Apple's Shift from Leather to Fine Woven: A Sustainability Paradox?

Look, man, I'm just perplexed by this choice

And I am disappointed because I think that, I think that leather is a really beautiful

uh, uh, um, material that has a, has a unique aesthetic as it ages

It has like that, that beautiful patina that, that is developed over time

which is a very unique, uh, aesthetic. Indiana Jones, look cool in his leather hat

How would you like him if he was wearing a paw? polyester hat. Like, there's just something cool about leather

And what I don't get is that in an effort to be more eco-conscious

Apple is getting rid of leather and moving to these fine woven bounds. Now, look, these fine woven bands are probably beautiful

but they are made from all the research I've done. They're made from nylon and they're made from polyester

which are obviously not natural materials and don't decompose like natural materials

Do you like leather decomposes? It's made of animal skin. And so I am truly perplexed by this choice

because if you're talking about sustainability, you're moving from a natural resource

which decomposes to one that probably takes hundreds of years to decompose

Now, they are using recycled material in the sport loops and the fine woven bands in cases

I don't know. There are different percentages depending on what, band you're looking at, but they're still using plastic, essentially. And this plastic doesn't

decompose. So does this make sense to anyone else? I mean, like, I just don't understand it

And I think it's a weird move. And it's not a move that I'm happy that they're making because I think leather products have a beautiful class to them that is just not matched by plastic products

It is a weird look that in the same keynote where they talk about their, you know

Net zero initiatives, how you can buy an Apple Watch that's now completely carbon neutral

It's weird that in that same keynote, they would introduce a new kind of band that doesn't meet those standards

Like, if you configure an Apple Watch with a fine woman band, I'm pretty sure like the green leaf carbon neutral mark goes away

Like why would it a weird thing to introduce at the same time But from what I heard of I mean I haven seen Fine Movement I haven purchased any of those bands

But from when I've heard from people who went to the event, they say that it does like

sort of have a similar sort of look to it. I mean, essentially it's pleather, right

Yeah. Or quote unquote, vegan leather. Like all the cases you see on Amazon, they're like, it's, it's leather and then hash or

asterisk vegan leather. And vegan leather, there's no such thing as vegan leather

It's plastic that you're using. I don't think it's, I don't think it is like that similar to vegan leather

Like, like, vegan leather doesn't have like a woven texture to it. You know, it tries to replicate like the sort of skin pattern of leather

And their fine woven things are like markedly different. But I'm not saying that fine woven is a bad material

Like I'm looking at pictures of it and it actually looks really beautiful. Like it looks like suede

And, and so I think that I would, probably be happy with a band like this. I'm just saying it's just an odd choice to me to move from

a natural resource that is commonly available. Like they make it seem like they're growing the cows

just for their skin, but people eat beef. So the entirety of the cow is used in different ways

Like the meat's obviously eaten. The skin is used for leather products. So it seems like the

leather is available because of all these other reasons, like the entirety of the cow is being used

whereas now they are going to be making more plastic products that may be made of recycled material

but they will eventually end up in a landfill where they will sit for hundreds of years and not decompose

So I just, I think it's an odd look. And it doesn't seem like it's sustainable to me

and it doesn't seem like it's good for the environment to be creating even more plastic products

But again, that's just me. I don't have a problem with the fine woven. Like I said, they look like they're beautiful

And I wouldn't be a... And people like you can still buy third-party leather products

You'll still be able to buy a leather iPhone case. There's so many of those

And I guarantee that they will look and feel virtually identical to Apple's own products

because now those are free to copy to no end. And I noticed that Hermes was quick to announce their own leather straps

