Years ago around 2010, I remember seeing a video from Vat19 showing this amazingly small wallet. A wallet that could expand to the necessary size required for all your cash and cards you’d carry. I was 13 at the time and never had a huge need for a wallet, let alone a wallet that could store a lot of content. My dad would carry around his leather brick, a wallet that could barely fold. I remember trying to convince him to use a Mighty Wallet, but I think he was off put by the look and potential problems a paper-like wallet would have with its “durability.”
These wallets were made with Tyvek material, the same material found in express mail envelopes. An indestructibly strong material that is tear-resistant. Of course scissors would cut through the Tyvek material, but so would cutting through any other materials if the scissors were sharp enough. I used to love making duct tape wallets from YouTube tutorials uploaded before 2010. Duct tape wallets were super easy to make an had a lot of personalization options. The Mighty Wallets reminded me of duct tape wallets, and Dynomighty offered a lot of designs for Mighty Wallets.
On Feb 22nd 2022, I made a very crude karma farm post on Reddit talking about the nostalgic passion I had for these Mighty Wallets. What I wasn’t expecting was the creator of the wallet himself, Terrence Kelleman, to write about how his product idea similarly came from duct tape wallets.
What a coincidence, I actually got the idea of a Tyvek Wallet when I was watching tutorials of Duct Tape wallets. I had been fascinated with Tyvek and kept a large sheet of it hanging in my art studio.
When I saw those duct tape instructions I thought yeah, ‘because duct-tape is so strong’ but then I thought, well Tyvek is like SO much stronger. I wonder if anyone has ever done a Tyvek wallet before…
Some searching online left me with a question; If I were to design a wallet out of Tyvek how would I want it to look? What would be unique about the design because of it being made of Tyvek?
Those questions led me to decide to make the wallet from one single sheet of Tyvek, that way there would be no parts or pieces that could be torn off, it would make production easier (or so I thought), and folding the material would reinforce the inherent strength in the Tyvek material.
That all started in 2004, my first full production run was in 2005. 6 years later that invention would put my tiny company on the Inc’s Fastest Growing companies list… crazy but true story. –Terrence Kelleman (Reddit)
Mighty Wallet's unique features
Dynomighty’s wallets sport an Origami-like thin design, and it molds to the amount of cash, cards, and receipts you insert. Its material allows it to float on water, be resistant to water, as well as resist stains. Mighty Wallets are super strong thanks to the Tyvek material and is tear-resistant. Most importantly the wallets are made to be recycled.
I think the only sad reality of these wallets is that they do wear over time, which is a huge bummer. However, these are relatively cheap wallets that are meant to be as small as possible with a unique material. Dynomighty sells their wallets on Amazon and their website. Offering tons of original designs and new ones to buy if you needed to replace an old worn wallet.
Be Mighty
Kelleman’s journey to making wallets is an inspiring one. It shows that nothing is too stupid to design, especially if the design is one you’d want to use. What I enjoy about Kelleman’s passion is his clear understanding for why he does what he does. His brand’s motto is to Be Mighty. An inspirational rallying cry for those who need a kick start for their hopes and dreams.
He created a side project where he’d put up flyers with inspirational tabs to tear off in New York city. Tabs which would be used to motivate those who passed by. You can find these motivational flyers to download free on his bemightyproject website. His idea came about when he began to tape up fortune cookie papers to his computer monitor. Like before it must be a similar coincidence as I hold onto a fortune cookie paper in my phone case.
Today I personally don’t use a Mighty Wallet, as my wallet is naturally light with cash and cards. I much prefer a standard wallet so I can always feel it in my pocket. The Mighty Wallets are a great example of the many awesome product creations that happened from the 2000s-2010s.