Nimalist Store Wallet Review

Although Nimalist boasts a pretty nice return policy, warranty, and guarantee it’s all smoke and mirrors. We decided to reach out to Nimalist Store ourselves asking to return an item and we never received a response (this was three weeks ago).  We sent another email after 1 week and this also failed to get a response. 

We also have evidence-based on previous customers of Nimalist who have had similar experiences with their customer service (see TrustPilot for those). 

It seems Nimalist is all about taking people’s money and running. Due to the lack of company or business information online it’s very difficult for people to try and get their money back and it’s easier than not to simply right of the lost money as a learning experience. This is what Nimalist are betting on and unfortunately, it’s working for them so far.

The video below provided by YouTuber JPMediaProductions took one for the team and ordered from Nimalist. In the video below you can see the poor quality of the products along with the false advertising of higher quality materials (not real carbon fiber in this case). 

JPMedia also had a poor customer experience when it came to trying to get a refund from the company where his emails were ignored.

Video courtesy of JPMediaProducts on YouTube (link here).

The most blatant issue is with the pricing of Nimalist’s product offering. In general, they markup cheap Chinese imports to huge prices way beyond what they’re actually worth – sometimes as high as 400%. 

Not only this but Nimalist are using shady price manipulation tactics to make it seem products are highly discounted even though they were never sold at that price, to begin with. Think of it as increasing the price of your products before a sale. So the eventual sale price is still the same as the original retail price. This practice is actually illegal in many countries with the ASA having this to say about it.

Advertisers must ensure that any reference prices, such as ‘was’ prices used to advertise the savings a consumer can make represent a genuine established usual selling price and will not mislead. An ad for a necklace from Rosee Fine Jewellery was ruled as misleading because the product had not been sold at the stated reference price for at least 12 months immediately prior to the offer. – ASA.ORG

In Nimalist Store’s case, this isn’t true or correct. We can see on the Wayback Machine (an internet service that archives old website pages) that as far back as early 2021, Nimalist were using the same pricing structure as today.

As you can see from the two screenshots below as proof. The first shows the Nimalist Store on the 12th March 2021 just a few months after the website went live. It clearly shows the wallet on offer at a reduced price (50% off).

The second image was taken at the time of writing (8th February 2022) and shows the same price reduction nearly 1 year later. It’s also funny that Nimalist also uses the phrase ‘up to 50% off sitewide ending soon’ which can be seen at the top of every page on their website (it’s never-ending).

This is a clear lie as we’ve already established the discount has been happening for almost one year and most likely was discounted from the very first day the store went live. 

This practice is not only illegal in many countries and states, but also very misleading to customers. It’s done as a shady marketing technique to trick potential customers into thinking they’re getting a good deal, and to add a sense of urgency that the offer will end soon (and you have to buy quickly before you miss out). 

The first thing to note that is probably one of the least easy to spot, is the lack of business information available from Nimalist. After delving through pretty much all of their pages, including their contact page, privacy policy, and terms of service it’s clear Nimalist have deliberately kept their website clean of any information that may allow people to track down their true identity and the company behind the brand. 

 You won’t find a phone number, a business address, or the name of a person. You won’t find a business name referenced or any sort of business number. The website is completely devolved of any information that may allow customers to get in contact with them asides from an email address that most likely won’t get replied to. 

This is obviously intentional from Nimalist as they very well know the sort of business they’re running is misleading, criminal, and will lead to a lot of complaints. After all, customers can’t get their money back if you can’t get in touch with the company – or even know who they are. 

I was able to dig out a few pieces of information though during my research. An older brand owned by the same person, barberiums.com, which I found archived on the Wayback Machine, actually had a phone number attached to it (773-357-6109). If this is anything to go by, then the company would be based in Chicago, IL. 

This was brought to our attention thanks to an article written by InputMag who also delves into the shady practices of Nimalist, and specifically, other AirTag Wallet brands.

They found that until recently, they were copying and pasting information from other websites and claiming them as their own. The best example can be seen below. The great brand Nomad had their ‘about us’ page completely stolen by Nimalist Store with the exact wording being used.

See the two screenshots below for proof. The first shows the Nimalist Store’s ‘about us’ page in late 2021. When compared to Nomad’s ‘about us’ page.

