Clipp Wallet: Genius or Joke?

We all know by now that there are some pretty creative ideas on Kickstarter. It's what the site is all about, giving a platform for new and innovative ideas to reach a wide audience, that otherwise would be stuck in production limbo. It is great at it, and just thinking about wallets has brought hundreds of innovative designs to market that would never have been such a success without it. However, for every great new product it produces, there usually seems to be a not quite thought through, or poorly executed one just around the corner. Clipp seems to waver between those two states, depending on who you talk to.

About the Clipp Wallet

You see, the thing about Clipp is that I like what they are trying to do. They've looked at the wallet and they've said, there is only so slim this can feasibly get, it can never total remove at least a small footprint from your pocket, we need to think outside the box and remove items from the pocket altogether. I like where they are going there, it's forward thinking, it's innovative, it's liberating the pockets of millions!  Clipp seeks to be a non-wallet, wallet.

Their solution: wear your wallet on your belt. That's right, instead of having a pocket wallet, they have come up with a wallet that attaches to a belt buckle, holding up to 5 cards and some cash. It comes in four varieties too, a brushed aluminium, the matte slate, a grooved edge and a carbon fiber design.

My thought process, and likely most normal thinking peoples, then went something like this: "OK, that's definitely outside the box... never considered that before. Maybe this could work, it would totally free up my pockets, no pocket bulge at all... Actually this is brilliant! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before, my pockets are feeling liberated already! So when I get to the checkout, I merely whip up my shirt and reach for my... oh, wait, that's why no-one has ever done this before...".

And therein lies the big problem that takes the Clipp, in my eyes at least, from genius invention to just another Kickstarter flop. The idea was nice. I like what they are trying to do, but the execution is a little misguided. Carrying your wallet contents around on a belt doesn't sound like a bad idea, until you begin to think about using it in practice. When you reach the checkout of the supermarket, no matter how innocent it actually is, hiking up your shirt, reaching for your belt and un-clipping the buckle is not a look I want to go for, thanks. At best it will be the most awkward few seconds of your day, at worst there will be screams from the poor school girl just trying to earn some pocket money at her Saturday job, as the burly security guard drags you from the property while you helplessly try to explain you aren't trying to flash anyone, just get your credit card out.

Maybe it's just me though. When I first watched the example transaction in their video, I thought it was genuinely comical - I almost couldn't work out if this was a spoof that I had fallen for. But perhaps I am just being misguided prude. After all, the Kickstarter campaign has already convinced 91 people to part with a combined total of $8,252 (CAD) at the time of writing, so they can own their very own belt buckle wallet. So what are your thoughts, the most innovative wallet ever to grace Kickstarter, or an invitation to be locked up for attempted flashing? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also check out their Kickstarter video, where you will be able to see live someone reach for their belt at a supermarket checkout, and decide for yourself quite how wrong, or perhaps genius, it looks.