Leather Cases - Patina Proud Photos

[Fraud Goblin]

That's just an issue with the newer Apple leather cases, they get sticky after a while. Some folks say leather wipes help the situation but I'm not sure in my experience.

 

[Motionblurrr]

Do you have sticky/tacky apple leather case ?
I just clear it with soapy water but doesn't work.

Use this stuff, I use it on my BMWs leather seats and my leather couches. This should do the job!

 

[iFone88]

Do you have sticky/tacky apple leather case ?
I just clear it with soapy water but doesn't work.

Never use water let alone soapy water on leather. You are literally ruining it

 

[TheAccountant]

Do you have sticky/tacky apple leather case ?
I just clear it with soapy water but doesn't work.

I would never use soapy water on a leather case. Leather is essentially skin, and if your skin is in contact with hot soapy water what happens? It dries out, and becomes hard. You'd never want to use soapy water. Use leather cleaner and conditioner. There's a lot of them out there. In my experience, most leather cases get tacky in summer, because of the humidity, so it's easiest to cycle them out, and use a different one.

 

[Chrisjaylv]

Apple leather gets stickier than any other leather case I own.

 

[imp3rator]

It has very short time of contact with soapy water and it is ok, but I will not try it again. I let it in drawer few days and it quite ok. Temperature is also lower. Probably it "eat" a humidity.

 

[Daniel Narciso]

On apple website they recommend cleaning their leather cases with warm water with a mild hand soap, at the same time advise against leather conditioners because they can “change the color of the leather”

 

[iFone88]

On apple website they recommend cleaning their leather cases with warm water with a mild hand soap, at the same time advise against leather conditioners because they can “change the color of the leather”

They obviosuly do not know what they are talking about.

Or maybe this is in keeping with the poor leather they use nowadays

 

[oryan_dunn]

I received my Grams28 Olive Leather iPhone 12 Mini case today. First impressions are very good. It is nearly the same size as the Apple case, you’d have to have the two side by side to notice the grams is a hair thicker. The leather seems very nice, and smells of actual leather. My wife said it smells like the Coach store. It is a snug fit and feels nice in the hand. The buttons protrude a bit more than the Apple case, and have slightly sharp edges, but they are clicky. I’m not a fan of the white debossed logo, would be less annoying if it were just debossed without the paint. All the cutouts are nice and crisp, with no lose edges. The magnets are present, but I don’t think as strong as the Apple case. The wallet doesn’t fit as tight, but hard to tell if it’s magnets or just a difference in leather material that the lateral sticking force isn’t as strong on this case (it’s easier to slide the wallet off this case than my Apple leather case).

Overall, I think it’s a pretty nice case for the 12, especially if you want a dark green similar to the new 13 Apple leather case. This green is called olive, and I think that’s an accurate name. I’d also say forest green or army green would describe it as well.

I think the color goes well with the Saddle Brown wallet now, and I think it’d look good if the wallet were to be force-patina-ed as shown earlier in this thread.

I’ll try to remember to update this thread with pictures over time.

An update with my cases. I've recently received the Blue and Gray Grams28 cases, a Red Apple case, and I inherited my wife's saddle brown that I force patina with an old rag.

Here are a few pictures. I ended up really liking the blue case, especially with my red phone. I tried to capture the color in the photos, and it comes across somewhat, but it's a really pretty blue.

I also got the gray since I had a coupon and the sale, and it wasn't any more shipping. It's nice, but I'm not sure I like it with my red phone. I think my wife's white phone will look better with it.

Both new cases are slightly different. On my Olive, the white text was also de-bossed into the leather, while the blue and gray cases it's just printed on top. While all are mag-safe, the new cases also have a plastic ring on the inside, which I found interesting.

It's a shame that it doesn't seem Grams28 has carried on with the colors for the 13 (only black, and only on pro models). They don't have any cases for the 13 mini.

An update on my Olive case... not much to report, since I generally am not hard on cases, and I swapped it for my black case, it doesn't show that much wear.

Since I'm about a year in with leather cases, and mine haven't really shown wear (except for my wife's saddle brown she gave me because she didn't like the way it was wearing and I forced it), I'm not sure how much wear and patina I expect on any of these cases. I'll update you guys if anything changes.

Edit: More photos of the Olive case are in my quoted post above, they don't seem to show in the quote here.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I think the red and gray looks good together. As it patinas I’d imagine it would go from darker gray to
Black eventually which will also look great.

Edited to add this awesome patina:

 

[Joelcarlos]

What do you think? I keep insisting on the Apple cases because on how strong is the MagSafe 😩

 

[LoveMyPens]

What do you think? I keep insisting on the Apple cases because on how strong is the MagSafe

I think that looks great. What did you use on it?

 

[Joelcarlos]

I think that looks great. What did you use on it?

I followed the instructions on this video

basically 600 sandpaper and coconut oil.

 

[Motionblurrr]

I think the red and gray looks good together. As it patinas I’d imagine it would go from darker gray to
Black eventually which will also look great.

