The MacCase 12 MacBook Backpack - Behind the Design

Third in a series of interviews about the story behind the design of MacCase products.

For this interview, we are again speaking to MacCase President and Chief Creative Officer Michael Santoro about the company's new 12 MacBook Backpack.

JKD - This is the first of several new Apple specific backpacks based on your current backpack design. Why not do something brand new?

MS - That's a good question and I think it comes down to two things. The first being that it's not really my style to have endless solutions to what is essentially the same problem. In this case, how to protect and transport Apple's vulnerable 12 MacBook model. Other bag companies, especially the more mainstream ones have hundreds of models or let's say several dozen across a broad array of price points.

And backpacks are all they do or is 80% of their business. Well it's 80% of their business because they have so many models but they're all basically the same form factor. They change the colors, sizes and some of the details but nothing really radical is going on across the line.

MacCase is about a lot of form factors. They are trying to solve a bunch of problems with the same form factor. We are trying to solve a similar set of problems with an assortment of form factors, with the backpack being one of many. They say we are in an age of specialization and maybe that's true. But it's much more interesting to me to designs a broad range of products vs. having 10 traditional backpacks in the line.

Which leads me to the second part of my answer. We spent a lot of time on the new Universal design. It's been out almost a year and is still the best bag of it's kind of the money. So we tweaked it and added some things to it to make it Apple specific and an even better value. We didn't need to reinvent the wheel. The base we had to work off of was excellent so that's what we did.

JKD - So what were the goals for the 12 MacBook Backpack?

MS - Unlike a lot of the backpack companies out there, MacCase doesn't just put a backpack out there and hope for the best regarding fit and protection. If it's a Apple specific sleeve, bag or case we try to make sure the fit is perfect. When we approached the 12 MacBook, we had a opportunity to do something innovative in the tradition of MacCase backpack design.

JKD - So the 12 MacBook Backpack is special because…..

MS - Almsot all, if not all laptop backpacks are designed to hold the the laptop vertically, inline with the long axis of the backpack and the person wearing it. We do this too. It's standard practice in packaging the elements. But for the 12 MacBook backpack, we did something different. We turned the computer on it's side so it' horizontal to the world and perpendicular to the long axis of the backpack.

JKD - And this is special because?

MS - The first thing this does is lower the center of gravity for the pack and therefore lowers the center of gravity for the person wearing it. This increases stability and make it less awkward to do things like walk, ride a bike, etc. It also takes the pressure off your shoulders and upper spine having the weight lower down respectively.

The second thing it does is creates a much safer place for the 12" MacBook, which, let's face it, is not the much stout computer out there. It's so light and thin and fragile. It can do with all the protection you can offer it. So we offered it a lot. It sits way down in the built-in horizontal sleeve so it's nearly completely covered by the walls of foam and liner. It's very secure, will not rattle around and will be safe from any other items, hardware or otherwise, that you might choose to put inside.

So those are two very important benefits to the customer. One helps them move through the day easier and the other helps protect their investment. That's good stuff and helps set apart from everyone else.

 

JKD - It sound like you spend a lot of time thinking about these types of things, making your products better, improving the user experience and value to you customer…

MS - I hope so ( laughing). That's sort of my job. I wear a lot of hats. I like to. But there is none more important than the one that says "designer". We've been doing this a long time now. So many bag companies have come and gone since the first MacCase was created which seems like a 100 years ago now.

I'd like to think if we went away that our customers would miss us. We try to do the best work we can. put the best product out there we can. It's not about widgets and nickels and dimes for us. We care. We do the best we can with what we have. We don't always get it right. No one does. Show me a band whose every album is great.

I when I was in this entrepreneur training program called "Fast Track" we were told the most important thing you can have is a "sustainable competitive advantage". At MacCase we have that, it's called my brain, (laughing).

I just saw on ebags that they were promoting a certain backpack saying it was their #1 laptop backpack. There was absolutely nothing new or innovative or interesting about it. Not a single thing. It was the backpack version of a beige Toyota Camry. ZZZZZzzzzzz.

It looked like you were going camping. It had great distribution and good brand equity so people can see it and find and and know the brand so they buy it. But there is a number of people who'll look at that pack and think, I want something better. I don't want to look like I'm going camping.

I don't want to look like everybody else and I for sure don't want something that exceeds so brilliantly at being so utterly uninteresting. That person will find MacCase, find our 12 MacBook Backpack and say, yeah, that's what I want. That works. That's me. And I know this because I talk to one of those people at least once a day.

JKD - Thanks again for your time.

MS - Always a pleasure Jody.

 "That person will find our 12 MacBook Backpack and say, yeah, that's what I want. That works. That's me."

MacCase Universal Backpack - Best Small Laptop Backpack

Whenever we develop a new model we try to make it the best of it's kind in it's class. When we developed the Universal Backpack and then later the MacBook Pro Backpack versions, we wanted nothing short of creating the best small laptop backpack available for the money.

Of course we can pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves what a wonderful job we did and how successful we were at achieving our goal. But you know were are wearing the myopia glasses so patting ourselves on the back is somewhat expected. And hey, we worked hard and we want you to like our work. It's a good sign when someone creates something they're proud of. The world could use with a bit more product quality to be proud of vs. being proud of a marketing campaign for a mediocre or weak product.

For years it has been accepted belief that BMW made the best small sport sedan, their venerable 3 series. I believe it's the longest running car on Car & Drivers 10 best list. It's the benchmark. If you're a car company and you want to make a small, sporty sedan and be taken seriously about it, you buy a 3 Series, tear it down, copy it if you can and put your logo on whatever it is you create.

When a car company launches a new small sporty sedan to the press they always reference how much better their new offering is than the 3 Series. "We have this, and this and this and this and they don't", the typical pitch goes. The whole press briefing is spent taking up the new car vs. the 3 series. Then they let the press drive their new car and go back and write their articles (or edit the video footage they've shot).

Then we read the pieces and the conclusions are almost always the same, "Yeah the new car is good but it's not a 3 Series". " Yeah this is nice and that is nice, but overall the 3 Series still reigns"… and so on. Did the car company that built the 3 Series fighter think they did a great job? Of course they did. It may be the best small sporty sedan in the company's history. But the journalists and more importantly, the customers have the last word.

 

Which brings us back to the best small laptop backpack. If you check the MacCase Universal Backpack page, there have been two reviews posted as of this writing. One for 4 stars and one for 5. And we'll take that. Here is the 5 star review -

"Great solution for a light weight, mid-sized bag for my new MacBook 12" and other toys. I needed a small to mid-sized bag for around town coffee shop runs and some light, casual travel. I was pleased to find the Universal Laptop Backpack! My first impression during unboxing was how light the bag is, second is how well padded the bag is.

Currently I have these items in the bag with a LOT of interior room to spare... MacBook 12", iPad Mini, Canon G7x camera, Think Tank Cable Mgt 10 small pouch full of cables/chargers/etc., a full size and a mid-size Moleskine notebook, two pens, Beats Studio headphones, iPod Nano and a microfiber cloth. The bag holds way more than you think it will, it's quite amazing despite the modest exterior size.

I prefer a subtle look for my bags, nothing flashy that screams "steal me, I'm full of electronics!". The Universal Laptop Backpack is stealthy and beautiful at the same time. My items are well protected and the bag doesn't weigh a ton. I love the padded handle on top of the bag, great for flying and in/out of the car. The best part about this bag is everything above, but for less than $60... simply awesome. A few more pockets would have been nice, but that is by no means a complaint. This bag balances minimal with functional very well. This is my first MacCase bag and I am already contemplating my second one!"

