather - Homepage
Saddleback Leather - Medium Bifold Wallet (Chestnut) - Picture 1
Saddleback Leather - Medium Bifold Wallet (Chestnut) - Picture 2
Saddleback Leather - Medium Bifold Wallet (Chestnut) - Picture 3
YouTube - Saddleback Leather Medium Bifold Wallet
Art of Manliness - Profile: Dave Munson

(The Left side of the wallet, three credit card slots and one receipt slot underneath.)

(Same as above, but the right side. Notice Dave's earlier mentioned dog (Blue) in the bottom right corner.)

(The front of the wallet. Note the Saddleback Leather logo on the bottom right.)

(The back of the wallet. Note the two beautiful creases formed by even just a little time of use.)

(The side of the wallet, with everything in it.)

(Everything I keep in my wallet. List: Bills (both European and American), credit-card sized tool, seven credit/membership cards, coupons, some medical and driving papers, and a few more miscellaneous papers.)

(The wallet, when empty.)

(The cash section of the wallet, lined with pigskin.)