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Ridge Wallet vs Dango D01 (IT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE)
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Jul 22, 2024
The Dango D01 (which was gifted to me by the brand) and the Ridge Wallet follow a VERY similar two-plate and elastic strap design for storing your cards and cash. However, outside of that, they have very different features. In this video, I'll go through seven categories, tell you where each stands, and give my final recommendation (and who each is for). - Get the WINNING Ridge Wallet Here (Paid Link): http://shrsl.com/4ds6e - Get Your Dango D01 Here (Paid Link): https://amzn.to/4cRIDLi Read through our article version of this video here: https://gear43.com/ridge-vs-dango-d01
View Video Transcript
0:00
So about a year ago, Dango gifted me this D-0-1
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It's kind of their base model wallet. And I wanted to compare it to my long-standing kind of two-plate and elastic band-style wallet
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in the Ridge wallet. In this video, I'm going to go through seven different categories for these wallets and put them
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head to head, and I'm going to let you know which one wins in each category. And at the end, I'm going to let you guys know exactly which one I recommend
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And there's one obvious winner. But before we get into that, I want to let you guys know a little bit more about each wallet
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The Ridge wallet is the biggest name in the category. Everyone knows who Ridge is if they have done any form of shopping when it comes to minimalist wallets
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It's essentially that same two plate and an elastic band style wallet
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It's really, really basic, really easy to understand. And this is their aluminum white version
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Meanwhile, Dango uses a very similar tactic in that two plate design and an elastic band
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It has the same thing. but it builds on it by having a leather kind of covering on the front
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which has an easy access card pouch right here, and then the elastic band does come all the way around
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Outside of that, the basic idea of the wallet is the same as the ridge, which is probably why you're looking for a comparison
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Getting right into the first category, and that is build quality. I actually have these two wallets as a tie
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because I'll be honest, they are about the same. I haven't really had any issues when it comes to, like
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build quality manufacture defects or any of that kind of stuff. So when it comes to that, I'm not going to go too far into it, but they both are pretty high quality
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and I have no qualms with either one of these. Number two, the winner is going to be Ridge Wallet
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So these are minimalist wallets in the end, and so you've got to make sure to pay attention to sizing
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And as you can see right here, the dango is considerably larger, both in height and in depth
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whatever you want to say for those things right there. But the dango is obviously larger, and the reason behind that is actually the railing on this side
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So as you can see, the Ridge wallet is actually about the size of that inner plate there
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And the outside has a little railing. Now, I think one of these is actually a bottle opener, which I never use
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But otherwise, this railing essentially kind of keeps the cards on the inside of the wallet
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And Ridge just does that with an elastic band. And so they easily cut down on size there, which makes the dango considerably larger than the Ridge wallet
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which makes the Ridge wallet an easy win on this one. Because when it comes to minimalist wallets smaller is better Now as for actual card capacity on these two wallets they are both rated for one to 12 cards and that is technically true However I will say the ridge does a little bit better when it gets up to the higher capacity
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just because it is only an elastic band holding everything together. Now, as for the dingo, you can see I've added a few more cards here
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Once it gets up into that higher spectrum of cards, it gets a little bit more awkward as the cards start to pass the railing
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and they're a little bit more difficult to get cards out of, so once you get into that higher capacity of 12 cards
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the dango starts to lose its appeal, so let's keep moving on
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Before we continue on with this video, please subscribe to the video if you've found any of the information in this video
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helpful whatsoever, and let's move on with video. And in fact, what I was talking about a little bit earlier
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gets a little bit more expounded upon in this next category, and that is daily usability, which the ridge is just the obvious winner
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So there's a couple reasons behind that. Now the first thing comes down to cash storage. So the ridge wallet is a simple process
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You just kind of put your cash in like that and it's really easy to get in and out
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This metal plate does a really good job of kind of keeping the elastic band at bay and makes
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it so it is an easy process to put cash in and out of. Meanwhile the dango is a little bit harder
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It's actually a little bit harder to get your cash in and then it's also because it is so wide there
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it's also harder to get the cash out. I find it just a little bit more of a clunky process and it's
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And it's just because this is a fully elastic band instead of having something like that metal plate there
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which gives it a little bit minor form. I found that I just didn't really like putting cash in quite as easily
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It kind of bunches up a little bit. And you can actually see a little bit of issue there
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If I put it in through the top, it's trying to go into that quick access card slot
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You have to put it in through the bottom. And even that is a little bit of a challenge
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You can see the cash right there is kind of starting to bend up and unfold
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So when it comes to cash storage, the dango definitely. isn't quite as good as the ridge
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Which leads me to quick access. Now this is not a new category. I'm still talking about daily usability
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And so let's talk about the cash storage part of it. And like we talked about earlier, card capacity is 12 on both wallets
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However, actually getting to the cards and putting the cards back into the wallet is also more