Edited to add this awesome patina:

View attachment 2037785View attachment 2037783View attachment 2037784View attachment 2037786

I know it's just opinion and protection is important but this would look so much sleeker without any camera protector in that black leather case! The bare camera lenses would look great and the polished SS would bling like crazy

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I know it's just opinion and protection is important but this would look so much sleeker without any camera protector in that black leather case! The bare camera lenses would look great and the polished SS would bling like crazy

I’ve been really torn on that. I’m not a huge fan of the look but the dust and fingerprints on the bare lenses is way harder to manage.

As an aside/FYI that’s the Bullstrap Ocean, so has patina’d nicely but still has green/blue in the right light. I’ll have to get better pictures.

Edit: MOAR pictures

 

[iFone88]

I know it's just opinion and protection is important but this would look so much sleeker without any camera protector in that black leather case! The bare camera lenses would look great and the polished SS would bling like crazy

I’ve been really torn on that. I’m not a huge fan of the look but the dust and fingerprints on the bare lenses is way harder to manage.

As an aside/FYI that’s the Bullstrap Ocean, so has patina’d nicely but still has green/blue in the right light. I’ll have to get better pictures.

Edit: MOAR pictures

View attachment 2038279View attachment 2038282View attachment 2038280View attachment 2038281

Yeah I agree.

Get that lens protector off!!

 

[elementalwingma]

Love the new Ocean case a few days in.

 

[tatsumi]

Roughly a year of use of California Poppy. I’m not a leather geek so I didn’t “treat it” in any way, just using it.

 

[expatable]

Bullstrap (with MagSafe) owners - how’s your case looking at the 90 day mark? 180? And does the MagSafe ring ever start to show on the leather?

FWIW, I rotate between the Nomad and Bullstrap for my 13 Pro. Love them both in their own ways. But yeah, curious about the Bullstrap re: MagSafe markings and how it looks half a year in (or more or less!).

Thx!

 

[TheAccountant]

Bullstrap (with MagSafe) owners - how’s your case looking at the 90 day mark? 180? And does the MagSafe ring ever start to show on the leather?

FWIW, I rotate between the Nomad and Bullstrap for my 13 Pro. Love them both in their own ways. But yeah, curious about the Bullstrap re: MagSafe markings and how it looks half a year in (or more or less!).

Thx!

I don't have any rings on my Bullstrap cases, but I don't use the magsafe charger with those cases. I just use the magsafe accessories. My magsafe charger did put a ring almost immediately on my Nomad case, so I just stopped using it. But I've got no rings on any of my other cases from just normal use with the accessories (wallets, phone mounts, magsafe battery packs, or camera mounts)

 

[expatable]

I don't have any rings on my Bullstrap cases, but I don't use the magsafe charger with those cases. I just use the magsafe accessories. My magsafe charger did put a ring almost immediately on my Nomad case, so I just stopped using it. But I've got no rings on any of my other cases from just normal use with the accessories (wallets, phone mounts, magsafe battery packs, or camera mounts)

Thanks for the reply. I must be in the minority who actually likes the MagSafe ring marks

Since you clearly own both cases, which do you prefer?

Weirdly, as much as I love patina heavy leather, it feels like the Nomad is getting its patina too fast. Too many scratches. Not sure how to explain it but after just a month of light use it looks like it’s been through a battle.

Also, the Bullstrap feels much higher quality than the Nomad.

Not sure why I’m using the Nomad as my daily driver when all signs point to Bullstrap.

 

[TheAccountant]

Thanks for the reply. I must be in the minority who actually likes the MagSafe ring marks

Since you clearly own both cases, which do you prefer?

Weirdly, as much as I love patina heavy leather, it feels like the Nomad is getting its patina too fast. Too many scratches. Not sure how to explain it but after just a month of light use it looks like it’s been through a battle.

Also, the Bullstrap feels much higher quality than the Nomad.

Not sure why I’m using the Nomad as my daily driver when all signs point to Bullstrap.

I honestly bounce back and forth between the two. I like the protection level Nomad offers, but I can completely agree with you, it scratches entirely to easy. I get scratches and wear are apart of patina, but I feel like the Nomad is a bit extreme. I had my keys in my pocket one time, and it completely gouged my Nomad. In a few weeks, the case just looked beaten to death.

Bullstrap on the other hand, the leather almost heals itself. I've scratched my cases a few times, but you can rub the light scratches out, and they basically go away. On the other hand, I've only dropped my 12PM three times, and two times it was in a Bullstrap case, and both times damaged the phone because the cases failed, and completely broke apart. The other was in my Nomad case, and the phone just bounced.

I like the Nomad for doing activities (like hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, camping, etc) where my phone might get beat around. I do tend to go Bullstrap for daily use though, where it basically is living on a desk. Sorry that got kinda long lol. In regards to quality, Nomad uses full grain leather and Bullstrap uses top grain leather. Both are very good.

 

[NewBench]

Anyone have any pics of a 13 mini or 13 (non-pro) with Apple's Midnight leather case?

 

[maxrest]

Anyone have any pics of a 13 mini or 13 (non-pro) with Apple's Midnight leather case?

I have the midnight 13 with the midnight leather case and I’d absolutely recommend it! Here’s a YouTube video I found of the combo:

 

[nrvous1]

I have the midnight 13 with the midnight leather case and I’d absolutely recommend it! Here’s a YouTube video I found of the combo:

This exact video is why I purchased the midnight leather case as well as the midnight wallet.