Slim Clip Wallet Review

An Early Attempt at the Slim Wallet (Before the Craze)

Metal wallets didn’t really hit their stride until the Kickstarter boom between 2011 and 2014, with brands like Ridge Wallet leading the charge and turning the concept into a full-blown trend. Before that, there were only a few outliers experimenting with minimalist and metal wallet designs, and the Slim Clip Wallet was one of them.

I’ve always found the history of wallets oddly fascinating, mostly because no one else seems to care enough to document it. There’s barely any serious research out there, and it’s safe to say there’s no real audience for it either (so if you’re actually reading this, fair play). But in all my digging, the Slim Clip stands out as one of the earliest attempts at redefining what a wallet could be, ditching leather for metal and bulk for simplicity. It was doing the whole slim wallet thing before it was trendy.

Curious to see how it holds up today against the now-established titans of everyday carry, I decided to get my hands on one myself. That proved trickier than expected. The supposed official ‘As Seen on TV’ site was a dead end - it barely functioned and didn’t seem to support UK orders at all. Amazon didn’t offer much help either. Eventually, I turned to eBay, set up some alerts, and after a bit of patience, managed to find a Slim Clip still sealed in its original packaging.

My Thoughts on the Slim Clip

So aside from being slim in size, as the name suggests, and made from metal, what does the Slim Clip actually offer? Its design is quite unique. Essentially, it’s a double-sided money clip that’s been widened and lengthened to comfortably hold credit and debit cards. One side is meant for cash, functioning like a standard money clip, while the reverse side is built for cards. In essence, it’s just a dual-purpose money clip, which on paper doesn’t sound like much, but it works surprisingly well.

Over the few days I used the Slim Clip, I enjoyed it more than I expected. I’ve never been a fan of traditional money clips as they aren’t really designed to carry cards. The Slim Clip solves this problem by offering two separate clips, each tailored to a different type of content. Most regular clips get too tight when you try to cram both cards and notes into them, but this one gets around that with a simple, practical solution.

The product description claims it can hold up to 30 bills on one side and up to 6 credit/debit cards on the other. In my experience, this is mostly accurate, but I wouldn’t recommend actually doing that. Once you try to max it out, it becomes awkward to use. Technically, yes, it can hold that much, but in practice, I wouldn’t. I found the sweet spot to be around 3 or 4 cards and 5 to 10 bills. Beyond that, it starts to feel overstuffed, and the metal clips begin to lose their grip. When that happens, your cash or cards can become loose - not ideal.

A Surprise for Sure, But a Welcomed One

What started as a bit of a joke when I bought the Slim Clip soon had me eating humble pie. I usually steer clear of cringeworthy ‘As Seen on TV’ products - they’re often low quality, tacky, and pushed by over-the-top marketing. That said, the Slim Clip genuinely impressed me. Its compact size and clever dual-clip design make it both functional and well-executed.

Would I recommend the Slim Clip? Honestly, yes. For its low price, it offers great value and functionality. And beyond that, it deserves recognition as one of the early players in the minimalist and metal wallet space, predating the Kickstarter-fuelled surge in popularity.

I’ll leave you with a comment I found on the original 15-year-old Slim Clip promotional video that sums it up nicely. User Porter4213 wrote:

“I have had mine for over 10 years and it still works great!! There are some knock-offs out there but the original one is the best.”