Andar Apollo Wallet can be found here:
andarwallets.com/products/the...
Andar Capsule Case can be found here:
andarwallets.com/products/the...
Transcript:
Starting with the Apollo wallet, let’s quickly cover the features. This is a full-grain leather, bi-fold wallet. You can see that there’s an ID slot here. Two slots here. A money clip in the middle. An outer card slot. And my favorite part of the wallet, the elastic pull tab.
So sweet, the build is great on this thing, it smells good - after all we all know that’s what matters most, right? - and it’s got no shortage of features. How does this actually stack up in practice? I have to say, I think the overall design fundamentals here are very, very good. Again, I really like this pull-tab here. It brings the card out just the right amount, and let’s be real - it’s a great fiddle piece. Something else that no shortage of manufacturers screw up is the ID slot window. Putting a piece of plastic or mesh over this is not a good idea, as it has a tendency to discolor or tear given time. It’s just another part of failure generally.
I really do like how streamlined this wallet is too. It’s not quite as compact as something like the Ridge or Dango wallets, but you also don’t have to deal with metal parts smacking up against other stuff in your pocket. That was one of the big issues I had with my Dango D01, and I was always really careful about which flashlights I had in my pocket next to it.
That being said, as for critiques, I also have a couple of them.
Something you’ll note about this wallet is that there is quite a lot of RFID blocking-material used, and it’s woven all throughout the inside of the wallet. This has some good and bad implications. On one hand, you’re not getting your info stolen anytime soon, but on the other hand, this is something of a cost-cutting measure. While I don’t know exactly how much it costs to buy RFID blocking material, I can practically guarantee you it costs much less than full-grain leather.
My other issue with the wallet is this money clip. It’s held in purely by friction, and it can come loose if you’re opening the clip itself. I don’t think this presents a big issue in practical use, and on the bright side it’s easily replaceable, but it is something to take note of. Another small con to take note of is the pull tab. It’s elastic, it’s a moving part, it’s gonna fail eventually. I think it’s well-worth the trade-off, but the longevity just isn’t there relative to a pure leather tab.
Nonetheless, I have to say, I really like this wallet. The design fundamentals are on-point, the build is solid, and it’s a classy sucker in general. As for whether it’s worth $60, I actually think it’s right about where it should be priced, and from what I can see, Andar runs sales often too. Recommended.
Okay, let’s discuss the other item I was sent. This is the Airpods Pro capsule case, and I’m a bit more on the fence about this one. The design fundamentals on this are honestly quite clever. It uses friction at the lid of the Airpods Pro case as a lever, and there’s soft padding inside the case to facilitate this smoothly. So yeah, not bad at all. My gripe here has more to do with the build actually. This supposedly uses full-grain leather - and it definitely might - but you’ll note that the frame of the case is predominantly plastic. The actual amount of leather used for this case is significantly less than you might think. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that these strips of leather are also essentially just glued to the plastic frame. That’s a common practice; however, it does impress the notion of something less than refined in my opinion, and it’s got that chemical smell to it that I can’t say I’ m a big fan of. Value-wise, I was going to bash it until I took a look at what some other leather Airpods Pro cases cost. So yeah, I think this is pretty reasonable for $35, although I would like to have seen a bit more actual leather on the case. Recommended with caution.