Saving Sails

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Flowfold Wallets

For three straight summers during high school, Chuck Friedman, a Peaks Island native, worked at Maine Sailing Partners in Freeport, where he helped make some of the finest custom-designed and hand-built sails. So when his grandfather’s old leather wallet fell apart, Friedman fashioned him a new one using sailcloth. That wallet, made from scrap sailcloth found on the job, became the prototype for Flowfold (flowfold.com), the company he launched in 2010. Flowfold now offers iPad cases and three types of wallets (billfolds, trifolds, and tarjeteros) made from high-tech racing sailcloths composed of carbon fiber, Kevlar, pentex, or polyester between Mylar film. The wallets weigh only sixteen grams, are less than two credit cards thick, and are made in Maine. Purchase Flowfold goods at flowfold.com. iPad cases from $35 and wallets from $22.