Leather is fine and probably the most environmentally friendly material in an Apple product. I just wish it was cruelty free, but the alternative is a lot worse imo

Edit: I'll also add that there's no such thing as a "leather cow." It's just a byproduct of the beef industry, so it's not like ditching leather will save animal lives. As always, this is Apple finding an environmentalist message to excuse cheapening their products

Leather is a byproduct of the beef industry.

At no point will any fewer cattle be 'processed' for meat because of this decision.

What does change is the utility ratio of the beasts. Well use less of each beast making the tragedy of their death more meaningless.

Leather is far more environmentally friendly than plastics, with a small caveat for the tanning process' chemicals, and emissions from the beasts themselves (though that's attributable to beef production.)

Leather doesn't degrade into micro plastics.

So unless Apple is also reducing its beef consumption* by the equivalent amount it's pointless.

* yes, it'll be non-zero.

Just remember it's always about the profits.

Just like how they stopped selling chargers for the sake of reducing e-waste. Even though they can save on shipping weights and charge extra for 1st party chargers.

Now is it worse for the environment to produce extra chargers and cables? Or the secondary purchases, shipping, and manufacturing? I can't tell you the actual impact.

Oh and remember the absolute trash 1A/5V charging bricks they included for the longest time ever? They hardly even pushed out 18w bricks before they nixed the entire included charger crap.

Good. But fuck that faux pleather stuff too though, it doesn't last long and is just microplastics waiting to end up in the environment. Get proper stainless steel one or even a good quality NATO strap.

Hermés bands will still be actual leather, right? That’s a whole brand thing with them.