Premium Leather MacBook Pro Sleeve

What Problems Does This MacBook Pro Sleeve Solve? 

• Provides a proven, quality way to protect / transport your Apple laptop
• Feel good knowing you've chosen a product made from ethically sourced leather
• Will last at least as long as you own your Apple laptop
• Provides peace of mind from 10+ years of continuous production
• Offers far greater value than the Apple-branded sleeve that is much less protective and $50 more expensive

The Best Value in a Leather MacBook Pro Sleeve?

In an industry that sells mostly on discount, MacCase sells on value. Sleeves sold on discount have that discount baked into the price from the start. The original price is set intentionally high so it can be “marked down” to the “sale” price. This is supposed to make you feel good about buying it. It’s a game. You lose the game when your sleeve falls apart long before you expect it to, leaving you to have to buy a replacement. You've lost both your time and your money.

At MacCase, we have too much respect for your time and your intelligence to play those kinds of games. Our leather MacBook Pro Sleeves are built to last years, not months or weeks. They're made from quality materials and assembled by people who care. 25 years of design and engineering knowledge goes into  every piece. It’s much harder to using a value model. We only ask that you give us a chance and experience our superior design, craftsmanship and durability for yourself.

16-inch MacBook Pro Leather Sleeve - Behind the Design

The latest in a series of interviews about the story behind the design of MacCase products. For this interview, we are again speaking to MacCase President Michael Santoro about the company's MacBook Leather Sleeve.

JKD: You often talk about designing and building “the best” product of its type. What makes your 16-inch MacBook Pro leather sleeve the best?

MS: One of the perks of having invented the Apple-specific case market is getting to see everyone who comes after you. There have been many. Many have come and many have gone. MacCase is still here.

One of the reasons for our longevity is our commitment to being the best. Another is the wonderful loyalty of our customers! We deliver the best protection product for your 13-inch, 14-inch, 15-inch or 16-inch Apple laptop. 

Our MacBook Pro 16 inch leather sleeve is a shining example of our commitment to creating the world’s best product of this type. We have been making our Sleeves for many years.

It's not every day we get a new major laptop introduction from Apple. They had a lot to make up for. The much-heralded Touch Bar models turned out to be not so popular with the hardcore, creative users that used to be the backbone of the company. 

It's a lot like when I was designing at Jeep. You had this hardcore group of people who actually take the doors off and fold the windshield down when they go off-roading. When you design this type of vehicle, these are the type of people you have to please. If you get it right for them, everyone else will be happy. 

With a machine like the new 16" Pro, Apple has to get it right for all the movie makers, digital artists, character creators, product and environmental designers,  special effects wizards and music makers. If those folks are happy, everyone else will be too. 

14-inch MacBook Pro Sleeve - Pleasing Some of the World's Most Demanding Customers

I look at things the same way. I know how our customer is, how hard they work and how they need our product to perform. There is no way someone who spends almost $3000 on a new laptop wants to put it in a $20 sleeve they got on amazon. 

We make a proactive product whose basic design has proven itself over the last 2 decades. Two decades! Our nylon sleeve came out in 1999. The Premium Leather model in 2007. 

In all that time, we have yet to have a single warranty issue. Not one. We are very proud of this. I am sure Rolls Royce, Mercedes and Lexus would love to have a track record of quality as good as ours. Our leather 14-inch MacBook Pro sleeve is the best product of its kind. 

Remember that we are selling to some of the most discriminating customers in any market: Apple users. Companies like Apple themselves are envious of a history of delivering such outstanding quality.

Our zero-defect record stands as a testament to the quality of our materials and the care and passion with which they are assembled. Look closely at the materials and the attention to detail and compare our Sleeve to any other, even Apple’s effort. You'll see why we can say with confidence that MacCase makes the best MacBook Pro leather sleeve available.

The Best 16-inch MacBook Pro Leather Sleeve Starts with the Best Hides

JKD: What specifically makes them so special?

MS: It starts with our hides. Our hides are unique. We developed them in-house with a specific set of specifications that we created. Typically, leather is either soft and subtle or durable but not both.

So much of the "leather" that is being used today for bags is what is called "bonded leather" which is ground-up leather remnants mixed with cheap vinyl, plastic and glue that creates a paste that is used to create a thin sheet.

The panels for this "genuine leather" bag are then cut from this sheet. This is why so many of the leather bags feel like plastic when you touch them, because at they are.

Our tannery has been tanning hides for 3 generations. Working closely with them, we can develop hides with a beautifully soft "hand" that are tough and durable as well. Only all-natural vegetable oils are used in the tanning process.

This soft, buttery quality is what you feel every time you pick up our MacBook Pro 16 inch leather sleeve. Whether you choose the professional statement of our satin finish, pebble-grain black or the iconoclastic "Vintage" brown, the hide will be soft and warm to the touch.

This wonderful experience combines with the long list of designed-in features that make these the best laptop sleeve protection you can buy. Your Apple portable deserves the best protection. A MacCase Premium MacBook Leather Sleeve is just that.

MacBook Leather Sleeve for 14-inch

JDK - Is there anything specific about the 14inch MacBook Pro Sleeve that is exciting or of interest to you to design for?

