Wallets can be a little bit of a stretch for an office supply blog, but if you are going to throw a pen holder and notebook in them like these Dialed Notebook Wallets (via the DialedGear website) do, then I’m going to be all up in ’em checking them out.  The above picture shows the Dialed Notebook Wallets in the small pouches that they are delivered in.

The Dialed Notebook Wallets were originally a Kickstarted project that I funded, and I’m always apprehensive about this because there is no real history for the manufacturer, but upon opening up the pouches and pulling out the Dialed Notebook Wallets I was very impressed with the look, feel, and quality of these.  The materials on them feel like something you would find on maybe a Tumi bag, and the elastic straps feel very solid, not like some of the flimsy elastic closure straps you find on lower end notebooks.  I also just love the look of them being mostly black with the red accents on the elastic closure straps.  The large version of the Dialed Notebook Wallet measures 3.74 inches by 5.83 inches and the smaller version measures 3.15 inches by 4.33 inches.

Inside both the large and small Dialed Notebook Wallets are a notebook where the first section is made up of a six week daily calendar with the majority of the rest of the pages being simple ruled pages with the Dialed circular logo on the end of the rulings that can be used as check boxes for to do lists.  The last six pages in both sizes of the notebooks are blank pages.

The smaller version of the Dialed Notebook Wallets are the one I really had the chance to take out for a test drive for a few weeks.  As you can see above I loaded it up with my credit cards and cash, you also cant see my work ID but its in the back there, I promise.  I was happy with how the cash pocket (near the center on the left worked out to keep my money secure, but the elastic strap on the inside front pocket didn’t leave me feeling as secure with a flash card stuck in there.  It was probably safe and wouldn’t fall out but I wasn’t 100% sold on that.  It might be hard to see, but there is also a pen loop in the center there that is a run-off from that elastic pocket on the inside front cover.  More on the pen loop further along in the review below.

The back inside cover has a pocket that is big enough to hold business cards, credit cards, or also a 1974 Topps Dave Winfield baseball card…whatever floats your boat. 🙂  You can also see that the backside of the notebook cover has the web address for the Dialed Gear website where you can re-order notebooks once you have filled up yours.

Like I said earlier on, the elastic closure strap on the Dialed Notebook Wallets is really solid.  I always use the quality of the elastic closure straps on notebooks as a gauge on the quality of materials used for the entire product.  Fair or not, I just feel like this is an area not so skimp on so I judge.  Not a second went by where I thought that the elastic strap or any materials that went into this awesome little notebook wallet were skimped on.  I really liked how compact this wallet was, and I generally kept it in my front pocket although I did test it in my back pocket which was fine, but its not my thing so I quickly removed it.  My only issue with keeping it in my front jeans pocket is admittedly a little bit picky, but I’ll explain.  So I don’t wear hipster skinny jeans or anything like that, but I did notice that because the Dialed Notebook Wallet has a textured surface, it tends to sit in one exact location in your pocket because the textured surface against the material inside of your pocket creates some friction and makes it unlikely to slide around much at all.  You may ask why I’m bring this up, and the answer is simple…sweat.  Yup, sweat…gross, I know.  But having tested this mostly on weekends out and sitting at a bar, restaurant, friends house, or even driving I noticed that because the wallet didn’t shift and wasn’t easy to just push to a new location, it made it very hard for my skin to breathe under it.  Not a deal breaker, but I’m someone who cant sit still for more than 3-4 seconds consecutively, so a minor issue like this really gets to me.

Although I didn’t get to take the large size Dialed Notebook Wallets on much of a test drive, I’ve definitely been able to develop some thoughts about it having looked it over a bit.  There are many similarities with it, but one big difference is the elastic strap that appears in the large version on the inside back cover that you won’t find on the small version.  The strap has a divider in the middle and is wide enough to hold two credit cards, one above the other, and you can go a few deep as well depending on how thick you want your wallet to get.  This strap also holds a nice little surprise that I wish the front cover elastic pockets had, which is that on the side of the strap that is face down in the notebook there are rubber strips that help to secure anything you slip into them.  This is a GREAT feature that I would have loved to see on the other elastic strap pockets in the front of the notebook.

So if you decide that you want a nice passport holder, the large version of the Dialed Notebook Wallet can quickly swap out the notebook and be replaced by your passport.  This is probably a good time to note that both the large and small version of the Dialed Notebook Wallets offer RFID protection.  Whether you are storing your passport in the large version, or credit cards in either version, they will remain protected from hackers trying to access the personal information on each via RFID.

I said earlier I’d get back to the pen loop, so here we are…at the pen loop.  I didn’t order the pen that was offered up with the Dialed Notebook Wallet in the original Kickstarter campaign, so I was left to find something on my own.  Of the 1,000+ various pens I have on hand I was only able to find one that comfortable fit in the large Dialed Notebook Wallets, and I didn’t have any that fit the smaller version.  If you are like me, and need to grab a replacement pen after already having ordered yours, the one I’m showing above is the Platinum Mini Ballpoint Pen with Capacitive Stylus (via Amazon).

I’m definitely more than happy with my Dialed Notebook Wallets (via the DialedGear website) considering they were purchased without knowing a ton about them as they were a Kickstarter project.  As I mention in the review, I think there are a few minor changes that could be made, but overall these are very functional, very well thought out, and the materials seem to be top notch.  Kudos to the folks at Dialed Gear for a job well done, and keep an eye on them for the other new products they are working on.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.