Card Gear: Sherman Tsao

Card Gear is our monthly feature dedicated to discovering new inventory, setup, and accessories used every day by card designers, cardists, magicians and collectors. The concept originated from the popular social media site, Instagram: #passthepockets. Whenever one of these hashtags come up on the social news feed, there's always something new to discover, no matter who that person is.

This month, we feature the EDC of Sherman Tsao from Shanghai, China. Sherman is the founder of Carat Case Creations (previously known as Carat Card Cases). He started the company a little less than a year after he started collecting playing cards. Originally, he created the cases for himself but realized that other collectors liked them as well,  and decided to try and provide the community with affordable display options for their collectibles.

Sherman grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA and graduated from Penn State University in 1990 after which he moved to Chicago to work. In 1993, he moved to Taipei, Taiwan and in 2004, he moved to Shanghai, China where he has been living ever since. In his spare time, other than obsessing over playing cards and coming up with new display ideas/designs, he enjoys spending time with his wife and 8-year-old son. Sherman's gear (Italics are Sherman's comments):

+ iPad Pro 9.7 inch
+ iPhone 5S
+ Plain Titanium Money Clip (for bills) and homemade ID/Credit Card holder (just a plain wide black elastic band sewn in a loop)
+ Titanium Boker Plus Tactical Pen Cid Cal .45
+ Pental Sharp Drafting Pencil (an all-time classic that I have been using for over 25 years...no, not the same pencil)
+ B5 (176 x 270 mm) sized graph paper note pad (for sketching my new product ideas and designs)
+ Gold Monarch Planks by Ben Kolozsi in a Natural Whiskey Magic Wallet made by Alstad Goods and sold by Dan & Dave)
+ Deck of the Week: Draconians Spitfire in a Carbon Fiber Card Clip by EPCC (The Draconian backs are so mesmerizing and has been one of my favorites ever since I started collecting)
+ Rolex Datejust 2 (One of the few higher end watches that can stand up to my abuse…I love the blue of the watch dial)
+ Davey Jones’ Locker Hobo Coin by Chris Odviyenko (This has replaced Chris’ Morgan Dollar Hobo Coin as my favorite fiddle coin)

If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, feel free to contact us.