Behind the Design
Every Alto Wallet is handmade by the Alto Brothers (Owen and Kevin) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Every piece of wood is hand-picked to ensure only the most exceptional wallets are ever created. Ecologically friendly water-based finishes are used to protect against wear and tear and bring out the natural beauty of the wood.
The Alto Wallet has adaptable capacity based on your needs and allows you to conveniently carry one card or many (12+). A specially manufactured Nitrile band secures your cards and cash and has the ability to stretch to 3x its original size without losing any strength or elasticity.
The ultra-thin design makes the Alto Wallet a perfect front or rear pocket wallet for men and women. The laminated wood core of each wallet provides exceptional strength; this means your wallet will not break when you sit on it, drop it, or drop something on top of it.
Everything we create is designed and manufactured to a higher level.
If you’ve been searching for a no-compromise minimal wallet… you will absolutely love what we’ve created.
Over two years ago, we challenged ourselves to create the perfect longboard. With little more than a bandsaw, contractor’s table saw, and some other basic power tools, we began this impossible journey. Obsessively devoting ourselves, we created a longboard in our own vision and after several months this vision started to come into focus. It took several more months until we achieved a design we were truly satisfied with. This turned out to be an important lesson for us; the knowledge that anything is possible with enough hard work and perseverance. Comparing our first longboards to the ones we create now, it’s obvious to see how far we’ve come.
Building by hand and starting from scratch meant we had complete control over the functionality and design of our longboards. However, this also meant we would generate a considerable amount of waste. As our longboards got better, so did our woodworking skills and soon we were able to find ways to put our scrap material to good use; creating unique cutting boards, trays, and coasters. We inevitably began challenging more complex projects, like a wallet made from handcrafted wood and fiberglass.
The feedback we received from our early prototypes was quite positive but also a bit of an eye opener. Turns out lots of people disliked their wallets as much as we did. Realizing we had an opportunity to make people lives better, we decided to ramp up prototyping and take this design challenge head on.
The Alto Wallet was created with a ridiculous amount of perseverance, attention to detail, and belief in ourselves to create a better wallet… in a world full of wallets. We don’t take short cuts, we don’t sacrifice quality, and invariably this means we are always choosing to do things the hard way. Based on all our past experiences, we have seen that challenging ourselves is often the best way to create something entirely new.