The iPhone Pocket is a new accessory that revives the concept of the iPod Sock. It's also an interesting fashion-forward choice that may not be to everyone's liking, but then it doesn't need to be.
Apple's November 11 launch of the iPhone Pocket arrived with little warning but to a massive fanfare, due to its unusual nature. A brightly-colored piece of fabric that looked like a cross between a scarf and a badly-designed sock, with a section to hold your iPhone.
Its design and bright colors certainly caught the attention of collectors and people wanting a fashion item for their wardrobe. Like other popular Apple products, it quickly became a sold-out item in the United States, China, and other countries.
Thankfully, AppleInsider was able to procure one before the rush of sales depleted supplies.
This is what it's like to get and use the year's unusual Apple accessory.
What is it?
The iPhone Pocket is a collaboration between Apple and Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion house. The brand is named after the late designer Issey Miyake, best known for being the creator of the black turtleneck favored by Steve Jobs.
This design aesthetic starts when you get the box. Even in the brown shipping box is a little surprising because it is unexpectedly large.
Then that cardboard outer shipping box comes with built-in inserts that keep the inside box protected, almost floating. That inner box is pure Apple design, with the same pull tabs to open it as all current Apple devices.
iPhone Pocket inside its packaging.
And then inside you get a plastic pouch whose top you peel off to reveal the Pocket. It's reminiscent of the Apple Watch packaging, but much larger as the iPhone Pocket is presented at full, flat stretch.
It's a perfect stretch, too, with no possibility of it having folded up or creased during shipping. Because it takes a cue from shirts and blouses, in that it uses a cardboard insert to keep the item's shape.
Unlike any other clothing, though, that cardboard is also a set of instructions. Instructions for putting your iPhone into the iPhone Pocket.
They're not long instructions.
All they really tell you is to put your iPhone in where you just took this cardboard out. Picture a length of woollen fabric in two layers, a top and a bottom, with a long slit through the middle.
That's the pocket for the iPhone. The slit looks equidistant from the top and bottom of the iPhone Pocket, but it's very clear which end is which.
Opening the iPhone Pocket packet.
You can only slot the iPhone into one end. The other then acts like a handle. This is a pouch, really, and a compact one.
That's true of both of the two sizes of the iPhone Pocket, although there's a difference in how you then use the different types. The shorter version, which is what AppleInsider tested, is meant to be hand-held or tied onto bags.
A longer version is intended more as a shoulder-worn accessory. Think of it like a cross-body strap, but as a fashion item foremost.
Obviously, for people who may be used to carrying around a notebook bag for their MacBook or other portable containing apparel, this is probably not in their wheelhouse. That too goes for anyone who has ample numbers of pockets at their disposal.
Bringing back the Sock
The most obvious point of comparison is the iPod Sock, an old accessory designed to hold the iPod. It lasted for a surprisingly long time, from 2004 until 20212 when it was discontinued.
As a thing that can hold an Apple device, there are parallels. The short version of the iPhone Pocket is available in a wide array of colors, much like the iPod Sock, and both sizes have the same sort of ribbed appearance.
The modern-day accessory is a bit of an expansion from just being a long sock, thanks to a couple of design tweaks. For a start, there is that slit that lets you access the iPhone.
Issey Miyake branding on the iPhone Pocket label.
Like the quite literal sock design of the iPod Sock, the iPhone Pocket is a knitted item, but using what is referred to as a "3D-knitted construction." While knitting is inherently 3D, the version here means that the design uses a continuous thread of material to produce the entire piece, without any cuts and no obvious seams.
You still have the ribbed effect, which provides a level of protection for the iPhone it is designed to hold. There's also a stretchiness built into the design, so it will easily accommodate a tiny iPhone SE but also bulge enough to fit a modern iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Idea and practice
It will hold iPhones in their cases, too, and Apple suggests that you might want to add other things to it as well. You might want to, but you probably won't.
For if you pop in a pair of AirPods, for instance, it looks like a snake that has eaten a dog in one go. It stretches, there's no criticism of it technically, but it looks bulbous.
Add in an Apple Pencil and it can look positively rude.
The argument that you should be able to put more than iPhone in here sounds like an attempt to justify the cost. It also speaks to the now commonly repeated claim that the iPhone Pocket is for women, since for ridiculous historical reasons, women's clothing has so few pockets.
It's really for anyone whose clothing means a bulky iPhone makes them look like they're carrying a concealed weapon
But for women or men, it is not a replacement for any other purse or handbag, it's a supplement. It's one more thing to carry, which reduces its worth since you could just keep the phone in your bag like you always have.