For Scott, our product was the best small laptop backpack. Everything this customer mentions above was in our brief for the new design. It's very rewarding to read such a review because, like the car company trying to make a 3 Series fighter, the sub $60 backpack market is very crowded and very competitive. But quoting happy customers on a company website is well, easy if you have a good product.

What about a third party website?

What about a third party website that specializes in only selling bags whose customer base is particularly knowledgeable and extremely critical about the bags they buy. This would be the equivalent of the launching the 3 Series fighter and seeing what the world thinks. If you had hopes of making the worlds best small laptop backpack, this would be the place to prove it.

Well the customers on ebags.com have spoken. 100% recommended, 4.8 stars out of 5 which is even higher score than the 4.5 on our own site. Some of the comments include, "The bag is very nice. I love the zippers which allows the bag to open wider than other backpacks. The cushion is also outstanding."

"This little pack from MacCase really spoke to my needs. It's light, compact, and kind of round in a way that doesn't say you're carrying a laptop. I have to walk at night a lot so the reflective strips on the sides are an extra safety bonus."

"There are a lot of clever details all over this bag. I think the thing that makes this pack so good is the way it puts all these things together. It seems very tough but also very refined. Overall I can see using this bag for a long time. So far it's been a great companion and a great value. Highly recommended!"

Does a little company like MacCase build the worlds best small laptop backpack? Well "best" is a very subject term and even when people try to objectify it, it still causes arguments. They key takeaway here is than we know our little Universal Backpack is not the best small laptop backpack for everybody, the only person it has to be the best solution for is you. If you're looking for a lightweight, compact day use pack, have a look at our Universal Backpack and the MacBook and MacBook Pro models. And let us know ( and the rest of the world too!) if you think it's the best small laptop backpack.

"It's not the best small laptop backpack for everybody, the only person it has to be the best solution for is you." 

Preview - MacCase Premium Leather iPad Pro Sleeve

Word has finally come in from our tannery that the new iPad Pro models should be shipping sometime around the middle of March. Included in that shipment with be our Premium Leather iPad Pro Sleeve.

Designed as part of the 4 new models for the iPad Pro, our newest sleeve design has more in common with our original sleeve for Apple's tablet, than it does with our leather sleeves for Apple laptops. This makes sense as it is an iPad after all, though it's large size and scale makes it more comparable to a MacBook or MacBook Air.

A Brief History of the MacCase Sleeve

 A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…… Oh wait, that's a different story. Way back when the internet was still searched by Netscape Navigator or AOL (kids, ask your parents), MacCase created a briefcase for the original clamshell iBook. It took off and was a big hit. The very next product we designed and brought to market was a Sleeve for the Powerbook. They were deceptively simple in appearance but packed a very protective punch. MacCase had a second hit on it's hands. 

As the original design evolved and the Premium Leather Collection was created, the sleeve designed migrated to the leather line as well. With the release of the original iPad, customers began to ask for a sleeve for Apple's tablet. MacCase saw this as a chance to shake up our sleeve design a bit.

The original iPad Sleeve featured a first ever magnetic closure for the flap. The solid-state flash memory of the iPad allowed for the introduction of magnets where as magnets could negatively affect the old school hard drives of Apple's laptops. On the black version, we used a dual texture theme combining a smooth leather center stripe with our classic pebble grain hide. It was a very handsome combination.

Creating the Best Leather iPad Pro Sleeve

When it came time to design a sleeve for the iPad Pro we were at a crossroads. Do we follow the design vocabulary of the the laptop sleeves with our signature window, do we do something that more closely aligned the new case with the iPad model we already had, or go off in a new direction altogether?

Well, form follows function or in this case, form is function and the need for a place to store the Apple Pencil or similar stylist suggested a vertical pocket that could be integrated into the overall design of the case. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, the new iPad Pro sleeve looked very similar to the original sleeve we did for Apple's original tablet.

The hallmark feature of the new Sleeve is the centrally located pocket for the Apple Pencil or similar stylist. We wanted to highlight the pencil pocket so contrasting white thread is used around this area.

The Pencil, once placed into the pocket is kept safe and secure unlike so many other Pro cases that leave the $100 Apple Pencil dangling on the outside of the case or slid into some exterior pen loop. The Pencil pocket on the new sleeve is completely padded and lined. The same vertical center stripe is mirrored on rear panel to tie the design together, complimented by very subtle branding.

Protecting You iPad Pro - Sleeve Construction

One thing that has not changed is the proven engineering of how are sleeves our constructed. Unlike almost all of the sleeve made by all the other companies, MacCase Sleeves open along the short axis only. This maximizes the inherent structural integrity of the material.  

Think of a castle: great big building, tiny little door. Why? To maximize the protection of what's inside. Our sleeves follow the same principal. Most of the sleeves marketed for laptops and tablets all follow a similar yet highly flawed design: They open half way along one short axis, then along a major long axis then back down the other side's short axis. This large opening completely negates any structural integrity the materials might provide. 

Moreover, almost all sleeve makers use zippered closures. Zippers scratch. Again, a huge design flaw. MacCase sleeves whether for MacBook laptops or iPads, have only used short axis openings and have never used zippers for closures. 

The new leather iPad Pro sleeve continues our "best practices" design, opening along the short axis only and uses a dual, silent magnetic closure. Protection is provided by layering the materials, (liners, high density, quality foam padding, exterior quality hides) in a way we know works. One of the greatest things about being around so long and putting products into a space with such demanding customers is, that we find out what works and we find out quickly. 

If there is something we miss in the design process, in development or in testing, our customers let us know. And that issue is corrected. We have never had a single issue like this with any of our sleeves. The design, the materials, all work. They protect. Thats is something we are very proud of.

So whether you use an Apple keyboard cover or not, and are looking for the best protection for your iPad Pro when transporting it, we hope you will give our new Premium Leather iPad Pro Sleeve a long look. Each of our new iPad Pro cases uses our latest generation of our leather hides. The current hides are tanned to be the softest yet most durable we have ever produced.

So whether you choose the classic professionalism of our pebble grain black, or the rugged "Americana" of our real vintage brown, your new iPad Pro will be safe and sound.

"We hope you will give our new Premium Leather iPad Pro Sleeve a long look."

Preview - MacCase Premium Leather iPad Pro Briefcase

Things are moving forward on our new leather iPad Pro Briefcase, along with all the other models that we are diligently working on for Apple's latest and largest tablet. The Briefcase is special in that it is our first horizontal leather briefcase in our history. This post takes a look at the basic design and the some of the details of this new model.

A Little MacCase Premium Leather History

A leather messenger style shoulder bag was part of the original Premium Leather Collection that launched in 2007. It is a model that has proven to have real staying power and market presence. Even after almost a decade on the market, it is a still top seller and continues to make new fans with every sale.

For our next shoulder bag we zigged while everyone else continues to zag. We wanted to do a briefcase but something far different from the plethora of horizontal cases that others already make. Another reason for our desire to do something different with our vertical "Flight Case" was to provide a viable option for those who were graduating from the nylon messenger bags of their early 20s but were not ready for the leather briefcases of their fathers. Our vertical leather briefcase providers the perfect solution to this dilemma.

As the iPad Pro design phase kicked off, we took stock: We have a traditional, horizontal, messenger style, shoulder bag and a radical, vertical, fully structured briefcase in the line. When it came time to sit down and create the "form factors" for what were to become the iPad Pro models, we looked and tried to figure out what we were missing.