Dropshipping is an order fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, the store purchases products from a third-party supplier who then ships the items directly to the customer. Many companies, mainly from China, offer dropshipping services allowing people to quickly and easily create stores by which they sell a variety of goods.

Nimalist themselves are a dropshipping company. They don’t keep stock and they only pay for products they sell. It’s then the job of the manufacturer to fulfill the item and send it to the customer. In Nimalist’s case, these manufacturers are based in China which means slow shipping times, and a less than a quality product.

The below screenshot shows the shipping providers used by Nimalist Store (information gathered thanks to Builtwith.com). It shows them using CJ Dropshipping as the place where there products are shipped at bought from.

Although dropshipping itself isn’t inherently bad, I find the practice misleading while promoting a false narrative as to a companies true intentions. The fact of the matter is, most dropshipping websites are set up because it’s easy money to be made. Products are poor, shipping times are slow and product prices are highly inflated. It’s not a great practice and honestly should be regulated, or at the very least, fully disclosed by the website/store if they’re using dropshipping. 

One of the most trusted review platforms in the world is TrustPilot. They are known for their strict review policies and advanced systems for detaching and removing fake reviews.

Out of curiosity, I wondered if Nimalist Store had reviews on TrustPilot and was immensely met with a huge array of seething customers complaining about the services and products they’d received from Nimalist Store. In total, Nimliast Store has a TrustPilot rating of just 1.2 out of a total of 5 stars. 95% of these reviews are 1 star (bad).

Below are just a few handpicked reviews from TrustPilot that I think gives a fair and varied experience of using Nimalist Store.

I ordered a wallet for Christmas for my husband. It took several weeks to receive. Once finally received my husband didn’t find it that practical so I initiated a return. It’s been been a month and a half and have had no response from the company. Their website states 3 business days, it’s been almost 20 working days. Seems like a scam to me and best to avoid, as you can’t reach any sort of customer service. The quality of the wallet is nothing special either for the price and looks like it was shipped from china – Anna (08/02/2022)

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS CORRUPT BUSINESS. I ordered two wallets. They were not quite what i wanted. Went to the returns link on the website and the first thing you’ll notice is other than stating their policy, you cannot find a return address or contact number whatsoever. There’s nothing on the package either. They indicate that if you have an additional question to email them and they will respond in 3 business days, excluding holidays. I’ve sent 3 emails, each about 7days apart, and have not received a single response. I’m writing this one off but to others…. DON’T ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY. – Alex. M (29/01/2022)

Bought a nimalist airtag wallet. How naive was I? It’s pretty rubbish – there are similar ones on ebay and amazon for less than 1/2 the price, however, I suspect they aren’t very good either. Too small to fit a few cards, cash, and an airtag. However, the single worst thing about nimalist is the customer service. The day after ordering I sent an email requesting cancellation. That email was ignored and subsequent emails have also been ignored. The item arrived around 3 weeks after ordering and further emails to request a return have been ignored. This company is operating a scam. – Alan. L (29/12/2021)

It also seems, based on comments on the TrustPilot Page, that Nimalist attempted to bombard the site with fake positive reviews as a last-ditch attempt to try and reclaim some credibility on the platform. As previously stated, TrustPilot have very advanced systems to detect fake reviews hence why they were removed – nice try Nimalist.

Following on from the last section regarding reviews, it’s a little suspicious that Nimalist Store’s own ‘onsite’ reviews are overwhelmingly positive. As an example, their best-selling wallet, The Nimalist AirTag Wallet, has over 800 reviews at 5 out of 5-star ratings. Only 20 of these are as low as 3 out of 5 stars with the majority of them being 5-star ratings.

When you compare this to what we discussed about their rating on the independent review site TrustPilot, the most respected review platform in the world, you can see how these positive reviews may come across as shady or fake. On TrustPilot Nimalist Store has a low rating of 1.2 out of 5 a complete polar opposite to what’s showcased on their own official website.

As a test, I decided to try and submit my own review on their product page. It was easy enough to do, but as I hit submit for my 1-star review I was met with the following message:

Thank you! Your review will be published as soon as it is approved by the shop admin.

As you can see, reviews can be manually approved and declined at companies own discretion. This means Nimalist are failing to approve poor or bad reviews and only allow those positive ones on their site. You can see how this is misleading as it gives a false representation of how well or poor the product actually is. If someone is to base their purchasing decision on these reviews then they’re most likely in for a shock.