Apple dropped a new ad dubbed ‘Goodbye Leather’ to highlight the company’s elimination of leather in accessories for its products like the iPhone. However, the ad comes as the company faces significant criticism over the new ‘FineWoven’ material it started using in place of leather.
The iPhone maker’s big focus with the launch of FineWoven alongside the iPhone 15 series was the environment, with the company touting the new material’s lower carbon footprint. Apple said FineWoven uses 68 percent post-consumer recycled content and that it would be the material going forward as the company phased out leather in all accessories.
Despite the noble cause, customers have not taken to FineWoven. And arguably, it isn’t even that noble given the myriad ways Apple impacts the environment — why do we need yearly iPhone updates that change practically nothing about the phone and only serve to encourage wasteful upgrades?
The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, for example, trashed her FineWoven case in a newsletter, writing that after five months of use, its “edges are peeling, the fabric is scratched up like an old CD and it’s browning like a rotten banana.”
Notably, Apple’s Goodbye Leather makes no mention of FineWoven, and the company hasn’t commented on criticism of the new material. Given the public stance Apple has taken on not using leather, I doubt we’ll see the company bring back leather accessories, but we could see it make changes or improvements to FineWoven going forward. That, or the company will quietly phase it out and introduce a new material in the future.
For now, though, iPhone owners in need of a good case will want to avoid FineWoven.
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