A Horizontal Version of our Flight Jacket 

One of our most popular form factors of all time is our Premium Leather Flight Jacket. A vertically oriented case of minimal bulk but maximum style. During the many hours of design time spent on what was to become the new iPad Pro cases, we kept coming back to the same question. What if we did a horizontal version of a Flight Jacket? What would it look like? Could the proportion work? What about storage? A backpack version? Minimal and compact with just enough storage to keep the functionality high, it seemed like a natural.

Sketching on the new leather iPad Pro briefcase began in earnest. There is one thing about being successful in anything for nearly a decade, it can create an expectation or an intrenched way of doing things that can stifle creativity and innovation. In the tech world, the process of not falling into that trap is called "creative destruction". Apple did this when they killed off the gum stick iPad Nano and replaced it with a model no one seemed to ask for or wanted. Sometime creative destruction works, sometimes it doesn't.

For the leather iPad Pro briefcase, we had to choose between doing something completely different or leaning on our success and going with something more comfortable. While there was a strong case for each side, in the end we wanted the fact that the case was for the iPad Pro to be the delineating factor. The center visual design theme created by emphasizing the Pencil pocket would separate it enough from the other Premium Leather models, but we still wanted it to look like it fit in with the rest of the line.

Much like the way a car company strives to have all their cars look like they are part of a family, we wanted the same for our iPad Pro cases what were going to be part of the Premium Leather Collection. (This is what happens when the guy creating all of these bags is a former, award winning car designer).

The iPad Pro Briefcase Design Details

Once the basic theme was chosen, work started on the storage. What should it hold besides the iPad Pro, and how much of these other things does it need to carry? Under flap storage proved to be a development obstacle. We wanted the pockets to be able to hold the charger and other more three dimensional items, at the same time, not affect to surface of the front panel to the point of distortion.
Inside the main compartment, the case if fully lined with the same super soft, super protective polyester sueded fabric used in all our Premium Leather models. There is not a single element of the interior that will ever cause harm to your iPad Pro.

For the under flap, front panel many pocket types were tried and discarded. We needed a pocket that would expand but not distort. After much testing we feel the final design works well. The pockets flank the visual heart of the new briefcase, the Apple Pencil pocket. Each of the new Pro models feature a vertical pocket that house the Apple Pencil or similar stylist. The pocket is fully lined and designed so the top of the Pencil is available for easy removal. Standard pen loops and credit card slots are also part of the front, under flap design. Behind this front panel is a place for magazines or other assort flat items.

 The Pencil pocket vertical element theme is featured on the full width rear panel pocket as well. While this new briefcase borrows heavily from it's Flight Jacket brothers, there is one area that is much different.

One of the most successful things about the Flight Case vertical briefcase is the way the flap attaches to the body of the bag. On the Flight Jacket models, this was achieved through the use of velcro and the removable pouch was attached with a metal, side squeeze buckle. For the iPad Pro Briefcase, we went with the same step up as on the more expensive Flight Case, opting for a horizontal clasp to secure the flap. We also borrowed the much more substantial handle design from the Flight Case as well.

These details really allow for not only a securely functioning case, but a case that feels solid, secure and substantial when you are walking around with it. This positive user experience is something that MacCase strives to achieve in every design and was a very important part of the development of all the new iPad Pro cases.

The iPad Pro Briefcase is part of the largest new product initiative in our history. Considering the "here today, gone tomorrow" nature of many of the case companies that have come and gone since we invented the Apple specific case market almost 20 years ago, this new product launch is big.

The new Briefcase is one of the flagship models of the launch. It will be available in our hallmark, distressed Vintage brown and our timeless, pebble grain black satin hides. They are in production now. We cannot wait to start shipping. For everyone who is waiting, thank you for your patience. Our goal is to design and build a leather iPad Pro briefcase case so exquisite, that you will feel it was more than worth the wait.

"Our goal is to design and build a leather iPad Pro briefcase case so exquisite, that you will feel it was more than worth the wait"

Preview - MacCase Premium Leather iPad Pro Case - Folio

As many of you know, everyone at MacCase has been working diligently on the largest new product launch in the company's history. There are 4 new leather iPad Pro case models that are moving to production as well as 3 new additions to our Standard line of nylon products for Apple's newest and largest tablet.

The model that will be the focus of this preview is the new Premium Leather iPad Pro Folio. MacCase has been making Folios for the iPad since Apple has been making tablets. Like the iPhone for Apple, MacCase's iPad Folio is the product by which many people, find, get introduced, learn about and ultimately become a customer of MacCase.

A Quality iPad Pro Case

As people move away from buying on quality towards a world where they are fooled into buying on discount (mark something up, then discount it so the customer thinks they are getting a "deal") MacCase's Premium Leather models stand in stark contrast to this trend. You can purchase an iPad case on ebay for under $10. This new leather iPad Pro case has an MSRP of $159.95. Yes, the case on ebay is basically landfill biding it's time pretending to offer protection for Apple tablets. This new, hand built case is a product that will probably out live the tablet it's designed to protect.

So what makes this leather iPad Pro Folio so special? Before any hides are picked or anything is sewn together, a great deal of time, money and energy is spent on developing the frame. This is the heart of the case. If the frame is not designed, engineered and built perfectly, it doesn't matter how soft the hides are or how well they are sewn together.

The frame is stamped from a single sheet of alloyed steel. It's then folded and welded to a very tight specification to insure it not only holds Apple's largest tablet in place but that you have access to all the ports and controls. This frame has to be strong. If you've ever purchased a snap in plastic case for an iPad, you've learned that after a short time the corners develop cracks and eventually break off offering no protection for the most vulnerable areas. In essence, you've wasted your money.

Having our lightweight, yet amazing strong hand made frame securing your iPad vs. a cheap plastic frame is the difference between using a Rolls Royce to get somewhere vs. a pair of cheap plastic roller skates. Once the frame is created, it is then covered in ultra suede and sewn into the body of the case and checkin one last time for a perfect fit.

Distinct iPad Pro Folio Design

From a design perspective, the iPad Pro opened up several opportunities to incorporate new design elements into the new leather iPad Pro case. These elements add functionality and distinction. The first of these is a place to store the Apple pencil or similar third party stylists. Several locations were looked at but it was decided that the upper left hand exterior corner offered the best overall functionality as well as an interesting stylistic opportunity. A very special die was created to mold the leather into a three dimensional form that becomes the pocket for the pencil. The overall appearance is quite handsome and integrated. It looks very organic. The closure flap for the pencil pocket is secured with a single hidden magnet. Very elegant.

While the exterior pencil pocket is the most visible clue that is Folio is for the Pro, another Pro specific  detail that is just as impactful is hidden inside. Many of the cases available for Apple tablets smother or mask the speaker, muffling the music, voice or other sounds emanating from them. MacCase incorporates what is called a "SoundBoard" design by which a material is used to achieve the opposite.

For the Pro, a hard smooth leather is used under and around each of the 4 speakers in the Pros body. When you slide the tablet into the Folio, the sound is not masked but projected. Sound waves love smooth, hard surfaces. Having the sound waves exciting the speakers and hitting the leather causes the sound to then be projected out and away from both the case and tablet. Lower volumes can be used vs. not having the SoundBoard design, saving battery life.

Because older iPad models have a single speaker, there was always one SoundBoard area in each Folio to project the sound. With the leather iPad Pro Folio, there are 4 to match the 4 speakers contained in the tablet. The effect is even greater than the single SoundBoard Folio models and has to be heard to be believed. These two new features combine with industry leading, hand made build quality and some of the softest, most durable hides available to create a truly special leather iPad Pro case.

