“Ever wonder what this pocket’s for?”
Like many of you, I was skeptical of the iPhone Pocket when I first laid my eyes on the press release from Apple last week. Now is sort of a tone deaf time for a high fashion collaboration, but I’ve decided that this is a product that’s actually designed to bring joy. Having finally seen them in-person, I think I was right about that. They may just be a piece of cloth, but they’re extraordinarily nice. The knit feels incredibly high quality and the colors are drop dead gorgeous up close. But the best part was seeing people react to them, there was more buzz around a couple of socks than there was around the Vision Pro area.
The Issey Miyaki component of the iPhone Pocket is undoubtedly the most controversial, not because of the designer but because of the price tag that’s associated with them. These are expensive pieces of fabric, the short one priced at $149 and the long at $229 respectively. That’s a lot even for an Apple accessory. But again, these are high fashion accessories and you could make the case that from this perspective they’re actually quite cheap. I can’t help but feel disappointed that these are a limited time collaboration though. I love when Apple does these, I have several Hermès bands for my Apple Watch that I love. I think this collaboration is even more appropriate given that Issey Miyaki designed Steve’s back turtlenecks. But I wish the pocket was also a standard Apple accessory that was accessible to everyone. Not just because these ones sold out almost instantly, but because they’d be easier for people to digest. They’d also show the more fun side of Apple that we see less and less of.
Apple chose to sell the pocket in one US store and clearly allocated very little inventory here. That’s likely because we are a society that doesn’t always value fashion like this and we happen to be extremely judgmental. Just look to how people, particularly men, react to the crossbody strap introduced in September. It’s a shame, because we could all be enjoying wearing the most important product in our lives as a living accessory that’s more of an expression of our individuality not just a utility in our pant pockets.