The Ridge wallet was born in 2013, when Daniel Kane and his dad, Paul, put their prototype, the 1.0, on Kickstarter. “The Ridge is a slim, front-pocket wallet with metal construction that mixes old and new school without sacrificing functionality. The integrated track avoids the bulk of a traditional folding wallet while expanding to allow the user to hold as few or as many cards as they would like,” the original campaign read. It was a stack of aluminum plates kept together by a band of tiny screws. It had an attached money clip. It raised $266,622 by selling the model basic version for $38.
Nowadays, what I understand to be version 3.0 sells for $75, a 197% increase in cost from the original. Sure, they’ve probably figured out it costs way more than they originally thought; maybe the current shortage of materials or enduring shipping delays have taken a toll on the bottom line. But the construction’s generally the same — save for subtle variations in material (titanium, Damascus, forged carbon, forged ember or gold variations) and the option of swapping the money clip for a cash strap. So, is The Ridge, which impressed at first with its RFID blocking technology and its compact, front-pocket-friendly design, still worth it?
The Ridge