The case does fold into movie and typing modes just like it's sister models for the Air and Mini. The thing that is most striking about the new Folio is not the Pro specific details or the largeness of the case. It is the serious sense of quality is the case exudes. It feels solid and safe and expensive. It is one of those things in the world that is un-compromised. That is a wonderful feeling. The case will be available in the company's signature distressed, Vintage and pebble grain, black satin hides.

Production is commencing on all the new iPad Pro models. MacCase is working flat out to insure they get them in stock as soon as possible. At the same time, their commitment to building the highest quality cases will not waiver. This type of passion and commitment has endeared MacCase Premium Leather Folios to users all over the world including many leading names in music, television, film advertising, literature and similar professions. The latest versions of the leather Folio looks to carry on that grand tradition for Apple's latest and largest tablet in a spectacular fashion.

"The new leather iPad Pro case has design elements that Apple's newest tablet has opened opportunities for"

Leather iPad Pad Pro Cases - The New MacCase Flight Jacket

As our product line, specifically our Premium Leather models, have expanded, so too have the options we have offered with each model. With our new leather iPad Pro cases, specifically our new iPad Pro Flight Jacket, we take the options list to a whole new level. In this post, we'll take a closer look at the forthcoming iPad Pro Flight Jacket and the wide array of options that is going to allow customers to build the iPad Pro case of their dreams.

Let's start with the new Flight Jacket itself. While it's about the same size overall as the current 13" MacBook Pro Flight Jacket, this new tablet specific model represents the future of what has been called "The Greatest Laptop Case Ever Designed". The most obvious visual change is a new stripe down the middle of the bag. This is the visual design element that is present on all the new iPad Pro specific models. The center stripe does have a function. It is the pocket for the Apple pencil but again, also serves as a visual cue to let everyone know that this model is designed specifically for Apple newest and largest tablet.

 

While we have added the new center stripe, the vertical side squeeze buckle and velcro closure for the flap are gone. The flap will no longer be closed with the twin velcro pads that was part of the original Flight Jacket design going back to 2008.  The new flap closure borrows the horizontal clasp latch from MacCase's $300+ Premium Leather Flight Case leather briefcase. It uses the same "tucked under and away" placement allowing the clasp to add detail to the front of the bag without becoming the overpowering visual element.

iPad Pro Flight Jacket Options

If you unlatch the flap and fold it up, you'll see that the twin velcro pads are still there. They have been repurposed. Their new reason for being is to supply the attachment points for the optional, removable storage pouches which are the first of the 6 new options we will discuss. The smaller of the two pouches is about the same size as the current pouch that is on all the MacBook Pro Flight Jackets. The second of the 2 pouches, the Large, is about 50% larger. It features twin exterior pockets as well as an interior mesh pocket to hold smaller items. These kinds of details were requested by several customers during our "what features do you want in your iPad Pro cases" outreach. We listened.

Both pouches feature the same center stripe design element that that is so prominent on the body of the bag. This beautifully ties them visually to the bag whether you're using the small or large pouch. One big difference between these two new pouches and the current MacBook Pro Flight Jacket pouch is that these use zippers. The current models use a small velcro square for a closure. Moving to zippers for these pouches are a huge improvement in quality, safety and security.

Another detail that also carries over from today's pouch designs is the small tab on the rear of the pouch. This tab is designed to slot into the horizontal loop on the front face of the iPad Pro case body. This is a security feature. If, for whatever reason the pouch is not securely attached at the top and it should somehow come loose and attempts to fall off, the small tab will prevent this. It has been on our Jacket models since the beginning and it has saved more than a few pouches from  being lost.

 

The next two options are carry over from the current Flight Jacket options list: backpack straps and a shoulder pad. These options are favorites with current Flight Jacket owners so it made sense to carry them over to the new Pro model. We are working on a new ultralight weight backpack strap set that we hope to have ready when the new products are available to ship.

Last but on least on the options list is a new slip case for the iPhone. This new case is not model specific. We designed it so your iPhone can wear a band or other such snap on case and still fit in the new slip case. The slip case is designed to slip onto the shoulder strap so your iPhone is always just a reach away. It features the same "Center Stripe" design vocabulary as the Flight Jacket so when you add it, it will all match perfectly.

This has been a very exciting time for MacCase. It's not everyday or even every year we get a new form factor to design for from Apple. These new leather iPad Pro cases give us a chance to flex our creative muscle and implement certain features that customer have been asking for. it also gives us a chance to open things up a bit to allow customers to truly build the leather iPad Pro cases of their dreams. Do you want extra storage, a backpack, a case for your iPhone and a way to attach your iPad Pro case to a roller bag? Now you can order that case and not have to pay for features you don't think you'll ever use.

In addition, you can order one of these new leather iPad Pro cases today and just get the base mode. Come back in a month and order a pouch. Come back a month later and order the iPhone case or the shoulder pad. The choice is yours and our options plan allows the case to grow and change as your needs do. We hope to implement these type of option plans for as many products as we can. Let us know what you think.

 "With our new leather iPad Pro cases, we take the options list to a whole new level"

Leather iPad Pro Cases - Pre Order Now!

We have to admit we are taking a bit of a risk with this one. We knew we'd have to come up with something creative if we were going to be offering our leather iPad Pro cases for sale so early in the development cycle. Usually we wait until the products are much further along in their development before we begin to take pre-orders.

But the emails and phone calls have been coming in from perspective iPad Pro owners who are looking to see what MacCase has coming. And they are interested in placing orders. So we decided to do something we have never done before, which is to take pre-orders on products we do not even have images for.

We created simple line drawing that represent the overall theme of the forthcoming models as best we could. This is what we posted and this is what you'll find if you look up leather iPad Pro cases on our site. It's not just a simple line drawing though. The full specs are also there. Overall size as well as all the features and benefits are listed. We are hoping between the line drawings, features list and all the other products we show on our site, potential customers we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from our new models.

The new Premium Leather iPad Pro Flight Jacket

We realize that is is very unorthodox to expect people to place orders online from a drawing alone. Especially when the rest of the site is so full of product specific images and videos. We understand. But we are here if you have any questions. And the questions have been coming in. "Do your new leather iPad Pro cases fit an aftermarket keyboard?" "Is there a place for the Apple pencil?" We welcome the questions and are here to answer them, whether by phone or email.

Details and Features for our Leather iPad Pro Cases

Earlier in the year we did an outreach asking current MacCase customers what features and details they wanted in a leather iPad Pro case. The response was excellent with many customers providing succinct details of the type of product features they wanted to see. Almost all of them have been implemented in one form or another in our new models. Some having almost all of them while others, due to the nature of the form factor, have a few. We did our best to answer the call for the features requested and they add a lot of value to each model.

First drawing released for the upcoming Premium Leather iPad Pro Folio

While it seems pretty self explanatory what our Premium Leather iPad Pro cases will look like as far as materials and finish, our nylon iPad Pro sleeve is another story. If you look at our Flight Jacket, Flight Case leather briefcase or other Premium Leather model you can get a sense of the design vocabulary and the type of leather the Premium Leather iPad Pro cases will use. You can also get a pretty good picture in your mind of what the final model will look like. We realize that this may not be so clear with our nylon iPad Pro Sleeve.

Nylon iPad Pro Sleeve

The sleeve will use the same materials and color theme as our current MacBook Pro and Universal Messenger Bags and Backpacks. With these products, we use a diamond weave textured nylon in black over a standard black polyester. This is highlighted with a bright cyan blue. This design vocabulary will be carried over to the new sleeve. The sleeve design features 4 exterior pockets (a first for MacCase) and we are going to use the natural breaks in the surface created by the pockets to change materials and colors. The top two "diamonds" created by the flap overlapping the pockets will be finished in the bright cyan blue. The rest of the body of the sleeve will be done in the black fabrics of different finishes and textures. This should give what is essentially a low priced model the look and feel of a product costing twice as much. The response to the drawing so far has been very positive.

