The latest Apple release is the iPhone Pocket, designed in collaboration with Japanese fashion label Issey Miyake. It went on sale on Friday, Nov. 14 and in a matter of hours it was completely sold out at apple.com. Here’s why.
The iPhone Pocket is a way to carry your iPhone. “Inspired by the concept of ‘a piece of cloth,’ its singular 3D-knitted construction is designed to fit any iPhone as well as all pocketable items,” as Apple described it when it was unveiled on Tuesday, Nov. 11. You can squeeze every iPhone from the original right up to the iPhone 17 Pro Max into it, and still have space for some other (small) items.
It immediately came under fire for being “a cut-up sock,” as one post on X read, adding, “Apple people will pay anything for anything as long as it’s Apple.”
The price was also mocked: it costs $229.95 for the longer version and $149.95 for the shorter. T3 said it was “the most Apple product in years,” with the writer adding that he loved it. MG Siegler in his Spyglass newsletter called it “an insanely expensive sock,” and pointed out it was more expensive than some other Apple offerings, such as the HomePod mini, AirTag and Apple TV 4K.
But the price may have been a red herring: a collab with Issey Miyake was never going to come cheap, and it was likely to attract the attention of a fashion-conscious crowd. Since the price wasn’t an issue for such customers, it looks like the combination of the fashion name, the originality of the Pocket and, perhaps, the words “Special Edition,” which let users know this was going to be a limited release all made the new accessory appealing. Apple doesn’t partner with other brands often.
As Vogue pointed out, the Pocket marked “the tech brand’s first union with a fashion house since the Apple Watch Hermès in 2015.”
So, perhaps it’s not surprising that within a tiny number of hours, every color in each length is marked as sold out on apple.com in the U.S. Since there are eight different colors on the shorter Pocket and three on the longer one, there seems to have been interest in every version of the Pocket.
Right now, there are still items available outside the U.S.: apple.com/uk has availability of every color of iPhone Pocket in the short size, but the long models are all sold out.
Something that initially received a bit of shade is proving to be a sell-out success for Apple.
