hey tech wait here welcome back to
another episode today is a little bit
special because we have something here I
have designed a custom wallet and I
wanted to tell you all about this and if
you're interested you can even buy this
one later on if you want but this is not
like just some print-on-demand wallet
type of service I actually constructed
this one completely start-to-finish as a
multi-millionaire because it's simply my
hobby and there were no wallets other
that really fit my minimalist modern
digital Nomad travel lifestyle so I set
out to construct one completely from
scratch and to custom designer so these
are all the wallet samples that I've had
but let me walk you through the process
and explain to you how I actually did
all of this so first of all this was the
original wallet that I had been using
and it's okay but there are a few issues
within the problem is number one is a
trifold wallet and that made that very
thick and I didn't really like the idea
that was so thick and besides that
because the color is black I always had
to put stickers on this I wouldn't lose
it too easily the other colors were not
very attractive the design was overall
flimsy so I felt that this design Co
overall be improved upon but I did like
the thinness of it so I set out to
create a spec and I came up with this
paper design which is essentially a
concept a proof of model of what I felt
a good wallet may look like and I
thought well maybe I can find some
manufacturer to construct this for me as
my own hobby and I thought this would be
a fun learning experience so this is
what I have been spending my evenings on
for over the past 4 months really and
this cost me thousands of dollars
actually to go through with this but hey
you know hobbies of the rich and famous
and I just felt that most wallets on the
market today they're just outdated and
old fashioned they're so thick and bulky
they barely fit in my pants pocket they
have way too many pockets and they just
feel pretty clunky they're made of
leather almost like they're for a cowboy
and what I really wanted was something
thin and stylish that would fit my
multi-millionaire digital Nomad
traveling lifestyle as a minimalist so
let me show you the concept that I have
been working on here so this is a
concept of the wallet that I had in mind
and I really wanted it to be ultra thin
that's why it's only a 2 fold design and
there's only a few pockets here for just
a few important credit cards that you
need and then there's a single pocket
here
the cash that you may store I also
imagined the pattern to have a stealth
digital camouflage look for the modern
urban jungle in which we live in so once
I had the initial concept I actually
began using this as my daily wallet and
cashiers would always be giving me weird
looks when I took this out to pay for
stuff but it allowed me to really test
this out and then I needed a
manufacturer so I went over to Alibaba
comm and I put in a request for a
quotation and so I wrote down everything
that I wanted other specs and put them
inside a Google Doc I put in pictures
photographs images of the types of
patterns that I wanted and I tell them I
wanted them to try to make something
like this I gave them all the
measurements and then I just waited and
over the next few days five to ten
manufacturers reached out to me now this
was my first time using Alibaba but I
knew that some people would be actual
manufacturers other people were more
like middlemen but it didn't really
matter to me as long as people were
willing to work with me I pretty much
took them up on the offer and I had this
whole box of wallets created so these
are all samples that a lot of the
manufacturers I worked with would send
to me and I would check these out so
I'll show you what some of these look
like so you can see here this was one of
the wallets they sent me the design look
really good but it just felt pretty
bulky like there's a lot of layers here
they put in a few too many pockets
because I think they were probably
basing this wallet off of another wallet
design that they were probably already
making like these are all companies that
essentially create wallis already so
they're able to quickly get up to speed
on these but you can see that some of
these samples they're just not really up
to the measurements I was looking for
they're a little bit too big maybe not
tall enough and my measurements were
very peculiar so the idea was to have
the most compact form factor for two
credit cards side-by-side as well as in
dollar bills so this was another sample
and even though it was mostly to spec
and you can see I had a clear pocket
here the material just felt pretty bulky
even though they told me it would be
thin but it seemed like they double
layered it and it's a nice construction
but it's just too thick for what I was
looking for
now this particular sample that I
received was one of the most promising
because it was actually one of the
thinnest models that I saw and I really
liked it for that you can see it was
really thin pretty much followed the
spec exactly as I wanted
and it could fit in for credit cards and
some dollar bills so that all seemed
pretty good and the pattern design was
very slick as well but I just felt that
the manufacturing quality didn't feel
that great all the time if you look
carefully the stitches will sometimes be
a little bit crooked the cut lines
wouldn't necessarily be straight all the
time and if you folded it sometimes it
would be a little bit crooked and then
you just have to straighten it up a bit
so I was looking for a little bit more
in terms of quality but I did go through
a few variations of this design because
I felt that they were really close and
they only needed to just pump that
quality level a little bit more you can
see these are a few other wallet designs
that I had made and these are over a
very good quality the stitching is so
good and the material is nice as well
but you can see it just seemed pretty
