But then I started to get a bad feeling I couldn’t ignore. This wallet was going to cost about $150. I couldn’t let it go that this new wallet needed a more accessible price point. The price range I’d set was a mistake, and we’d now need to backtrack. I asked the designers to pivot back to using all leather, and they fought me on it. For years I had pushed them to create a unique visual identity, something that would instantly strike people as different and one of a kind. Going back to all-leather, though a logical material for wallets, created a huge challenge when one of your goals is to make something distinct and strikingly unique from other wallets on the market.

As we dove into the details I locked onto the sewing as an area of improvement. Years ago, we did our own sewing in-house, but ultimately stopped because we weren’t experts in it. So instead of trying again to do something we weren’t that good at, we decided to find an outside expert. Enter Takeshi “Yone” Yonezawa of Yonezawa Leather. Yone does bespoke leather work, making low quantities of extremely premium products as a one man operation. He agreed to not only sew our wallets, but to teach us his techniques and philosophies about leather working.

I went over to Yone’s workshop four or five times to get lessons. He explained to me that newer sewing machines have evolved to be faster in order to save factories money, but that those innovations sacrifice how cleanly they can sew. He doesn’t use these speed-focused machines, choosing quality over speed. The machines he sews on are so old they’re no longer in production, and he makes special trips back to Japan just to hunt them down.

It was a fascinating experience working with Yone. We were interested in how we could make wallets better and Yone opened our eyes to what was possible. He has an obsession with his craft that showed me that even the simplest products have limitless potential where you could take it.

With Yone’s help, we finally got to a prototype we were happy with. I officially signed off on sending that design into production when, literally the next day, we got some unfortunate news.

We’re friends with a lot of other brands we respect, and one of our peers launched a wallet with a flap feature very similar to ours. We spent so much energy coming up with something original, and by pure coincidence our friend’s team landed on something almost identical. We were convinced we’d have to start over. Crazy bad luck!

After some freaking out, we gathered ourselves, took a deep breath, and thought it through. Were we overreacting? Wallets are all pretty similar because there is only so much you can do with leather. But how would they feel about it? I reached out directly to our friend, telling him what had happened and asking him how he felt about it. I waited anxiously for a few days for a response.

He responded that he felt that the details in our wallets are different enough. He and his CEO had no problem with us moving forward with our wallet design. Phew! What a relief! They were not only okay with it, but gave us some very encouraging words and advice. The project was back on!

We had taken a long and winding path to finding a design we loved, and now needed to make enough to meet our deadline for a holiday launch. We decided on an initial batch of 50 and that Sean and I would make them ourselves armed with what we had learned so far. Because our production floor is so busy during regular hours, we had to spend time late into the evening working to get them done. We had some great quiet time where we could not only lock in the process, but also plenty of time to reflect on our new wallet’s creation story.

Making the first batch also felt like a return to my roots as a furniture maker, before co-founding Grovemade. Doing the actual handwork this time made me appreciate the skill and the sheer amount of time and effort it takes to physically make quality products. The meticulous work of gluing the leather panels together by hand was incredibly time consuming at first. I had to be so careful with the consistency of the glue and how thick it was applied, not to mention the placement had to be exact. One mistake and the entire wallet would be ruined. It took a lot of practice to get my manual skills to the point where I could do it well.

I’ve always been skeptical when seeing other USA-made bifold wallets cost $100 or more. It seemed like price gouging because bifold wallets seem so simple in construction. Now I know firsthand that it’s not something easy when done well. It’s easy to underestimate the work that others do until you have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.

As I look over our first batch of 50 wallets waiting to go out to customers, I think back on the journey it took to get here. I really enjoyed the meandering path, the tension, and drama involved in making our Bifold Wallet a reality. I like to believe it’s that struggle that gives our products deeper meaning.