Apple will stop using leather for accessories, announces a recycled FineWoven material for Watch bands, and plans to phase out all plastic packaging by 2025
AppleInsiderMichael Stroup
Context & Ripple Effects
This marked a broader redesign of Apple’s physical-product inputs, alongside reported work on 3D-printed Apple Watch chassis production intended to improve manufacturing efficiency and sustainability.
The material change also created a product-quality test: Apple later withdrew FineWoven iPhone cases while retaining other case materials. Subsequent reporting of higher recycled-content use shows the company continued pursuing material substitution beyond this particular accessory fabric.
First-order effects
Apple’s accessory range moves away from leather, requiring new material sourcing and putting FineWoven at the center of its Watch-band offering.
The 2025 packaging target commits Apple and its packaging suppliers to redesign packs around less plastic, rather than treating packaging as a separate downstream detail.
Second-order effects
FineWoven shifts the burden to Apple’s design and supplier teams to match leather’s perceived durability and premium feel; the later case withdrawal illustrates how quickly a replacement can be reassessed when it falls short.
Accessory and packaging vendors serving Apple face stronger incentives to qualify recycled or non-plastic materials that can meet the company’s design and retail requirements.
Third-order effects
If sustained, the shift makes material choice a more visible product-design and supply-chain differentiator for premium consumer electronics, not merely an environmental claim.
The FineWoven reversal suggests that lower-impact substitutions will remain constrained by product performance and customer acceptance; adoption is unlikely to be linear across product categories.
The trend: Apple is folding lower-impact materials and packaging into core hardware and accessory design, while learning which substitutes can survive premium-product expectations.
Now that Apple has dropped leather from all of its new products—that also means Hermès won't be able to sell cruel leather watch straps for the tech giant either 👏
Apple's war on all things leather is expanding to its retail stores. The company will phase out leather try-on mats for Apple Watches and leather cube seats. [image]
Apple: We will no longer use leather in any product (due to carbon footprint needed at our scale). Instead, we created FineWoven. The Apple Watch Hermēs partnership is staying but evolving to other textiles.
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