Zenlet is built on the foundation of creating functional and minimalist lifestyle products, starting with wallets. This is how the successful Kickstarter project was born in Taiwan, founded and managed by Ian Hsieh.
The founder’s vision is somewhat simple and minimal, where he wants to redesign lifestyle products to make them functional. Zenlet goes by three principles- minimalistic designs, functional and intuitive products. It is all set to redefine our interaction with everyday essentials.
Zenlet – The Brand Story
Ian Hsieh holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering from National Taiwan University and always has been fascinated by design and engineering. His love to create everything from scratch led him to create Zenlet. His design journey started from college, where he led a team to create the project “Intelligent Individual Electric Vehicle”. It was nominated for the final of Acer’s Entrepreneurship Competition.
After having served in the Taiwan army, Ian returned to explore the market of design and engineering (where his core expertise lies). Being well-read about startups, sales, and marketing, back from his days in the army (where he would constantly indulge himself in learning these areas) he ventured into crowdfunding projects. He discovered there was massive scope in design and technology and a functional gap in minimalist wallets.
He studied the recently launched minimalist wallet projects only to have discovered they were not unique enough. This is where the strategy of creating minimalist and unique wallets struck him. He chose to pursue a startup and launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
The Problem and Zenlet’s Solution
Besides lacking unique features and functions, Zenlet states 10 more issues associated with bulky wallets. Bulky wallets tucked in back pockets can lead to back pain. It also gets difficult to carry them in a bag and more often get lost within them. There is a chance cards may slip out of the wallets, or for instance fear of RFID theft. Other issues include elastic fatigue as a result of more cards being tucked in, notes being exposed to rain, not easily accessible, cluttered cards, or say animal cruelty while extracting the materials.
Zenlet redesigned the wallet ensuring it stuck with 6 principles. They included Austerity, naturalness, simplicity, subtlety, break from routine and stillness. So, the idea was to come up with an innovative way to solve the problem. Illustrating the idea - not over decorate the product but pay attention to details, remove unnecessary facets to make it user-friendly and intuitive.
This is what Zenlet’s wallet provides in a nutshell
- A seal design – no fear of cards falling out
- Protection – scratch proof
- Flexible – RFID security
- No elastic, rubber band – won’t cause fatigue or wear and tear
- No screws, hinges – avoid the most frequently damaging situations
- Intuitive operation – find the card with one hand in under a second
- Carry multiple items – bills or any small objects like keys or coins
- Magnetic design – easy pick up and placement
- Light compact – slips into your shirt or pants pocket with ease
- Optimal capacity – a seven card space
- Low profile – simple and comfortable gripping
- Use with privacy
- 100% recyclable
What Makes Zenlet Wallets Unique
The brand aims to ace three elements that make a killer design and engineering-based strategy.
Simple – The product is simple, minimal, and super thin. This makes it a suitable product for any occasion. Also, there are no separate compartments for the cards, making it easy to store and organize your cards with modern design.
Secure – The product design is made to secure the cards from theft of information and has an RFID blocking and sealed sides. The sealed design would protect your bills, cards, and other tiny belongings.
Intuitive – The wallet is accessible with just a swipe, as feasible as unlocking your phone. When you swipe the wallet, all the cards inside will reveal in a second, making it easy for you to find the one you want privately.
Zenlet’s Production Process
Materials that go into the production process are carefully chosen and curated. Series 2 especially, is reliant on CNC machining process, to attain unibody and anodized treatment. CNC machining is a highly-skilled process that consumes a lot of time. The process is long as aluminum alloy needs to be hollowed out to craft the unibody. They chose this time-consuming process because this is the right process of attaining the look and body which is slim, simple, and is cleanly cut.
Other Lifestyle Products Besides Zenlet Wallet
The idea of Zenlet emerged from designing wallets, but they have expanded to curating more lifestyle products.
The Rack
A desk organizer in the sense it helps you declutter your desk and safely tuck in your desk belongings such as a power cord, notes, papers, and books. It comes with a hook to help you hang your keys, tiny bags, or any other office supplies.
The product comes with a nano micro-suction layer, that sits perfectly on the corner of your table and holds your essentials. It also has a magnetic cable holder that keeps your wire in place and easily accessible. The fun part is, you can use the rack as a bookmarker, simply toss it off the top of the rack.
Zenlet Coil
A one-of-a-kind product which is a wireless power bank and also an aroma diffuser. Yes, we are stroked as well!
The product is made to lift your energy and charge your phone at the same time. Right when you plug in your phone, the coil disperses an aroma that calms you down. It also comes in handy while driving, where you can attach the coil to the air vent clip, and the car gets filled with aroma in seconds. Check out the product for details on the power and voltage capacity of the product.
Zenlet Products we host
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