Long Wallet Zippered Pouch

[Boriqua]

I want to make a couple of long wallets and while I can design my own pattern I would rather riff off of some of the wonderful patterns readily available pretty inexpensively. Here is my question though .... what or why is there a zippered compartment.

In all honesty I think one of the reasons I am having trouble selling regular wallets is many people have stopped carrying cash. I use a card wallet with an expandable gusset. I fold a couple of bills in there but I almost always use my debit card for everything. Since every grocery store and gas station hands you a card I just need a spot for the 10 cards I have to carry including my license, insurance, CCW and other.

So is the pouch a throw back to when you actually carried and used ... dare I say ... change? Does anyone still use and carry change? I am thinking about modifying the designs I get and excluding the zippered pouch unless someone can give me a half way compelling reason to keep it. I guess its a great place for tobacco? the Colorado type or other.

 

But really all joking aside ... what is the zippered pouch for?

[NVLeatherWorx]

That would depend on what region you are in and what the demographics are for your selling areas.  In my area I can get a wide range of requests from clients which includes the need to have a zippered (or even snapped) coin pouch or large zippered currency pocket.  There is no one answer to your question; it is simply a matter of what is being asked for.  I have a few different versions of the wallets that I make with some of them including a snapped/zippered pocket/pouch (variants depend on product line) so that my clients (or the potential ones) can see that I do offer such things and they can actually see how it is made and works.

The only thing that I could recommend is that you at least mention that you can add such a feature in your listings but that it does cost extra to do so because of the extra materials and time required to make it happen.  If you get a client that is interested in such an item then make a mock-up of the item with the desired variant and send them a picture of it.  That way they can see (in general terms) how it will look so that they can confirm their wants or revert their order to your standard version.  I make a mock-up of each specialty request like this and shoot them a picture along with some details about the final design and features.  I make them out of paper and use simple tape to act as my "stitching"; it has been successful for me so far.

Noticed that you are listing your items on Etsy, hope it is working for you.  However, the more options/variants that you offer the more detailed of a platform that you will need so that you can create a listing with everything you want to offer the customer.  I only list my ready-to-ship stuff on Etsy at this point and have taken my custom items to the Handmade at Amazon platform.  I can have up to 10 customization options to offer with unlimited options within each category; and every one of them allows for a price adjustment if necessary.  Etsy will never be able to offer this to their clients and they have told me repeatedly that it isn't on their radar for consideration any time soon if at all.

Have a great weekend.

[Boriqua]

Thank you so much for your reply Richard. I probably sell 3 to 1 on ebay but I still get some custom orders from etsy and I make some things that arent really ebay. Long wallets would probably not be ebay since there is so much competition from mass produced overseas stuff at pricing I cant even buy the leather for. Again .. I am just a hobby guy who sells some stuff.

I have been moving away from custom orders and am seriously considering just eliminating it all together. I like making what I want to make when I want to make it and put it up and hope someone out there feels as positive about it as I did when I made it. 

I do however like your idea of offering an option "set" and that is something I have to think seriously about but developing new patterns for sometimes odd ball requests takes a fair amount of time and I am sure I dont make that time/money back. However having a basic pattern and having already developed pattern variations that allow me to make 3 or 4 different configurations  sounds like an AWESOME idea!

Thank you!!!! Wasnt really thinking in that direction and that was great help.

[NVLeatherWorx]

You are quite welcome.  I know what you mean about the design time but I have it down to about 30 minutes (start to finish) for a new wallet design and I keep all of my designs as a hard copy once the first one has been made.  I even have permanent templates for some of the more frequently requested items and that cuts a bunch of time out of the equation.  I have never, nor will I ever, used eBay as it is really not a marketplace for anything of true quality, regardless of whether it made by a hobbyist or a business professional and the bulk of the items I find there, and Etsy has this issue as well, are mass produced junk that has either been purchased from a foreign country for resale or is actually directly sold from a foreign country.  Once in awhile I do find a U.S. based maker with some skill but not very often.

Keep up your good work, nice looking holsters on your Etsy page.  Hope to see some new stuff coming from you and if you ever just want to chat, you know where to find me.