The first look at the new nylon iPad Pro Sleeve

If you're in the market for an iPad Pro case let us know what you think of this pre-order offer and our presentation of products not yet finished on our site. Mistake? Brilliant? We're curious to know your thoughts. Of course, as soon as we have some proper product images, we will be posting them. We also plan to do extensive videos about the products so you can fully understand the nature of the designs. Do you have a preference for the type of product videos you'd like to see? Let us know that as well.

"We know we will have some of the best leather iPad Pro cases available."

iPad Pro Cases Inspired by Lamborghinis?

Designers find inspiration from a broad range of places. I recently stopped by the MacCase Design Studios where I noticed several images of the some pretty exotic cars on the wall. I knew iPad Pro cases were being worked on, but iPad Pro cases out of Lamborghinis?

As many people know, MacCase President and Chief Creative Officer Michael Santoro spent his earlier years as a automotive designer for Chrysler Corporation where he did three production car exteriors as well as an interior for a show car. After his time at Chrysler, he worked on a special one-off Lamborghini that was shown during the Monterey Concourso Italiano event several years ago.
When I saw the Lamborghini images on the wall I had to ask, were these designs for new iPad Pro cases or another program? It turns out that, yes indeed, there was some influence going on but not in the way I first thought. I'll let Michael explain.

"I have a draw full of these really rough sketches for a case design. It's literally just a pile of pages with slashes  and colors and some interesting shapes. They look nothing like what I would describe as a "MacCase" product. This is one reason I am attracted to them. The problem is, I have never been able to see how any of this stuff would ever fit into either our Standard line of nylon products or our Premium Leather aesthetic. They are just so different. I've never even had them sampled. Many of my designs feature a pretty soft vocabulary, especially our nylon products. The two newest models, our new Messenger Bags and Backpacks are pretty organic. There is not a straight line at all on the backpack.

Yet here was this pile of sketches of what I thought were pretty cool shapes and good ideas, yet not a clear way to integrate them into the line. So the problem was two-fold: How to do a MacCase product that didn't look like a MacCase product at all? And if we were going to do something that was based on this vocabulary, when would be the right time to do it?"

Introducing the iPad Pro
With the the release of the iPad Pro, the MacCase design department started working overtime on a strategy and then designs for iPad Pro cases based on that strategy. One of the points to come out of the stagey meetings was that the iPad Pro was going to allow for some new things. While the form factor of the tablet was not that much different from a 13" MacBook Air, what people were going to do with it, how they were going to use it and what they were going to want to carry with them when they did was different.

Work on new designs for the iPad Pro cases started in earnest with the first group of products slated for the Premium Leather line. Once the drawings were sent out for sampling, everyone could take a breathe and decide which was the best way to move forward.

Cue the Lamborghinis
Then the Lamborghinis started showing up. Well not physically, but in the form of images on the wall. Michael picks up the story. "One of the problems of any successful creative anything, product line, movie franchise, recording career, is that whatever people know you for, that's what they'll expect forevermore. This is quite unfortunate but gets harder and harder to avoid as attention spans continue to shrink.

This is the preverbal "box" that artists must try not to be trapped in. Or, if at some point in your creative life you do find yourself trapped in, you must then find a way out if you want to stay relevant or creative. For many, the box represents the "golden handcuffs". The reason you are financially successful is because you produced a certain body of work that people liked. People who appreciate it will want more of it. Do you just keep doing the same thing over and over? Or do you step outside the box, risk alienating all your "fans" to do what you feel is right for your creative soul?

Everyone successful creative person and every company that produces something that people like thinks about this and at some point, has to deal with this issue. It's was the hardest things about being a car designer and trying to get your car picked for production. If you make your design proposal too radical for say, a family sedan, upper management will not choose it for production because the radical nature of the design will scare potential customers.

Because designs for cars are done 3-4 years before the car will hit the street, if you make your proposal too conservative, it will look old when it comes out and upper management will not choose it either. It's a quagmire.

So here I had all these sketches for a more radical and different case design that were dying on the vine. Should we do something that was so different? The more I looked, the more I realized that the question was not whether we should do something like this, but that how could we NOT! Once that decision was made another revelation was made. The more I looked at the designs the more I saw something familiar. This looks just like the engine cover on the Aventador!"

Sure enough, when I looked at the sketches and then at the brightly colored images of the Italian automotive sculptures passing themselves off as cars, I could clearly see the relationship. The images of the cars were here to not to be copied but as a check. As I stated at the beginning of this blog, designers are influenced from all walks of life. Sometimes, something that someone sees stays with them and then reveals itself months or even years later. There was something about the engine covers, with their crisp diagonal patterns creating analogous relationships with the parts around them that came out when Michael was searching for a solution for the next MacCase.

The best thing about the sketches, like the cars themselves, was that there was no part of the design that was not functional. All the angles and slots served a purpose and added value for the customer. So in a way the designs were still MacCase. Authentic, sincere, free of gimmick. Just stated in a different way.
We hope the new designs prove to be successful, functional, and just as attractive in real life as they do on the drawing board. But that's why we do prototypes. If they do come back looking good, you can be sure we'll follow up this blog with a full report.

"I saw the Lamborghini images on the wall. Were these designs for new iPad Pro cases or another program?

The MacCase 15 MacBook Pro Backpack - Behind the Design

This is the fourth in a series of interviews about the story behind the design of MacCase products.
For this interview, we are again speaking to MacCase President and Chief Creative Officer Michael Santoro about the company's new 15 MacBook Pro Backpack.

JKD - I know you've been working on the new iPad Pro cases, so thanks for talking the time for this.
MS - No problem. It's always a pleasure to speak with you Jody.

JKD - So we started with the Universal Backpack, then the 12" MacBook model, then the 13" model, now the 15" MacBook Pro Backpack. In the spirit of this series, what's the story?

MS - Many many years ago I designed and MacCase released a backpack called the MacPack Combo Backpack. The MacPack Combo was a "one stop shop for all your backpack needs!" Whenever you have a design that tries to be too many things to too many people you have to make compromises. It's inherent. Now we didn't start out staying let's make this really compromised product. We wanted a backpack that could transport and protect a 12 iBook (I told you it was many, many years ago!) the 13" models, all the 15" models and then finally, all of Apple's now retired 17 MacBook Pros.

Well in order to do that you need a really large form factor. The old 17" MacBook Pro was a monster of a laptop compared to today's wafer thin ultralights. The problem was that the backpack shell that had to hold the 17" was the same one that was also going to transport and store the 13". This is like parking a compact car in a garage designed for a dump truck. It fits but it's not necessarily efficient.

JDK - But it sold well?

MS - Yes, that was the interesting thing. The extra space gave people room to put lots of other things inside. But again, it was not the most efficient use of the space as most of it was vertical. It was tough, well padded and comfortable to wear. Those three things had a lot to do with why it was successful for so long. IT guys liked it a lot as well. It was a real favorite with them. You could put two laptops in it as well as a bunch of tools for doing that kind of work. So for them, it was like having a mobile repair shop they could wear on their back.

JDK - If it was so successful, why replace it?

MS - All products have lifecycles. For whatever reason our products tend to have very long life cycles which I think our customers like. But with the demise of the 17" Pro model, the writing was on the wall for the MacPack Combo. The market was changing. Apple laptops were changing. We sold a lot of MacPack Combos to 13" MacBook owners for whom the extra space got to be a burden not an asset.

