I’ve been in the market for an e-reader jacket that’ll fit my base-level Kindle for probably six months now, and yet the best options I’ve seen to date are all DIY covers that various crafting enthusiasts have been showing off on how-to blogs lately.

Of course, I’m incredibly picky: I want a cover that’s both stylish and affordable. Oddly enough, the majority of the e-reader cases and jackets I’ve been seeing are both surprisingly ugly and unbelievably pricey. The horror!

These great jackets from Out of Print (whose mission involves “celebrating great stories through fashion”), however, definitely caught my eye.

At USD 40.00, I’d say they’re probably just as overpriced as every other jacket and cover on the market at the moment. By my God are these jackets beautiful! Over 20 different covers (including 1984, for all the irony-obsessed readers out there) are now available for the Kindle, Nook and iPad, and the covers’ material is a soft cotton canvas.

Anyone out there own one of these, or maybe something even better? Send us a photo, and we’ll post it here!

==

UPDATE: I just heard from Chuck Mazzone, Out of Print’s director of social media and web development, who tells me the jackets in the photo at the top of this post are unfortunately no longer being sold. (Sigh.)

Instead, Out of Print is right now about halfway through an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign you may have heard of. It seems as if the campaign is definitely going to lead to a new series of (potentially even cooler) vintage cover-themed e-reader jackets. Take a look at the team’s Kickstarter video, below, for more info:


 

 

9 COMMENTS

  1. I get a little startled when people call an $40 iPad case “over-priced”. Most I have been interested in cost more. For example the Oberon leather covers are over $100. And I don’t consider them overpriced. When you don’t have the Economics of Scale to help you, things cost a lot of money and work to make.

  2. The eReader cover that we may be inching towards may be like what they are calling “digital signage.” Whatever you’re reading right now, that will be projected onto the cover. Of course we’ll hack that so that the cover shows something other than what we are actually reading. This could get way out of hand but it would be fascinating.

  3. Eolake: Take a peek at the e-reader covers during your next trip to Staples; you’ll see that many of them are being produced in Chinese sweatshops. (Just like every other consumer item on earth).

    My point is that e-reader cases in general have scaled just fine, economically-speaking.

    Now, if someone is selling hand-sewn e-reader jackets on Etsy, for instance, then yes: Forty dollars is a perfectly fair price. (Maybe too fair.) Same story with Oberon covers, which are “artisan made.” I wasn’t referring to anything along those lines, though. I suppose I was thinking more about the sorts of cases you see at places like Target or Best Buy.

    But you make a good point: There are tons of very small-scale manufacturers out there producing these covers by hand, which is maybe even a bit unusual when you think about it. I’d suspect it has something to do with the very intimate experience of reading. That is, I’d guess that the crafters who make these cases actually enjoy the process of taking their time, because they know their product is eventually going to serve a very important purpose. (Or something like that.)

  4. Dan – With respect, I suggest we need to be careful in our characterisation of basically every manufacturing facility in China as a ‘sweatshop’. Any amount of research and reading up will demonstrate that huge numbers of well run, well manage businesses operate in China with good worker experience and increasing pay. While I do accept that there are sweatshops, I would direct you to the recent sweatshop expose in Chinatown, New York, involving Alexander Wang as only one example. It isn’t only in China that poor working conditions exist.

  5. Dan,
    Yes indeed. There’s a surprisingly lively market now for such accessories, it’s nice. (I must have ten different iPad cases.) And I do think it has a lot to do with love of reading. (And love of the nice devices.)
    And yes, I would gladly pay more than 40 bucks for something which is lovingly hand-made, it’s a pity if they feel too pressured to get a bit for their work.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.