The Poquito design story
How the smaller, card-only sibling to the Union came together in 2015. Customer requests, prototyping notes, and why we kept it almost feature-free.
Where it started
The Union shipped in late 2014 and by mid 2015 we had a recurring question in the inbox. Roughly one in twenty customers wrote asking for a smaller version. The same materials, the same finish, but card-only, no cash strap, and ideally a little lighter. Most of them already owned a Union and wanted a second wallet for evenings out, gym days, or shorter overseas trips where most spend went on a single card. The brief wrote itself.
The first prototypes
We made four prototypes in March 2015. All four were the same external dimensions, sized to fit an Australian driver licence with a single millimetre clearance on the long edge. Two were oak, one was walnut, one was cherry. The internal elastic was halved in length compared to the Union, because there was no need for the extending function that lets the Union take six cards. Three to five was the target carry. The external band was kept, but its job was now closure only, not cash strap.
What we removed
The Union had a quiet feature list. RFID plate, extending elastic, external band that doubled as a cash strap, internal lining that prevented the elastic from biting into the cards. The Poquito brief was to remove three of those four. No RFID plate (the smaller card count made the trade-off less compelling). No extending elastic. No cash strap. The internal lining stayed because it was the only feature that actually affected card wear over time, and we were not willing to ship a smaller wallet that wore the cards faster.
What we kept
The two timber halves, grain matched from a single board. The hand sanded finish through four grits. The tung oil and beeswax blend. The small-batch production cadence. None of those changed between the Union and the Poquito. The Poquito was a strip-back, not a redesign.
How it sold
The Poquito was a steady seller through 2016 and 2017 but never overtook the Union. It found a different audience: people who already carried minimal, who did not need an RFID plate, and who wanted a second wallet rather than a primary. By unit volume it was about a third of the Union's run. By repeat-customer rate it was higher, because most of the buyers were already Union owners.
Where it sits now
The Poquito was discontinued alongside the rest of the line in 2018. The full archive of variants is on the Poquito collection page. The sourcing context for the timbers is in the American hardwoods entry. Of all the pieces in the Madera line, the Poquito is the one we are most often asked about by customers who want to recommission a single piece. We do not run commissions, but the design files are kept, and the answer might one day change.