Genealogy of "small thin wallets"

The first generation Hitoe Fold was redesigned and completed its role in 2021.
(Photo shows an early prototype at the time of product launch)
It is a very emotional product for us. We look back at the epoch-making role played by the first Hitoe Fold.

Through detailed research and your input, we have found 5 products, not including ours, before Hitoe Fold (2019.11) that have a type of wallet where the cards and coins do not overlap. (*Excluding long wallets)

2008.07 Sartore Wallet (Sartore)
2009.12 Thin Wallet (Value Innovation)
2017.01 Comodo (ULYSSES)
2018.06 Hitoe L-zip S (SYRINX)
2018.11 Piastra (M-Piu)
2019.09 Jitan ( (JACAJACA)

All of these wallets feature thinness.
However, they did not explicitly aim to be "small," such as a card pocket that could also hold a business card.

Then, in November 2019, at the same time as the patent application was filed, we launched Hitoe Fold, a bifold wallet that is all about minimalism.
The crowdfunding campaign that was conducted to show its value to the world achieved a record of over 10 million yen in just 3 minutes of its launch. However, the crowdfunding ended early with only 3,500 pieces in 18 days due to the difficulty in importing leather due to Corona. Even so, it still significantly broke the record for the highest price in Japan.
Subsequently, the waiting time for reservations on the official website reached up to a year and a half.

The great response and buzz generated by the first Hitoe Fold led to a gap of several months, after which similar products began to be released. Thus, a new genre of "small thin wallets" was born on the market.

To date, however, only the Hitoe Fold Aria andHitoe Fold v.2021 bifold wallets have surpassed Hitoe Fold's crowdfunding record. (*as of 2023.04.30).

The Hitoe® Fold series has also won 18 of the world's major design awards, including the iF Design Award andRed Dot Award, the world's three most prestigious design awards, as well as London, New York, Paris, Milan, and Hong Kong.