Apple’s Quirky iPhone Pocket Is Officially Gone
Apple iPhone Pocket and ISSEY MIYAKE short strap colors [Apple]
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Earlier this month, Apple released one of the oddest accessories we’ve seen from the company. The iPhone Pocket was a knitted phone holder with an eye-watering price and a strange mixture of vintage Apple and the latest fashion trends.
The ribbed open structure, conceptually woven by Issey Miyake’s design studio, felt like a nod to the iPod Socks of yesterday for long-time Apple fans, but the style was still unmistakably modern and trendy — a versatile strap which, despite its “pocket” moniker, could be worn just about any way you could think of.
Starting at $150, it clearly wasn’t something Apple expected everyone to rush out and buy, and that point was punctuated by the fact that it wasn’t just limited edition, it was also limited availability. Apple only sold it in ten of its flagship stores, although customers in the countries where those were located — France, Greater China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, and the US — could also order it online.
It’s unclear how many of these Apple manufactured, but they were available in two sizes, with the short version offered in eight colors and the long one in three, so we have to assume it was more than a few. Still, if you were on the fence about picking up one of the new iPhone Pockets, that decision appears to have been made for you. Less than two weeks after the woven strap went on sale, it’s now sold out worldwide.
Inventory barely lasted a week in the US, with some of the most popular colors vanishing from the online store only hours after launch. In-store inventory lasted a bit longer, assuming you lived near the one US Apple Store that was selling them — Apple SoHo in New York.
By last Friday, the $150–$230 fashion accessories were virtually impossible to find in the US, but some colors and size options remained available in South Korea and a few other countries, according to MacRumors. However, even those have now been cleared out.
The iPhone Pocket was a limited-edition product, which means it’s likely done. There’s a small possibility that its overwhelming popularity could inspire Apple to do an encore, but that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. If Apple were planning to produce more, it wouldn’t be marked as sold out — we’d merely see longer delivery dates, like we do with new iPhones during peak launch seasons.
As is often the case with limited-edition items — especially popular and whimsical ones — there are now dozens of listings for the iPhone Pocket on secondary marketplaces like eBay. However, there are also dozens of fakes.
To be fair, some of these may be folks who legitimately bought one and decided it wasn’t for them, but most appear to be opportunists who either picked up the real thing and are now trying to capitalize on their scarcity with inflated prices or hoping to scam folks with cheaper knock-offs.
Among the many counterfeits there are also “legitimate” knock-offs — those that are clearly inspired by the original, but aren’t claiming to be the real deal.
While you’re unlikely to find the real Apple Issey Miyake version for a bargain price, it’s arguably not that hard to make a knitted strap, and some of the listings even claim to be manufactured the same way. As with most copycat products, your mileage may vary, but if you found the style of the iPhone Pocket intriguing and don’t care about paying for the fashion label, some of these could be worth a closer look. Just be sure to read the fine print.
