As the designer of the BulletTrain SAFE Wallet, one of my favorite things to do is conduct autopsies on peoples wallets to learn what they store in them. Recently I met a man and I showed him my prototype BulletTrain SAFE Wallet ULTRA, and he said, "I love the ULTRA! That's so much better that my current solution which doesn't attach to my iPhone case." Then he pulled out his Ridge wallet and showed it to me:
Holy Hell!!! I was shocked, as I always thought that the essence of a Ridge wallet was that it was for people who were minimalists that wanted to avoid the hazards and potential pitfalls of having a George Costanza exploding wallet, but low and behold, I was shocked to see how this man's Ridge wallet had become a complete nightmare that looks like the Goodwill blew up!?!!
It's funny, when I think about a Ridge Wallet in my mind, I see this clean minimalist wallet that is skinny, not a metal brick that is overflowing with paper receipts sticking out of it, that is as thick as a Big Mac, and it looks like it survived a war, receipts exploding out like confetti, and cards scratched to death. This is not a wallet. It's a cry for help.
This stale wallet appears to have everything he was too lazy to throw away for the last couple of years, just jammed in there because the elastic let him. This Ridge Wallet has been turned into a trash compactor.
BulletTrain SAFE Wallet ULTRA
To The Rescue
Or upcoming SAFE WALLET ULTRA is pictured below and is very close to final spec. ULTRA will hold 6 cards internally, as well as two cash bills that are tri-folded. If a user wishes to use a BulletTrain SAFE Wallet ULTRA as a freestanding minimalist wallet, they can attach 2 cards to the outside surfaces, which would give you a total of holding 8 cards. Examples of cards a user would want to attach to the outsides would include NFC Work ID cards, as well as something like a Tesla NFC card.
The fundamental difference between the RIDGE Wallet and the BulletTrain SAFE WALLET ULTRA, is that the ULTRA will not allow you to packrat unnecessary stuff, even if you wanted to, not to mentioned the ULTRA will have a way superior method of attaching to the back of any phone case using Magsafe magnets, which unlike the Ridge Magsafe variant, will never fall or slide of your smartphone case unexpectedly. It's ironic that the original SAFE WALLET predated the first RIDGE wallet case launched in January of 2013. In other words, the first BulletTrain SAFE Wallet campaign launched on Kickstarter in November of 2012, which was months prior the launch of the Ridge Wallet.
The Key Takeaway
BulletTrain pioneered the modern everyday-carry smart wallet with the SAFE Wallet's November 2012 Kickstarter launch—months before Ridge debuted in January 2013. BulletTrain invented the category. Ridge refined it. The ULTRA perfects it!!!
The ULTRA is the last wallet you'll ever buy.
The history of wallets is a graveyard of broken promises.
Leather that balloons. Metal that scratches. Gimmicks that fail.
Every “innovation” added weight, noise, or regret.
Then we built the ULTRA.
21 Reasons ULTRA Ends the Game
1. Capacity to hold 6 plastic cards + 2 tri-folded cash bills
2. Indestructible TPU—drop it, wash it, run it over
3. 100 % Waterproof
4. Lifetime warranty—we replace it forever
5. MagicStand—perfect portrait & landscape
6. One-handed card access—no removal required
7. Stealth: Cards completely hidden
8. Strongest MagSafe grip on the planet
9. Works on every phone ever made (ring adapter included)
21. Apple copied our 2017 BulletTrain SAFE Wallet MINI in 2020. We finished the job in 2026.
And since we compared the Ridge to the ULTRA, and I also mentioned BulletTrain invented the piggy-back smartphone wallet in 2012, we might as well examine and compare the ULTRA to the Apple Magsafe Wallet which is a copycat:
I finally got a chance to experiment with and photograph our first BulletTrain SAFE Wallet ULTRA prototype which is pictured below next to our BulletTrain 2017 SAFE Wallet MINI which has a Magsafe backplate attached to it for prototype testing, so I thought I would share this picture. The reason why the ULTRA is salt and pepper colored is that's the a limitation of 3D printing process, but the production model will look almost identical to the MINI at it will be black.
It's fascinating to me to observe how remarkably similar the two models are, yet totally different.
-The MINI is made from polycarbonate and the ULTRA will be made from TPU.
-The MINI holds 5 cards, yet the ULTRA holds 5 cards.
-The MINI attaches using Microsuciton, and the ULTRA attaches using Magsafe magnets.
The whole process of getting to market is taking way longer than I would like, but as they say, good things take time. There is some pretty miraculous engineering going on to bring this beauty to life. In particular, the level of detail that goes into the magnets makes my head spin, but that's part of the magic as everybody will soon see.
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BulletBlog by JAKEe
The BulletBlog by JAKEe covers all things BulletTrain, and Apple. The BulletBlog also covers high-quality, high-tech gear and everything cool.
The BulletBlog by JAKEe is published by Jake Ehrlich, the Designer and CEO of BulletTrain. Jake is renowned for being one of the most prolific bloggers today. To see more of his blogs, scroll to the bottom of the posts on this page.
