Be Nice and Buy Local

Written by: karl

When I'm shopping for something, I always try to buy as locally as I reasonably can. Local retailers, local manufacturers, and local materials or ingredients.

Buying locally is better in several ways. It's better for the environment by reducing the amount of transportation that items need to get to you. It's good for the local economy by keeping the money nearby and circulating instead of flowing directly out to a giant corporation that moved it's headquarters overseas for tax purposes. And of course, buying locally can help to encourage more local businesses to start and secure our towns' futures.

I want my money to be spent improving the things I like and that are nearest to me as much as possible. I've found that local manufacturers can often make a product at a comparable or sometimes even lower cost than large corporations, especially when you factor in the quality.

Of course there are still things that I will buy from major retailers, if for no other reasons than price and availability. I buy my garbage bags from Target, Cub, or Walmart - why wouldn't I? But if there's an opportunity to do better, I like to think that I'm the kind of person to give it serious consideration.

So I Needed a New Wallet...

I want a good leather wallet that will last me several years, if not decades. My current wallet was a gift from my father. It's made from a fairly thin leather and it's managed to last me about a decade so far, but it's definitely starting to show it's age.

I thought, "Ask the internet what's a good wallet." And most of the answers I found were luxury labels with price tags starting at $250 minimum. And I didn't particularly like any of the options I was seeing.

So instead of looking for what the internet considered "the best", I start looking for nearby leather goods manufacturers and found several promising candidates right away:

I started with two criteria: I want it to be full-grain leather in a shade of brown and I want it to be a bi-fold design. My current wallet is a tri-fold design and I'm sick of having curly cash.

After looking through the offerings of all of these companies, I ended up choosing the No. 9 Wallet made by Leather Works Minnesota. It's handmade from high quality full-grain American leather right in St. Paul and it's only $100. That sounds well worth the price to me.

Update: I've owned the wallet for a few months now and am very happy so far. The way the leather is wearing in and becoming uniquely "mine" is gorgeous. There is one thing that I would say I found difficult, and that's how tight the cash compartment was to begin with. Hopefully with some use, this will be less and less of an issue.

So I Needed a New Wallet...

Leather Works Minnesota

Buffalo Billfold Company

Century Leather Products

Hanson Leather Co.

Strey Designs

Ashland Leather