Jimi: The wallet for people who hate wallets

Pocket Change - New York Times

I learned about the Jimi wallet from a guy named Stephen Houghton who I met at the David Allen seminar last month. We were swapping contact info, and I couldn’t help but notice his weird little plastic wallet (I think his was bright orange).

As this Consumed piece from the NYT Magazine agrees, Stephen said the appeal of the wallet (even its basic philosophy) involves seeing how little you could get away with carrying at a time – a subject I know is dear to many 43F readers, as well as your author.

This is where the ideology and mission come into it: the Jimi (which sells for about $16) does not hold as much stuff as a traditional wallet, and that is by intent. It’s a bit slimmer than a regular wallet and unfolds to reveal two compartments, one with a money clip, the other to hold credit cards. “Do Not Overload,” the instruction sheet warns, “Jimi holds five cards…plus three folded bills.” And since it’s made of hard plastic, you can’t simply fatten it up by stuffing more cards and receipts and other things into it, as you can with a normal wallet. Basically, if you want to use a Jimi, you will have to play by Jimi’s rules, and that probably means you have to pare down. As O’Neill says, this is a borderline anti-American notion. “It’s funny how many people write us and say, ‘If I could just get one more card in there…”’

Ordered one for myself yesterday. You can pick one up from the Jimi website or from Amazon for under $20.