We were having great success with our Premium Leather models which are all custom fitted to each size Apple laptop. While that was going on, the MacPack Combo was coming up for a design review.
Typically, when we do a design review, we look at the product very objectively and try to improve it before we do another production run. Customer are constantly sending us, and me in particular, feedback, ideas and suggestion on how to make our products better. It's a great thing. We are truly grateful to have people who support us, who are so passionate about our products, as to take time out of their lives to offer ways to make them better. These submissions are reviewed and ideas implemented in these design review meetings. So see everyone, we do listen and use your feedback!

So when we put the Combo on the table we all looked at it, we knew it was time for it to ride off into the sunset. Not having to house the 17" form factor opening the door to do something new. I got started with a massive rethink of our overall backpack strategy for our Standard line of products. I wanted a general use bag that was "best in class" but that I could also offer to our core base of Apple users.

JKD - Hence the Universal Backpack.

MS - Yes, this was the genesis. I knew if we were not going to have one form factor…

JKD - Can I interrupt you there and ask you to define "form factor" for our readers? I know you used it in all of these interviews but I received an email from a young reader asking for the meaning.

MS - Sure. When you're designing three dimensional objects that live in the world, though I suppose you can have virtual form factors in digital space, that thing has a form. Using the term form factor is just another way of saying shape, or describing said shape. We tend to use form factor a lot to describe the styles we make. Backpack form factor, Jacket form factor, Sleeve form factor etc. It's a term we use to describe the general shape or description of a designed object.

JKD - OK so back to the backpack story…

MS - Yes, well we needed a good solid form factor to build this new backpack line around. Now the design could be compact, lightweight, highly protective and comfortable. Keyword there being compact. From that we built up each model to work specifically with each size Apple laptop and tried to create the best value in a MacBook Pro backpack on the market.

JKD - How does that translate to the 15 MacBook Pro Backpack?

MS - Well for the 15", we again, wanted something that was much more compact that the Combo it replaced. If the shell of the new design was any smaller, the 15" MBP would not fit. It's as if the nylon and polyester have been shrink wrapped around the computer. Yet there is still sufficient room for other items including a pocket specifically designed for an iPad. Plus the entire front compartment as well. So despite looking small, there is actually a lot of room inside. It's very functional.

JKD - So what's next for the MacBook Pro backpack? Is there another size or version lurking in the wings?

MS - The next MacBook Pro backpack is not going to have anything to do with the MacBook Pro. I believe the iPad Pro is coming in November. That opens up yet another door. Just like with our laptop models, not everyone is going to want or be able to afford a $200 Premium Leather iPad Pro backpack. Our goal is to have something special for them as well.

JKD - It looks like we'll have to meet again when that launches.

MS - I look forward to it.

JKD - Thanks again for taking the time.

MS - Anytime Jody.

"Well for the 15" MacBook Pro backpack, we wanted something that was much more compact that the Macpack backpack it replaced." 

iPad Pro Cases - Design Update From MacCase

As the creators of the Apple specific case maker, nothing is as exciting for us as a new form factor from Apple. I was in a Apple store earlier in the week and asked when in November the iPad Pro would be available. The pleasant but unknowing employee didn't have a clue. It would be nice to know but that is not preventing us from moving froward with the designs for our iPad Pro cases.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of what we are cooking up, we've been talking a lot about Apple's direction and the "why" of the Pro. Why, after years of iPad sales and form factors do you launch a new form factor, a new model, that sits squarely in the cross hairs of your most popular portable computer?

The iPad Pro and Creative Destruction

The more you look at the iPad Pro the more you realize that Apple is instituting what is known in the product world as "creative destruction". Creative destruction is what you do when you have a best selling, popular or high revenue product and you replace it with something new, unproven or a new technology. It's a very risky thing to do but for many technology companies, it's standard operating procedure to insure that they keep an advantage over competitors. Sometimes it's for the better, sometimes not.

The last time Apple did this was when they launched the iPod Nano that replaced the "gum stick" iPod Nano design. The gum stick model was the most popular iPod in Apple's MP3 player line up at the time and they threw the baby out with the bath water. The new Nano that replaced the tall, slender, elegant Nano was square and had a scrollable screen. It was more like a shuffle with a screen than what the Nano had been famous for. I still have the gum stick Nano and everyone I know that replaced the their gum stick with the square model hated it. This was a clear case of creative destruction seeming like a mistake as the customers agreed the old model was better.

Fast forward to the recent new product rollout and Apple's announcement of a new iPad is much more profound than replacing a best selling iPod. I think what Apple has ushered in with this iPad Pro is nothing short of the beginning of the end of the laptop as we know it.

Why?

Apple's most popular laptop is the 13" series, the MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. If you look at the size of the screen of the new iPad Pro, it's 12.9 or practically 13".

This writing proposes that Apple long term strategy to is replace their laptops up to 13" in size with iPad based form factors because they are much cheaper to produce for Apple and can offer the user a more rich and rewarding experience.

Let's start off the with hardware.

While Apple has played with and promoted what the iPad can do since it's introduction, it's never really been more than a device to access what could be considered consumer versions of professional level software. Apple and the app developers insured the platform was a huge success. But if you were a filmmaker, musician, producer, designer, engineer or any other such highly technical professional, you were still tied to your (gasp!) desktop or at best a high powered MacBook Pro portable.

With the introduction of Apple's newest and largest tablet, the paradigm shifts. In their presentation Apple did three things that heralded in this shift. First they showed the iPad Pro running CAD software. CAD software needs a big processors, very fast chips and the ability to handle complex graphics which is exactly what they built into the Pro.

Apple has always made a cover for their iPads but now we have a cover with a built in keyboard direct from Apple. Why?

Like it was explained in the keynote, they know not everyone likes the dead feeling of typing on glass, so even though the Pro's screen is large, typing on it for and extending period of time is not very rewarding. More importantly, if you are lining up a product to replace your 13" laptop series, you'd better not make one of the basic experiences of using said 13" laptops much worse. Typing on glass would do that, so Apple took it's in house key technology and applied it to a cloth substrate to get the tactile feeling customers migrating away from their 13" MacBooks would want.

This is at the core of what Apple does best: Conceptualize something wonderful then execute it just was well as the initial idea itself. It's hard to beat that combination especially if you can institutionalize it so you can do it time and time again.

MacCase and the new iPad Pro Cases

So if Apple's newest tablet is going to ultimately be the replacement for the 13" MacBook series of laptops, what does that mean for MacCase?

Since the showing of the Pro we have been working flat out on iPad Pro cases. We spent the first week on strategy, working on direction and figuring out the "why" above. This gives us a base that acts as a point of departure for everything that will come next. Once we entered the concept phase things really got interesting. The sketches were flying, some on to the walls and some into the trash. There seemed to be iPad Pro cases everywhere you looked. One was even posted on a previous blog. A new design vocabulary was developed and form factors were created based on that. Then it was scraped. A second vocabulary was developed concurrently and the form factors evolved organically from that. Everyone smiled and there was much rejoicing.

Right now the designs for our iPad Pro cases are out for prototyping. We hope they come back solid and correct. Sometimes they do. Sometimes it takes three or four tries before the design is locked in. Giving birth to something that has never existed before in the history of humankind can sometimes be like that. We are working to have the designs in production as soon as possible.

We will launch with four form factors, three which will seem very familiar to MacCase customers. The fourth? It's brand new and something MacCase has never done before. Is it crazy, radical, ground breaking? Most people would say probably not. Lexus has been wildly successful designing and building extremely non-crazy, non-radical, non-groundbreaking cars since they started. Our new iPad Pro cases are more Lexus than Tesla. And that's OK.