There is the benefit that it's easy to get the iPhone out of and back into the Pocket. But with the short version, there are limits to that.
The iPhone Pocket expands to show it obviously holds an iPhone
It is just about possible to wear the short version over your shoulder, depending on the size of your arms. But it isn't possible to then slip the phone in and out of it without taking the whole thing off.
Plus, in this and many other ways of carrying the iPhone Pocket, the top above the slit always pokes up. The wool makes it comfortable to wear, but it always looks awkward.
This short one is more designed to either be carried or worn around your wrist.
If you're carrying it, it's reminiscent of 1920s women's dainty handbags with the long handles. If it's slung around your wrist instead, you tend to only feel it's safe if you put your hand in your pocket.
That isn't practical and you do come to forget you're holding it. But that's exactly why AppleInsider managed to briefly leave the iPhone Pocket — and the iPhone with it — inside a car.
What you expect and what you don't
Just from the photos and Apple's descriptions, you know that there's no protection for the iPhone and that's fine. It isn't pretending to be a rugged accessory, it's a comfortable and fashionable one.
But also, if you see Apple's imagery, you've got the wrong idea of how this works. Apple keeps showing the pocket with the iPhone's cameras visible and that simply isn't true.
Even with a Pro Max model, the whole iPhone goes in under the wool with no visible sign of the camera lenses at all.
The iPhone Pocket's wool ribs provide little real protection.
There is often a visible sign of the iPhone being on, though. Certain parts of the iPhone Pocket let the light from the phone's screen shine out.
It looks like you have little pinpricks of light down certain seams, though not all of them.
Although what you do most definitely get on every single surface of the iPhone Pocket is dust. It is an instantaneous dust magnet.
High fashion, high cost
It is clear that the iPhone Pocket is not an accessory for everyone. The way it is designed and the limited practical uses makes it very much a fashion accessory to go with an iPhone than a must-have bit of kit.
To those who are hyper-protective of their iPhone, they may look at the design and believe it will be more easily stolen, dangling from their body by a bit of knitwear.
The Issey Miyake connection and the limited edition nature of the piece certainly help make the iPhone Pocket seem like a more valuable purchase to some.
The multitude of color options available for the short version, and some tasteful options for the longer model, may also convince some to buy more than one iPhone Pocket.
The decision to use select physical Apple Store locations around the world for customers to try and match the iPhone Pocket colors to customer iPhones also adds to this being a fashion-based product. It's akin to trying on clothes at an outlet, except without needing a changing room.
If that's not enough to consider this to be a fashion accessory, consider the pricing. At $149.95 for the short strap-like version and $229.95 for the long edition, these are expensive for an iPhone accessory, full stop.
Sure, Apple has committed the sin of selling fabric to consumers at a high price in the past. The $19 Polishing Cloth is a prime example of that, but it certainly wasn't an item you would consider "fashionable" in any way, unlike the iPhone Pocket.
According to Yoshiyuki Miyame, design director of Miyake Design Studio, "iPhone Pocket explores the concept of the joy of wearing iPhone in your own way.'"
That seems a stretch — pun intended — because it's actually about wearing your iPhone the way the studio and Apple propose. There's not a lot of individuality possible, although CNET's Bridget Carey has a superb video demonstrating using it as everything from a scarf to — at least attempting to be — an actual sock.
Five stars to one star
As practical protection for your iPhone, this is a one-star product. But it isn't meant to be that.
Instead, the iPhone Pocket sets out to be a fashion accessory for your iPhone. And in that sense, it does the job exactly.
Apple's iPhone Pocket lifestyle shot [left], model's own [right]
It's not like you can say it needs longer battery life, or that the type of wool used is problematic. It might be — it's going to be interesting to see how it stands up to getting wet, or to being washed.
And there is of course the temptation, practically the need, to criticize the price. Yet this is Apple, so high prices can't really be a shock.
When it comes to attempts at high fashion, Apple has ended up with much higher-priced items available for purchase. For example, when it tried to sell a solid gold Apple Watch Edition for up to $17,000, and eventually gave up on the idea in favor of ceramics.
The modern-day equivalent would be the Hermes Apple Watch Series 11, which adds some premium designer bands and a wallet-killing starting price of $1,249.
Maybe in these current economic times, it feels out of step to sell this strip of knit fabric at these prices. But if you have the budget and you want what this gives you, you should go for it.
Assuming it comes back in stock. Ask us again if eBay prices go even higher.