thick and the material is very hard and
I didn't really like that and I felt it
was off at that point because I kept
telling the manufacturers that I just
wanted something really thin that was
one of the biggest points that I had and
then there was the final design that I
picked and I'll show you that in a
little bit later but what was the actual
cost for all this well typically for
each of these samples it cost about $30
for air shipping from China and
typically you want air shipping so it's
that fast iteration process it gets here
in two to three days and sometimes they
can batch ship a few samples for you if
you're interested in a few different
variations and then for the labor and
raw material of these samples it's
usually about $35 to $90 per samples
sometimes they'll even do it for free if
it's a quick modification and overall
the total cost of of my say research and
development of Audy samples which is
about ten to fifteen was about $900 so I
thought that now I would give you an
unboxing of what the final product is
elected looks like and you can order
this online too if you like there'll be
links for you in the description below
I'm having this listed on Amazon for
your ordering convenience but you know
by the way I'm not planning to really
make much money off of this it's not
like a business product there's more of
a passion project for me just for fun
and to make the wallet of my own
personal dreams and while I was at that
I figured I can make some more for you
guys as well but this is going to be a
great gift the manufacturer was kind
enough to include the gift box at just a
few additional cents per item and now if
we were to open this we can see what
this looks like it is
we wrapped and there you go this is what
the final product looks like it does
ultra thin and I'm super proud of it you
can see that the construction quality is
really top-notch here all of the
stitches the lines are very well done
you have a clear pocket they were
actually able to fit in six total
pockets four cards and then you have the
cash pocket here at the top on the front
you have a small tech lead logo so when
you open up your wallet you can quickly
flash that for the cashier you have a
clear pocket here which is great for IDs
badges door keys that make scanned in
easily so you can enter hotel rooms and
sometimes I like to put notes in here
too so whenever I open up my wallet I
can quickly see the notes that I have
and so yeah this is the wallet you can
see that the design is very slick
stealth digital urban camouflage it has
a super thin profile that is so pro for
your digital modern travel lifestyle and
if you're looking for a little bit of
luck in your finances well look no
further than this wallet carried by a
multi-millionaire customized and
personalized for my lifestyle if it's
good enough for me it should be good
enough for you so if you're interested
in having one of these and why wouldn't
you and they make a great gift as well
then there's only a few limited number
of quantities that I had manufactured
like 500 or so so check them out while
you can you can order them straight from
Amazon and there'll be links in the
description below and by the way getting
these into Amazon was actually a whole
other interesting process where I had to
use fulfillment by Amazon they stored
the items for you so when I got these
from China it was this huge box a
shipment of 500 of them and then I took
those and arranged the shipment to be
sent over to the Amazon warehouses and
that cost some money for shipping for
storage for Amazon fees and for a quick
breakdown the fees for anyone interested
is well I got the Amazon professional
license which is about $40 a month
shipping the two huge boxes to Amazon
actually turned out to cost only about
$25 or so because Amazon just has really
good logistics in terms of shipping they
make all sorts of deals with carriers
like UPS each item would then need to be
labeled with barcodes Amazon charges
about 20 cents per atom so I let them do
it
that's another hundred dollars for
Amazon warehouse storage is about 69
cents
cubic foot plus $3 19 cents per item and
then overall Amazon does charge variable
seller fees for this item in particular
given the category it's about 17% per
item now for shipment of five hundreds
of these the manufacturer has for $2,400
which is pretty reasonable it's like
five dollars per piece but in hindsight
maybe I should have negotiated that
because I realized that the shipping
charges are actually quite high too so
it cost about a thousand dollars to ship
this by air you know you can choose to
ship by sea as well and that may be
cheaper but I just wanted a faster and
then once I came into the US there were
actually import duty fees to be paid as
well sometimes the manufacturer will do
door-to-door where they will cover the
customs import fees for you but since I
had to pay that that was an additional
thirty five percent or so on the twenty
four hundred dollar price so but there's
no $800 just to bring the item into the
US overall the import fees feel a little
high but at the same time allows you to
take advantage of some global
manufacturing so Alan I calculated the
cost of this wallet Abba $1.80 per item
and if I were to include the charges for
the R&D all the samples that I had
created those are kind of one-time fixed
fees but then it would be about ten
dollars per item spread across five
hundred units so there have it the tech
late minimalist ultra-thin wallet and
overall it's just been so much fun to
make it's really been like my passion
project and kind of my hobby that I've
just been doing on the evenings going
through the iterations to learn to
design and manufacture a product that I
have been thinking about for a long time
so I hope you enjoyed the video maybe it
will also inspire you to create some of
your own products again there'll be
links for these in the description below
if you liked the video give it a like
and subscribe and I'll see you next time
Thanks bye