The wallet with a trick up its sleeve!

The Dax wallet or card holder is a real success story. In less than 6 hours the project got totally funded on Kickstarter back in November 2015. The initial response after receiving the first Dax wallets wasn’t very positive, to say the least. There were a lot of complaints about the materials used, the system that wasn’t working properly, … In spite of all those negative comments, I nevertheless decided to buy a Dax wallet so I could review it. Because as far as looks and marketing, this is a very appealing wallet that I really wanted to review.

Design

The design of the wallet is very attractive. It’s a card holder that exudes simplicity. On the front you only see the lasercut logo and the closing tab (which also functions as the pull tab), on the back there is a lasercut card/money slot. When you pull out the cascading card holding system, you’ll see the plastic panels on which you can place your cards. Normally the colors of these plates are a gradient of one or two colors.

Quality & finish

This is an issue with this wallet apparently; especially if you read the comments on the Kickstarter page. A lot of backers had their system coming loose and signalled weak materials and fraying edges of the outer fabric. I assume, also according to their Kickstarter updates and my experience, that they updated and changed the outer fabric. It doesn’t particularly feel cheap although it’s a synthetic fabric with a suede-feeling touch. After using the wallet for a couple of days, the edges indeed began to fray lightly, which is quite fast for a new product in my opinion.
The fabric is also said to be dust- and water-repellant.
The plastic panels used on the inside aren’t high-end either, but hey… they’re plastic panels… And for the price you’re paying it’s ok.

Storage capacity

This was also a critical issue for some Kickstarter backers, but I didn’t notice any difficulties with the storage capacity. I easily could store the recommended 5 cards, I even had at one point, seven cards stored, but at some point the system didn’t work properly anymore off course!
In the back you also have an additional card slot, which you can also use for money (bills or coins, according to the creators. I must say, coins aren’t that easy stored away in this compartment.)

Features

The system they use to pull the cards out of the holder, is quite innovative. The cascading aspect is really convenient when you for example need to pay or show your ID. You easily have an overview of the cards in the holder without having to go through them.
Als the fact that the pull tab is also the closing tab (with a magnet) is very convenient. It eliminates extra tabs to use the wallet.

Usability

This wallet is so easy to use. You open the tab and pull it, and there are all your cards on view for you. Sometimes the cards come out a bit messy as the slots are slightly bigger than the measurements of a card, so that they can shift inside I presume. Especially the cards at the top of the system can easily fall out as they are almost completely pulled out of the holder!
The card slot on the back is less easy to use for notes and coins, but a card is easily slid in.

Innovation

As stated above, the true innovation is the cascading display system, which is really handy and convenient. The display isn’t always that attractive as the cards tend to move inside the holder, as mentioned under Usability.

Final verdict

Overall I would say that this wallet gets overall good points. The negatives are indeed real negatives, but considering the price you pay, you can’t expect high-quality materials and finishes. It isn’t the wallet that will last you for years, but a nice and trendy every-day carry… until it falls apart!

Buy your Dax Wallet here!