Taking the best of our current designs, the new form factor will be one of the most beautiful iPad Pro cases when it's released. Professional, portable, elegant, competent are all adjectives I would use to describe it and we can't wait to share it with you!

I would like to personally thank each and every person who responded to our outreach for input on the designs for both our nylon and leather iPad Pro cases. A great many of the idea supplied by customers have worked their way into the final designs in one form or another. So again, thank you if you shared your thoughts and ideas with us. It's much appreciated.

"Our new iPad Pro cases are more Lexus than Tesla…" 

The MacCase 13 MacBook Pro Backpack - Behind the Design

Fourth in a series of interviews about the story behind the design of MacCase products.

For this interview, we are again speaking to MacCase President and Chief Creative Officer Michael Santoro about the company's new 13 MacBook Pro Backpack.

JKD - Following on the footsteps if the 12" we have the 13 MacBook Pro backpack. What are the differences?

MS - The 12" allows the computer to be stored horizontally with the vertically oriented backpack shell which is quite unique. The 13" model is much more like the model it replaces, our tried and true 13 MacPack Combo backpack.

JDK - How is it more like the Combo model?

MS - The thing that makes many of the MacCase models, our MacBook Pro Messenger Bags and this backpack different from what many other laptop case companies who make backpacks do is that we include one of our custom sleeves with the basic bag. So it's like super-sizing the protection. You get the proven protection of our MacCase sleeve and then that goes into what is already a very protective backpack. It's a win, win.

JDK - Can they be used separately?

MS - Yes! That is what is so great about this package. You can use them separately or together. If you have a rolling bag that you want to use and you want to put your 13 MacBook Air in there, you have the sleeve that came with the 13 MacBook Pro backpack that you can then use to protect your Air in the roller. If you want to use the backpack to take to the gym, you leave the sleeve and the computer at home and throw your gym stuff in the backpack and you're off to the gym. It's the most versatile backpack out there for the 13" MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and regular MacBooks.

JDK - If this was the same basic idea as the old Combo model, why release the new one?

MS - The MacPack Combo had been in production a long time. Off hand I can't think of how many years it's been around. A long time. In this industry, our product life cycles are glacial. Other's do new models every 6 months, we're more like every 6 years. (laughing).

JKD - Well why is that?

MS - Because I'm not interested in putting junk into the world. There is enough junk in the world. To me, doing products with ultra short life cycles just shows how little you thought about the design, the problem you were attempting to solve and the solution you reached. How good can something be if the first thing you do when you complete it is start the working on replacing it? There are so many examples of products being replaced for the sake of replacing them and the replacement is worse. Is that progress? Is that good design? Is that making the world a better place or just going through the motions for the sake of the motion itself? That's not interesting to me.
I like to spend time developing the designs, testing, solving the real problem and then see how the world reacts. How can you learn anything if you're not listening. If you're off designing the next version of the thing you just finished, how can you make it better? As I mentioned, our designs have very long life cycles and it seems to work.
But back to your original question….

The MacPack Combo was originally designed to hold the 17" MacBook Pro along with all the smaller sizes in Apple's lineup. When the 17" went away there was no reason for the backpack part of the design to be so tall. We had a few customers return the the Combo because they had 13" laptops and didn't need all that vertical space designed to hold the 17" that was no longer made.

JDK - It sounds like you could have used this new 13 MacBook Pro Backpack just as the 17" MacBook production ended?

MS - Well yes and no. It's never that cut and dry when Apple pulls the plug on a model that has been in production in one form or another for many years. There is the remaining inventory that is in the sales channel. There are the folks that just made a purchase and are in need to a case to protect it and then there is the installed user base. We still get calls and emails for 17" cases. I had a customer who I believe is a pretty famous architect in Bangladesh who wants me to design a one-off 17" briefcase for him. He loves his 17" MacBook Pro, has been all over the world with it and wants our Premium Leather Briefcase for it. So there was a demand for the MacPack Combo model for a while after the 17" got terminated by Apple.

JKD - So you don't foresee any more returns?

MS - The new 13 MacBook Pro Backpack is the absolute perfect size for any of the 13" MacBook models. I doubt we'll get another return ever again because the bag is too big. It's compact, lightweight, comfortable and holds an incredible mouth of stuff for the size that it is. When you combine it with the proven protection of our MacCase Sleeve, you have something truly unique in the market. It's probably the highest level of protection you can purchase for the money. Moreover, it's an incredible value because you are getting both the backpack and the sleeve for one low price. Geez, I sound like one of those TV pitchmen. But, really it's a great value on top of providing the best all around protection.

JDK - A pouch in included as well?

MS - Yes, this is really the icing on the cake. Apple makes all their cables, chargers, and other accessories white. The cables especially are a sticky white rubbery material. And while they do a great job of looking pretty when they are new, they also do a great job of attracting dirt. Everything that lands at the bottom of whatever bag you are using will stick to them. 3 year olds are jealous of how much dirt the Apple accessories can attract.

So we designed these little 6" x 6" x 1" pouches to hold all of the expensive Apple accessories. They keep them safe so they don't come to harm during transport and they keep them clean as well. They're simple, they work and one is included as part of the 13 MacBook Pro Backpack.

JKD - Well that sounds like a winning combination. Thanks again for your time.

MS - Thank you, Jody.

 "The 13 MacBook Pro Backpack is the absolute perfect size for any of the 13" MacBook models.."

Quality iPad Pro Cases: Are We Finished Buying Junk Yet?

With the coming release of Apple's newest addition to the iPad family of tablet computers, the iPad Pro, we can expect an onslaught of calls from potential customers with questions about our cases, sleeves and bags. Which is a good thing. We hope people will search out quality iPad Pro cases for what is a technological tour de force.

I used take a lot of phone calls and answer a lot of emails from customers who purchased low to mid priced iPad cases. Not neccessarily cheap or bad looking, just not what you would consider quality iPad cases. They were frustrated and were looking for something better. I was happy to show them.
In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Robert Pirsig's seminal road trip tale, his main character is a man driven to the point of madness by trying to define what is quality. It's a deep thing, completely subjective and relative to most people.

I'm sure the people who made all those iPads cases I mentioned above thought that they were making something of quality. Does anybody really go to work everyday and think, "Awesome, I'm going to make some junk today! Real crap. Oh my God this stuff is garbage! Can't wait to put more of it into the world!"

But each and every one of us has brought something at some point in our life that would fall into the junk, crap, and or garbage category if we were asked to describe it. Did we make that purchase knowing the product was "less than"? Or did we make that purchase thinking the product was "good quality" only to have it fall apart, break or somehow not meet our expectations?

Quality iPad Cases for $10, Really?

Recently a friend of mine asked what I thought of some "quality iPad Pro cases" she saw on ebay. They were Buy It Now offers for cases shipped to her door from China, for $10 a piece. "The shipping cost more than the case", I informed her. "But they're so pretty", she replied. She ordered both. These cases were the molded plastic type that clip onto the body of the iPad. The plastic was very thin and translucent. Both had covers that protected the screen as well.

20 days later the cases arrived and she was so happy. Yes they were pretty and initially they worked very well. About 2 weeks later I got a call from her frantically explaining that the corner of one of the cases had broken off. "I didn't drop it, I didn't do anything to it, it just cracked off!", she exclaimed.

