Nooka Wallet Review

The Nooka Asset Organizer (dubbed AO) caught my attention a few months back while in the market for a new and unique wallet. There was a decent amount of chatter about it online, so I decided to try it out. I switched from a traditional leather bi-fold to the Nooka AO about two weeks ago. This is my story:

Look and feel: I decided to try the Nooka AO because I thought it was quite a handsome wallet. I fell in love with its unique design, and the sloped edges make it look like no other wallet I’ve ever seen. The entire AO is made from a very soft and smooth silicone. This makes it super comfortable and very capable of stretching to fit a LOT of cards. Unfortunately, it also picks up a ton of lint, which is obviously very undesirable. The Nooka AO is available in 5 colors (grey, black, blue, green, and orange) but I feel like everyone (including myself) goes with the grey. My guess is they all show equal amounts of lint but perhaps black is more forgiving.

Functionality: Oy. I can deal with the lint. I can deal with there only being one desirable color. I just can’t deal with the fact that it’s a horrible wallet for storing money. Cash money that is. If you can get away with using cards 99% of your life, this may just be your next wallet. Sadly, New York is a cash town. Just ask the guy at the deli to swipe your card for that 2 dollar Vitamin Water, he’ll love that. So because this wallet lacks a dedicated, full bill size pocket, you have to quad-fold each bill. It gets messy and is always unorganized (more like the Nooka Asset UNorganizer…eh, eh?). My driver’s license, credit card, and metro card all slide out quickly and beautifully. Cash is another story, so much so that I often just carry it in my front pocket and constantly feel like I’m missing cash because it just gets stuffed into whatever pocket I feel like. I’m actually pretty sure this wallet is going to cause me to lose money.

Additional Thoughts: The Nooka AO has made me think a lot about my definition of design (as a programmer this concept is new to me). Should functionality be sacrificed for aesthetics? High-heels aren’t even close to being functional, yet many women (and some men) put themselves through it everyday in the name of style and design. But shouldn’t good design also be based on how much functionality it maintains – like this amazingly beautiful sink? My feelings are still unclear and despite how much I dislike this wallet, I’ll most likely continue using it over my boring yet functional bi-fold wallet. No matter how much I hate its lack of functionality, I love the design. On a very positive note, I spoke with the Nooka AO designer via Twitter, who tells me version 2 of the Nooka AO will fix this horrible lack of dedicated cash space issue. Sadly, I was not given an expected release date. The current Nooka AO is available now at Nooka.com.

Price: 35.00

Grade: C-