Apple won't be selling them, but they will be. And Hermes has like this totally bizarre-looking strap that they're offering through Apple

it looks like it floral fluorolastomer and I like who wants to pay I don know how much an RMS strap cost was it like or something but like who going to pay for a

for a high end plastic watch strap you know what I mean

that just that that just doesn't compute it's like a bizarre contradiction

it's like it's high end but it's made from plastic things that are high end

are not made from plastic so they're trying to they're trying to go with the flow

and create this new strap type for Apple, but would you pay $800 for a strap made of floral elastomer

just because it has Hermes stamped on it? Maybe people would, but I don't think they cost that much

but maybe they're less. That's the other thing, too, like fine woven, from a quality perspective

doesn't seem like it would command the same price as a leather product does

because leather products are usually higher quality, more expensive. Sean from the chat saying that Lewis would look good in one of these

purple or these orange Hermes straps have you considered this Lewis which one is that the the bracelets

oh yeah right I don't know you know it's a bold look

that describes you so there you go like those things just to be clear those Hermes watch bands those Hermes watch bands are 349

all the ones on there except like a couple of them are 449 so they're not whatever libel is

amount you just mentioned. But still, that's a lot of money. You don't think $3.49 for a plastic

No, no. Okay. I'm saying it's a lot of money and I would never pay that much money. I'm just

saying it's not quite as much as you feared. Yeah, it's not $1,000. You can back away from

the ledge. I almost lost it, Lewis. I almost lost it. I'm with you on this thing though. I like

the leather stuff. Although, I mean, Apple's leather cases, I never found them to be the best leather cases

In fact, I mean, do you really like Apple's cases? It seems like to me, they are more expensive and less durable than other brands

I would agree with you there. The only reason I got into Apple leather cases is because when I found out that carriers

would liquidate them every time a new phone came out, you could get them for $14, $15

And I'm like, the Apple leather case is definitely worth that price. I got one for my wife

And it's really a nice case. It's not the best case I've ever used for sure. But for I was like yeah this is definitely worth it I mean that the thing Like Apple may not be offering leather products Obviously everyone else in the Apple ecosystem is going to continue offering leather products

And their leather products are probably better than apples anyway. So, you know, whatever

But I just thought it was a weird choice to do that. I'm like, how do they get it in their mind that moving away from leather to a plastic is a good choice for the environment

that just was truly confounding to me. It said that the fine woven stuff is 68% post-consumer recycled

Yeah. For what it's worth. I mean, so at least they're using some recycled stuff. I mean, that was maybe the one, this leather deal was maybe the one part of that little

Mother Nature skit that they did that I was, you know, because they're really dissing on the leather. They even like, you know, made fun of some guy for wearing a leather jacket

I'm like, you know, there is something to be said about, you know, using all of the cow

Yeah, and that whole dissing that guy The Leather Jacket, I thought that was a bad look too

Like, it came off as very pious to me. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, now all of a sudden

you're too good for leather. You've been selling leather this whole time. And now the guy who showed up in Leather Jacket is like this huge D-bag

Yeah, like, come on. What? Yeah, that was the one part of that. It was off-putting to me

Like, yeah, I found that a little bit annoying. Now, look, I don't think leather jackets are that cool

There probably are some out there that aren't cool. Indiana Jones, I go back to the Indiana Jones reference

But you can't clown the guy if we're wearing a leather jacket. Like, dude, people have been wearing leather jackets for, you know

thousands, tens of thousands of years. You know, before we had fine woven, guess what people wore

They wore leather. Yeah. Do you buy a fine woven jacket, they're fun

I don't know, I've got to see it first. This green one looks pretty nice. Do you think the fine woven stuff looks good, huh

I'm not sold on just the pictures. To me, it looks, I don't know. I do think that it looks cheaper

than leather does. Leather, again, has a really beautiful, classic look to it

And I'll have to see. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it just looks like a

synthetic band, like the kind that you would see on Amazon. I'm sure Apple probably did it very nicely

And I'm not opposed to it again. I mean, whatever. If it looks good, it looks good

But there's something about that satin sheen to a weathered leather strap

or a jacket or a hat or something that just looks, it has like a really beautiful aesthetic to it