Really, guys don't have to try too hard with wallets. It's more about what's inside the wallet, if you know what I'm saying. My only stipulation is that it should be leather, or some leather-like material, and have lots of little pockets to hide condoms in.
If you're not a trust fund baby, you can still impress the ladies if you go for a wallet with a label's signature print that'll be recognizable to girls who read Lucky. I like this C
oach one because it's subtle enough that other dudes won't think you're lame and you probably (but not definitely) won't get thrown through the window of a dive bar when you whip it out. The Coach Heritage Stripe Double Billfold is $148.Slightly but not terribly amusing side story: when I met my best friend's boyfriend the three of us went to lunch, and I noticed that his wallet had the Louis Vuitton logo on the outside of it. After he left, I said to her, "This is a weird question, but is your boyfriend really rich?" Apparently the LV wallet was a fake, and also maybe someone gave it to him, but I really liked the idea that he's been using it with no idea what the LV print is kind of a thing.
Going a little cheaper is this Cole Haan croc embossed wallet, $51 (on sale from $85 on Bluefly!). The worn-in leather, the metal stud-- this is a badass wallet. I like the flip-out ID flap, too.
Is it me or do most men's wallets not have coin purses? I guess men always have pockets to put their change in. But this Flyby Internation
al Traveler wallet, $45, from Fossil has one. They called it a "snap coin holder," and I'm imaging the giant brainstorming session that went on to come up with an alternate phrase for the femme-y "coin purse." Also, the marbleized texture of the leather is pretty cool.Speaking of cool, this wallet from Urban Outfitters is called the Fonz Wallet, $22. From the outside it looks like a totally boring wallet, but then yo
u pop it open and see those sweet criss-cross card holders and the check billfold lining. That Fonz always did have a surprise in his back pocket. This wallet also comes in black, but the lining in that one has a lot more pink and kind of looks like the tablecloth your grandma will put on the kid's table at your big family Easter dinner.UO has another wallet that I want to include just because of the name. This is the Obey Dirty Work wallet, $35, so it should be perfect for that guy
you know who always has dead hookers in the back of his car. But it seems like, with the fake vintage logo and the paint splatters and the freaking guitar pick holders inside, this wallet is just trying way too hard. Just like Norm MacDonald! This is one of those things that might be ok to use if you found it in a trunk of your dad's old stuff from his hippie days and it still smelled like clove cigarettes, but when you buy it from Urban Outfitters it's not acceptable.Finally, if I were a guy, I would just forgo a wallet altogether and use a badass money clip. Preferably from Tiffany, with something engraved on it like "The OG," and it'll be a gift from the Mob elders when I finally get "made" (I obviously watched Goodfellas last week, and it helped temper my dislike of all things Scorsese. But I felt it didn't do a good enough job of describing how someone becomes "made." I figured out from context clues that it isn't getting shot in the back of the head in
someone's rec room, to sounds of the guitar solo in Layla. Is it a ceremony, like a baptism or the ritual Wormtail performed to bring Voldemort back? Or do they just sit you down, shake your hand, give you a money clip, and say, "Congratulations, now you're made." It's really bothering me that I don't know this). Then I'll pay for everything in cash, hand out $100 tips to the car park guy, and do a lot of snorting of certain substances. The classic silver money clip from Tiffany is $95, which will be chump change when I become part of the Mob.