A few weeks old and ready for the landfill

I asked her how the other corners were holding up and as she was looking another corner fell off! Moreover, there were cracks in all the others as well as around each port and button. She was really disappointed. "How much did you pay for these again?", I asked. She got really quiet.

If you take the three pillars of product design: value, style and functionality, these cases proved to be a very poor value. Yes they were cheap to purchase but they were also cheaply made. Yes they had style, but for how long? Any case should be designed to protect. That is the purpose of it's function. But if it falls apart so quickly it cannot protect and does not function. This is a shinning example of poor quality which resulted in a poor user experience.

MacCase has been making quality iPad Pro cases since there have been iPads. We make them one at a time, by hand using methods that are centuries old and combine that with state of the art technology where it will be the most beneficial. We love designing them and we love making them. There is a joy in picking out the hides and seeing them cut. The people who assemble them do so with such great care and real passion for their work. It's inspiring to be around it. Unfortunately all this passion, craft and art gets distilled down to an image on a monitor and a price next to that image. It's hard to sell quality online. So the price sets the expectation.

Defining the Quality iPad Pro Cases

If someone spends $130 on one of our iPad Air 2 cases, my guess is that their expectation of what this case will be like will be very high. Last week I accompanied a friend who wanted to go look at Rolls Royces and Bentleys. Arguably, two of the highest quality "things" made by other humans. For the most part, the cars were exquisite examples of the modern coach builders art. Yes, each one of the revered British marques is now owned by the Germans but the cars are, for the most part assembled in the UK with that attention to detail that the British do so well.

I was sitting in the 2 door Rolls Royce model called the Wraith. The interior was done in black leather and the instrument panel had a row of white stitches sewn horizontally across the very front edge. The white stitches ran across the glove box door on the passenger side. The thing was, there was an offset between where the stitching was on the instrument panel and where it was on the glove box door. It was completely obvious that they didn't line up. Not even close. I mentioned this to the salesman and he mentioned something about it being hand made. As if that was an excuse for them not lining up. How much was this car again? $300,000? For that money, my expectation of what this car should be is very high.

That is one of the best things about making real things and putting them into the world: When someone creates something to a certain standard of quality and that thing finds it's way to someone looking for that thing executed at a certain standard of quality, it's a wonderful exchange.

When you put white thread through black leather, every stitch has to be perfect

Our Premium Leather iPad cases have found their way on to the desks of some of the world's most influential people. Producers and directors in the television and film industry, managers and musicians in the recording industry, executives in the real estate, advertising and legal professions, the list goes on. We're proud that so many people who are trying to do quality work themselves choose our Premium Leather iPad cases. 

Were getting into the fall which means it's time for Apple to start talking about new stuff. This starts next week with the Siri event and will carry on, we think into October with some sort of iPad update. So as the next round of iPads hits the shelves and the next round of cases springs forth from the Chinese factories looking for homes, think about how you want to spend your money to protect that perfect new Apple tablet.

I say this a lot to customers: You bought the most expensive tablet on the planet. Do you really want to protect it with a $10 case you bought on ebay? Really? People want an Apple tablet because….drumroll please…. it represents a certain level of quality. Quality in the manufacture, in the design and in the user experience. This fall, look for quality iPad pro cases that match Apple's tablet in the quality of the manufacturing, design, and user experience. You will not be disappointed.

 "MacCase has been making quality iPad cases since there have been iPads"

Leather iPad Pro Cases - Inside MacCase Design

Last week we sent out an email newsletter asking our customers what they wanted in a  case for the Apple's new, forthcoming iPad Pro tablet. While we had a few votes for nylon and one for hemp, the overwhelming request was for leather iPad Pro cases.

That's a good sign because that is exactly the type of designs we are currently working on for the new tablet. Since it's launch in 2007, our Premium Leather Collection has become the standard by which all other Apple specific cases are judged. We set the bar extremely high and Apple users who are looking for the best have found us and supported our efforts ever since.

One of the email responses to last week's outreach was from a customers who told us the story of having to send back a competitors folio case not once, but twice for poor quality workmanship. He's since purchased one of our leather iPad cases.

Another interesting response was from a customer in the UK who had purchased a $650 folio type case made from ostrich skin. He also purchased one of our leather iPad cases and upon receiving both and having spent some time putting each through it's paces, set the wildly expensive, wildly exotic ostrich case back. Why? "Yours was better", he told me. This is exactly the type of response we hope to evoke in our customers. "I can't wait to see what kind of leather iPad Pro cases you guys come up with", he also added.

Leather iPad Pro Cases - The Challenges

In sitting down to start work on the designs for the leather iPad Pro cases, our chief designer seemed stuck. "This is not easy", he mentioned to no one in particular. The struggle lies in the path to take. Do we do what we have done up until this point and just make our current designed fit the new Pro, or go off on some radical new direction and see what happens? I'm glad figuring that out is not my job!

One realization that was made was that our current Premium Leather designs have been in production, pretty much unchanged, for the last 8 years. This is longer than any computer they were ever designed to carry. This is the testament to the timeless quality of the proportions, execution and materials used to create them. In an industry that changes the designs of bags like the fashion industry changes clothes, to have designs continue to sell well after being on the market for over 8 years is unprecedented. It is something we are very proud of.

So there in lies the challenge: Do we do what we've always done or go off in a new direction? Well it turns out, those are not the only options. "What if there is something in-between?", asked our design chief. Something in between would encompass all the qualities that make MacCase Premium Leather the standard of the industry while pushing the line forward into the future. Something in between would plant a flag that states, "These leather iPad Pro cases are new, something you haven't seen before, yet feel familiar and have all the quality you'd expect from MacCase".

Leather iPad Pro Cases - The Ideas 

Early concept sketch for iPad Pro cases

So a fresh design vocabulary is being developed based around the needs of the Pro user and providing world class protection and functionality. There are some familiar elements but some new ones too. I have also seen some images incorporating color as a highlight on some of the pebble grain black stain hides designs. I'm not sure if these ideas will get to production but it's fun to see them on the wall.

The feedback we received from our users has been excellent and showed us we are on the right path. MacCase has always had a knack for being in step with our customers. Reading through the replies and looking over the sketches on the walls of the MacCase Design studios sees this trend continuing.

One interesting request was from a long time customer who told us his ultimate leather iPad Pro case consisted of all the features we are working on plus a whole host of new features. It turns out the new features are based around storing lots of personal items which is great but at the end of his post he asked us to "make sure to  the case ultra slim". He admitted he was asking for the impossible but his request highlights the challenges inherent in doing something beautiful, timeless, and functional and trying to meet so many diverse needs.

Designers use the term "form factor" when describing a particular style of case like a sleeve, briefcase, messenger bag, etc. How many form factors do we need? This is a question that everyone is asking and slowly the answer is emerging. Too many form factors and you can confuse customers and waste resources. Too few and you invite customers to leave and find the solution they are looking for elsewhere. MacCase adheres to the adage that you can't be all things to all people. Typically products that try to do this are pretty bland because in their effort to obtain mass appeal they try not to offend anyone. And while we don't set out to offend anyone, we try really hard not to be bland!

The New Designs - When?

Apple is holding off till November to start shipping the new Pro (just in time for the holidays). This does give us and everybody else some time to get our designs in order despite not having the actual part to design to. We hope to finish up the designs soon and get the prototypes back quickly for testing and photography. It would be great to have inventory as the Pro is released and that is what we are working towards. These are exciting times around MacCase world head quarters.

If you think you'll be interested in one of our new designs, send us an email and we'll add you to our mailing list. People on the list will be the first to see the new models and be the first to have a chance to pre-order.

"These leather iPad Pro cases are new, something you haven't seen before…"