The speed of a money clip with the protection of a parka raincoat in a firm fitting profile of a glove with the finish of a fine Italian leather wallet.
“The Elements Sleeve packs multi-dimensional features into a deceivingly small space. The water-resistant leather keeps things sleek, and the pull-tab seal gives you a functional way to keep your essentials protected. Technical doesn’t need to look plastic.”
A method of good wallet design is to achieve as much as possible with the least amount of raw material. Not for the sake of minimalism but for the necessity of it.
Due to the nature of how actively we use and carry them, they need to almost disappear in our pockets while being the most reachable thing in them. And the contents of the wallet just as easily accessible.
The most compact of Bellroy wallets, the Elements Sleeve, is a definitive embodiment of that methodology along with a some special features added on.
A “sleeve” is supposed to be the slimmest, most trimmed down version of a wallet. This means the negation of slots, pockets, parts and function.
What you have left is a literal sleeve that has no right to be called a wallet, basically a soft money clip.
Bellroy has defied this law of wallet physics and created a sleeve that outperforms and even out-features the traditional wallet while maintaining a svelte physique.
Following the Carryology concept of slimming your wallet, you can carry the essentials without sacrificing the important with the Elements Sleeve.
It works so effectively as my wallet that I don’t like calling it a sleeve, there should be another word for it.
What do you name a child birthed from a beautifully sculpted money clip and ruggedly slender wallet?
A good looking offspring no doubt, but it also has smarts for function and usability as well as being armored against the elements, both naturally and by design.
All Bellroy wallets are made with premium full-grain vegetable tanned leathers but their Elements collection is also water resistant and moderately liquid repellent.
This protection isn’t a coating that will rub off, it’s au naturel. So the leather is very touchable, a pleasure.
That means it’s as pretty as it feels.
Further standing out from the featurelessness of almost all sleeve wallets, this can quite literally seal off 2 of the 3 compartments from the outside world. Not on a hermetic but technical level. Water, grit, food…
It doesn’t use zippers, buttons or clips but by merely tucking the opening edge into itself. The supple texture of this leather forms a natural bodily seal.
This action would be the equivalent of the unfolding of a standard wallet, but with the added benefits of protection from foreign objects / weather conditions and the security that no item can fall out and get lost.
The most unique feature is the stash compartment. So cleverly integrated that many may not even know there’s a hidden pocket, despite naturally knowing to use its “activator” to open the wallet – the pull tab.
Anyone would instinctively know how to use this wallet, they’ll use the grey pull tab to open it because it’s perfectly placed and you’re supposed to. But pulling it out again and all the way once the wallet is open, reveals the stash pocket for keys and similarly sized items.
The concept is brilliant and brilliantly executed.
But that’s not all… Extending the pull tab all the way also lifts the contents of the main compartment in a presentative way, so you can easily pick out what you want without having to dig through a dark hole.
But wait, there’s more… Once you find the item you want, just pushing down the remaining items back into the sleeve will close the stash compartment in one motion.
The outer compartment or as I like to call it, “the swift slit”, isn’t sealed like the rest of the wallet but is intended for the quickest access. Your most used bank card, metro pass, a few bills or a defense apparatus.
All this in an exceedingly compact form factor. The Bellroy Elements Sleeve is the wallet I’ve been needing all this time and it’s not even an actual wallet.
Bravo, for making a non-wallet that’s better at being a wallet than most other wallets available.
As a vagabond, my laptop is to my smartphone as my backpack is to my wallet. All are equally important but the latter are more personally elemental.
Ultra Minimal Profile // Weather Resistant Leather // Water Resistant Interior // Measures: 3.95″ x 2.91″ // Beautiful Eco Packaging // 3 Year Warranty Cover
Bellroy Elements Sleeve /// $69
9 Comments
I looove Bellroy wallets! I’ve got Elements travel passport one. Best flight kit ever.
You had me at “stash pocket”. Got some ideas for that!
Just bought one in slate per your review, should be a great step up from my old but expensive silver money clip.
I know you said they are water resistant, but are they possibly taped seams? I couldn’t find the details on the Bellroy website.
Just got a couple of Bellroy wallets (passport / smartphone) after reading your review. These are indeed terrific and feel like expensive italian
Do you yourself use it?
If not what do you use? I’m in the market for a new wallet.
I still use it… it’s great if you only carry a couple of cards and bills and no other non-essentials. But if you need alot of stuff in your wallet, this won’t work well.
What are the set of picks that you keep in the stash compartment? I have a set of bagotas but those look smaller.
Hello, the link doesn’t works…. please update the link
thanks