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Paracable Offering Colorful Paracord-Wrapped Lightning-to-USB Cables

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,530
30,837



Paracable is a new company that is hand-wrapping Lightning-to-USB cables with paracord, a lightweight rope originally used in parachutes. The cables are not official 'Made for i' cables, but Paracable founder Travis Beck told MacRumors that they have sourced high-quality cables from China and have tested them thoroughly.

The company buys cables without the USB-end attached in order to wrap the paracord, then attaching the end and using a hardening resin to ensure it is firmly attached.

paracable.jpg
As Paracable explains, they were trying to create a cable that would not be destroyed by the founder's cat Baxter quite as easily as Apple's OEM Lightning cables.
After much thought and prototyping, the first Paracable was born. As a byproduct of the Baxter-proof cable, we had also created a beautifully textured and colorful cable worthy of the iPhone's gorgeous industrial design. "We can make these in all sorts of colors and patterns," we thought. And so we did.

Each cable is hand assembled and soldered one at a time using a unique process that ensures it's longevity and durability. We spent many months perfecting the process in order to create the best cable possible. One that not only looks good, but will last.
Click to expand...
Paracables are available in more than 20 different colors for $27.95 each from the company's website.

Article Link: Paracable Offering Colorful Paracord-Wrapped Lightning-to-USB Cables
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/09/paracable-offering-colorful-paracord-wrapped-lightning-to-usb-cables/
B

Boatboy24

macrumors 65816
Nov 4, 2011
1,092
1,224
1 Infinite Loop
Or buy three cables from Monoprice for almost the same cost. :D

They look very nice, but I just don't care that much about my cables. I'm sure there's a decent market for them though.
 
L

Lylyluvda916

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2012
153
0
Way too much for the price. If I'm getting any cables for my iPhone five that aren't made by Apple, I'm getting them from Amazon.
 
J

jjwarwick

macrumors newbie
Nov 11, 2007
17
0
I'll pay $28 for the cable - but they lost me at another $20 for international shipping. It doesn't cost more than a few dollars to post something to the UK.
 
C

chiefsilverback

macrumors 6502
Jul 25, 2011
458
438
Paracord's strength is derived from the inner nylon cores, not the outer sheath. My assumption is that they are using the outer sheath only and therefore this product is purely decorative.

A cat's claws will quickly make that braided nylon look pretty tatty!
 
TouchMint.com

TouchMint.com

macrumors 68000
May 25, 2012
1,625
318
Phoenix
These would be great for the car. I am pretty sure thieves determine what cars to break into by if they have the standard iPhone cord.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
Ehhh, you're basically buying something that was modified. This is the sort of thing you would buy at Etsy, at a market, or other art related thing. This shouldn't be something that is sold to everybody.

I don't care whether they've tested them or not, these are still cables that don't comply to the standard Apple wants. And honestly, just because it works, doesn't mean that it's good for your device or the computer it's pushing the data to and from to.

They're using glue to seal these things too, that's just another thing to get in the way. It's going to come off eventually.
 
M

Monk Edsel

macrumors regular
Apr 7, 2004
193
0
They look cool, but they aren't official. Can a future firmware update keep these from working?

I really wish these were official, I'd love to own a few.
 
T

technopimp

macrumors 6502a
Aug 12, 2009
645
219
What is the current obsession with paracords? I was in Home Depot the other day and they were selling "genuine paracord bracelets". Why??
 
B

bushman4

macrumors 601
Mar 22, 2011
4,025
3,427
May look nice, but if its not the real thing I wouldn't chance it. Besides does it have the strength of an original cable once the ends been taken off???
 
A

Asriel

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2012
24
0
chiefsilverback said:
Paracord's strength is derived from the inner nylon cores, not the outer sheath. My assumption is that they are using the outer sheath only and therefore this product is purely decorative.

A cat's claws will quickly make that braided nylon look pretty tatty!
Click to expand...

Paracord's tensile strength comes from the core (or kern), the outer fibres (or mantle) are to protect from abrasion. The point of wrapping the cable is to protect it, not to make it suitable for abseiling ;-)
 
S

SoldOnApple

macrumors 65816
Jul 20, 2011
1,013
1,681
I didn't even know we could do Thunderbolt to USB. Looks like my MacBook has twice as many USB ports than I thought.
 
I

Intarweb

macrumors 6502a
May 30, 2007
561
0
Will they actually charge and sync? I've bought knockoff ones that didn't. This seems like they're buying knockoffs and putting their wrappings around them.
 
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