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difficult with the dingo. Now, taking them out isn't too big of a deal
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They both use the same kind of notch where you push up and you have access to the cards
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that way. That's not too big of a deal, but it's when you put cards back. in So you can actually see a little bit better on the ridge wallet I don know if you can see it on camera There little kind of grooves on the sides of these plates And what that allows for is when you take these cards out and you have an empty wallet it has little grooves that you just basically push down on and it kind of guides it into the plate
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It's even easier when you already have cards in there. You can see it is a simple processed to throw new cards in there
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But when you jump over to the dango, the dango does not have that
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As you can see, it's just straight plates. There's no kind of like curvature going on on the plates
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And so what you have to do is you literally have to pry the plates apart to get them in there
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And because they have that railing, it's also a little bit more difficult. So you can see, it's just, see, it got stuck on that plate
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It's just a little bit clunky of a process and not nearly as, yeah, see, you can't do that
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You have to literally pry the plates open. to get your card in. And it's just a little bit more annoying and way more clunky
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than the Ridge Wallet. Now I'm not somebody that talks too negatively about products
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but I do like to point out the issue, especially when I'm doing these versus types of videos
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and when you're comparing the two, just the daily usability, as you can see, even coming down to
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the things like the sizing is just considerably better with the Ridge wallet. Now going back
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to Quick Access cards, so obviously the Ridge, I have complained in the past about how it is a little bit more difficult to get to your most used
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cards, especially in comparison to things like extra, which I've also reviewed, I'll leave a card up here for you
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But it does do a good job overall, and it has a higher capacity than a lot of the other wallets
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Well, one of the cool things about the dango was that it has this quick access pocket, which was really, really nice
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So you can just go like this and put it in there. But the issue is, is once you have a bunch of stuff in here, cash in here, it's actually really difficult to get to that quick access card and get it out
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and I was surprised by that, especially when you can kind of see, so if I pry back right there
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you can see there's this little leather thing right here. What happens a lot is you take your card and you push it into there and it'll catch
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you can see it will kind of catch right there and it bends that leather forward right there
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And then, especially if you have cash in here, you have to pull that card out
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and you have to kind of bend that leather back up to be able to allow you to put that card in there
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correctly. That actually happens quite a bit more than I would like to admit
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So anyways I not wanting to necessarily bash on this d01 wallet but I am trying to point out the things that the Ridge is better in But let go now to the fourth category which is pricing
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which is definitely where the D01 does win out. Now, the d01 is about $30 cheaper than the Ridge
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wallet. So if you are looking for a budget wallet that kind of sacrifices a little bit
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this is a really good way to get into the minimalist wallet revolution. And then the DZ01
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also does win out in styling. I can't get around the fact that how nice this wallet does look
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I really like the metal railing. I really do like the fact that it does have leather. I do like
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the look of leather wallets. And so it is really nice that there's manufacturers that are bringing
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true leather to these minimalist metal wallets. Around back, of course, you have this really nice
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metal look. It's just the plates and just the coloring. It really does work. And so I do think
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styling-wise, dango has done a really, really good job. Now, as for our warm
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warranty and a return policy. These really aren't that much different. They both do have a limited lifetime warranty
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However, the Ridge wallet does have a 90-day return policy, and this has a 30-day return policy. Both do require you to have them in like new conditions, so you're not really actually able to test them
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But they both do have a decent warranty and return policy with the Ridge ever so slightly being better
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And so that is all the different categories. And now comes my final recommendation. And I think you guys all know exactly where you guys are
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I'm going with this, I'd have a hard time not recommending the Ridge wallet over the
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d-0-1. Even though the Ridge wallet is a little more expensive and it probably doesn't
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look quite as cool, it is just considerably easier to use and it's smaller and it just has
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just overall better capabilities than the Dango wallet. So I probably would recommend you guys
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go with the Ridge. Of course, most of these wallace do have their redeeming qualities. So if you did
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like things like the styling and the price and the matching build quality of the dango
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then go for it. It really is a cool wallet and it does a great job. I know a lot of people
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have those Western bifold wallets. If you're something like that, but wants to go into a minimalist
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wallet like this, the dango is a great option. For the rest of you, you probably should just
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go with the ridge. I think you're going to be happier. I am going to have links to both of
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these wallets in the top comment as well as the description. So if you guys want to purchase one for
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yourself, I definitely recommend you doing that. I am also going to leave the article version of
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this video where I do do updates as I think of more, so you can click that and kind of see my most
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up-to-date thoughts
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