May 26 is one of the bigger drops we've planned this year for the Passport Wallet collection. Three new designs, three different artists, all on the same day. Solivagant by Damon Sheeley, Dead Ends by Tomatozero, and The Great Wave from our in-house team. The timing is intentional. Late May is when summer travel planning kicks in, and a passport wallet is one of those things people upgrade right before a trip.
Why Three at Once
Passport wallets are different from our other formats. People don't usually buy them on impulse. They buy them when they have a trip coming up, or when their old leather one is showing its age. So when we have multiple strong designs ready, releasing them together gives travelers a real choice instead of one design at a time.
The three designs in this drop cover different sensibilities. Solivagant is introspective. Dead Ends is moody. The Great Wave is iconic. Different vibes for different travelers.
Solivagant by Damon Sheeley
"Solivagant" is an old word that means a solitary wanderer. Someone who travels alone, by choice, for the experience of being on the road by themselves. It's the kind of word that doesn't get used in modern English much, but it captures something specific about a certain kind of traveler.
Damon Sheeley designed this Passport Wallet with that idea in mind. This isn't his first Paperwallet release, and his style continues to lean toward illustrations that have more thought in them than they first appear.
Dead Ends by Tomatozero
Dead Ends is a different kind of travel design. The name isn't optimistic. It's not about discovery or adventure. It's about places that don't lead anywhere, which is a real part of travel that nobody markets to. The street that turns out to be a dead end. The trail that loops back to where you started. The town with nothing to see.
Some travelers have a more honest relationship with the road. Dead Ends is for them.
The Great Wave by Hokusai
Yes, that Great Wave. Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" is one of the most recognized images in art history. We released the Japanese Masters Collection on May 5 with several Hokusai prints in Micro Wallet format. This release brings The Great Wave specifically to the Passport Wallet collection.
It's the same source artwork as one of the Micro Wallets, but the larger format of the Passport Wallet gives the print room to breathe. You can see the texture of the woodblock lines, the foam detail in the wave, the small boats being tossed in the water. The composition that's compressed at Micro size is fully readable on a passport wallet.
This one's for travelers heading to Japan, ukiyo-e fans, anyone who wants the most famous image in Japanese art history riding alongside their passport. There's something appropriate about carrying a wave from 1831 across modern oceans.
The Passport Wallet Format
All three designs are Passport Wallets. The format holds your passport (or 2 passports) plus 4 to 6 cards and a slot for a boarding pass or folded cash. Made from Tyvek, which means waterproof and tear-resistant. That matters more than people realize on the road. Rain, humid hotel safes, accidentally putting it in a bag with a leaky water bottle, none of that affects the wallet or what's inside.
Tyvek also stays light. A loaded leather passport wallet can weigh 80 to 100 grams. Ours weighs about 25. When you're moving through airports and pulling your passport out 20 times in a single travel day, that weight difference matters.
Memorial Day Weekend Timing
Memorial Day weekend in the US is May 23 to 25 this year, which means a lot of people are either traveling that weekend or planning summer travel right after. Releasing three passport wallets the Tuesday after Memorial Day puts the inventory out exactly when travel-planning attention is highest.
If you have a trip coming up in June, July, or August, this is the drop to pay attention to. Passport wallets in our collection don't get restocked. Sold out is sold out.
Available May 26
Solivagant, Dead Ends, and The Great Wave all launch May 26 in the Passport Wallet collection. Limited edition. Browse the full collection for other formats and designs available alongside this drop.
