Clones of Apple’s $230 iPhone sock are flooding the internet
When Apple released its sock design for the iPhone, the internet called it ridiculous. But the contempt hasn’t stopped sales of the accessory; demand grew and the collaboration with Japanese design house Issey Miyake quickly sold out.
Apple marketed the bag under the name “iPhone Pocket”, pricing the short version at $150 and the crossbody variant at $230. Both models are now unavailable online and in stores, helped by the product’s timely entry into an already massive trend, particularly in Asia, where hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of iPhone sling holders have been sold. according to Bloomberg. The design is essentially a high-fashion evolution of Apple’s original $29 iPod sock, which Steve Jobs laughingly debuted in 2004.
The official Apple Pocket may be rare, but knockoffs are now showing up everywhere, from one version for a few dollars on the Chinese e-commerce site AliExpress at almost $100 Counterfeits on Amazon listed by a retailer in Gujarat, India. Etsyin particular, is flooded with dupes, many of which cost around $20 or $30.
But before you get a generic version, you may want to do a little more research into the quality of the fabric and the conditions under which the knockoffs were made.
If you have some free time this holiday season, you can also try making your own. There are knitting patterns for sale on Etsy to help you DIY your iPhone Pocket., although you also need to watch out for those now; some users of generative AI tools have flooded the market with fake knitting and crochet instructions, proving that there is no corner of the internet too niche for AI.
