The Key Wallet Project

Some of you might remember the post I ran a few years ago on key chains. The short of it is that I have long been an admirer of different kinds of apparatuses engineered to hold your keys. I’m enamored by the usability of different designs and the utter uselessness of others and try out different setups all the time. I have a set up for my hot rod, a setup for my daily, etc… Each with it’s own purpose to fulfill different needs.

It sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it? It probably is.

Anyway, an old coot I know out here in Dripping Springs mistook this little obsession of mine as a collection. I tried to tell him that I don’t “collect” key chains so much as I “use” them, but he’d have none of it and drops by almost weekly with a different key chain he has pulled out of the trash or found in his junk drawer. The pile is becoming ludicrous. I have more key chains now than I know what to do with.

A few months ago, I was cleaning up around the office and had to move the pile from one location to another. As I did, a gorgeously constructed fold of leather stuck out amongst all the plastic fobs and dangling doo-dads. I quickly snatched it up and spent the next thirty minutes playing with it and admiring the simplicity of the design. It was just a piece of leather with a couple of Chicago screws and a snap, but it was gorgeous… and, more than that, it was highly usable.

A little research showed that this “Key Wallet” was originally designed and made in the 1920’s by a car dealership outside of Scranton. Of course, before the 1920’s there wasn’t much need for a key chain of any kind. A fella might have a house key on him, but certainly didn’t have the lesbian type arrangements most of us carry around today. So when the automobile became readily available to normal folks, suddenly there was a need for simple key organization. It’s my guess that this little key wallet was one of the early efforts to solve that problem.

More research showed that a boot company out of Japan had recently high jacked the design and were making them in limited numbers. And while they are cool, they are blasted with a brand and made with lesser leather and… Screw all that. I’m stealing the design back. For the last three months or so, I’ve been perfecting the design and getting everything JUST right. I called Eric at Hot Rod Leather and he’s been helping me get them into production using the highest quality hardware we could find along with just about the most expensive leather available.

The are completely overkill… and almost ready to go…

I had nothing to post today, so I figured I shoot y’all a sneak peek.

Cool, Right?