MS - The new 14 inch MacBook Pro presents challenges. It is a powerhouse machine in the same mold as the old 17" PowerBook. To get that kind of hardware in the form factor that is relatively the same size as the 15-inch it replaces, you have to make them thinner and lighter.

Therefore have less material to protect the electronic components and the screen against a hostile world. Our leather covers do an outstanding job of providing just the right amount of protection.

Regarding being interesting to design for, the most interesting opportunity for me and MacCase is the people. A new Apple laptop generally means that a new group of people will be buying Apple for the first time. 

Back when we started, there was us and maybe one or two other companies who made a case to fit a PowerBook. Now, for the latest Apple laptops, there are more companies than I can count.

Sure, a lot of them are absolute crap and the companies will, like so many others over the years, fade away. But if I am a new Apple user and I am looking for a case, am I going to find MacCase? That's our challenge.

New customers for Apple always means potential new customers for MacCase. It's a chance to tell our story, to express our passion for this community and for them to purchase a case, sleeve or bag of real quality.

The Best Leather 16-inch MacBook Pro Sleeve Offers the Best Protection

JKD - Does it dishearten you when you see so many poor-quality sleeve designs available?

MS - I have been doing this long enough to know that we need to keep doing what we do. This means putting the best sleeves into the world that we can. I like to focus on making MacCase products better, not spending time getting emotionally drained by someone's potential choice of an inferior case.

When the MacBook Air was first released a litany of case companies were launched all having what they considered the perfect solution to protect what was then, a very thin, fragile laptop. How many cases were put out there copying Apple's manila envelope ad campaign?

I don't think one of those companies from that time is still around. When the Air came out, we just put our head down, designed and built the best, most protective MacBook Air leather sleeve. And we're still here. Even after all this time, we still work incredibly hard at this.

I did read a post about someone who was bragging about how he created a 15" case from the postal envelop. Sure, the price is right, but is that the best option to protect what is essentially a large technology investment? I often ask, "Would you take a bunch of refrigerator boxes and tape them together to make a garage for your Ferrari?"

Is this the Best Leather MacBook Pro Sleeve?

An Apple laptop is a similar kind of product. Like a Ferrari, it represents the best of a type of thing. We make the best of a type of thing too. Luckily, we have over the years, found enough people who agreed with us.

If you're ready to step up from the disposable laptop sleeves hawked on sites like amazon to something of true quality, then this sleeve is for you. Hand-made from ethically sourced hides, each size fits your Apple laptop perfectly. Do you feel that Apple's own $180 sleeve is overpriced, then take a good long look at this one. Our sleeve offers a much better value and better protection.

When all the dust settles, the opportunity that the new 16-inch Apple laptop Sleeve represents is an opportunity to engage with new people who are also looking for the best of a thing.

In this case, that thing is a MacCase nylon or Premium Leather sleeve. Not everyone is going to choose a postal envelope to transport and protect their new 16 inch Apple laptop (well let's hope not anyway!).

They are going to want something better, something better than the inferior quality pieces on amazon or eBay. They'll find their way to MacCase and we'll be here to help them. We'll offer them the best protection for their new, expensive Apple laptop wrapped in a beautiful design that they'll be very proud to own and use.

14 inch MacBook Pro Leather Sleeve Details

JKD - You've spoken about the competition. What is it specifically that makes MacCase designs stand out in this crowded, competitive marketplace?

MS - I've already touched on the differences in the out hides. When you are talking about leather, the quality of the hides is the first place you start. They can make or break a product. 

Beyond that, our designs have several features that add value but do so in very quiet ways. 

JKD - For example?

MS - Our perimeter bumper piping. We use a hollow-core plastic tube that is designed to absorb impacts on the three closed sides of the case. We wrap it in leather and it just looks like a way to finish the seam. In that respect it is. But we could have chosen a much more cost-effective and simpler way to do that. But we didn't. 

By incorporating the piping, we made the seam part of the protection strategy of the design. The tubing will deform if impacted. This will absorb some of the energy that would have otherwise impacted your 14-inch MacBook Pro. And it works.

More Sleeve Design Details

In addition, our rear cooling vent is another expensive detail that is a unique feature of MacCase. It costs a lot to add this detail to the design. Again, it does work. It helps the processor to cool down naturally after use by allowing the hot air to escape the layers of foam and leather. 

Two other notable design details are the fact that we dye the velcro to match the leather. It's a small thing but it shows we're paying attention. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention our window. 

At this point, it's probably the single most copied design detail in the history of Apple accessories, (laughing). Almost 25 years later I'm still seeing iPhone cases with a circle cut out of the back to show the Apple logo. A lot of people love it. Some don't. That's OK. We're not here to please everyone. 

What it does for us is connect us with our past, with being first. It's a cool thing to have been first, to have invented something like the Apple-specific case market. That window allows us to look back and remind ourselves of that. More importantly, it serves as something to look out from, to the future, to where we want to go. 

MacBook Air Leather Sleeve

JKD - How do the MacBook Air models fit into all of this?

MS - Right now customers are looking for what we call "Transitional Designs". These are our legacy designs, our Premium Leather Flight Jackets and Premium Leather Sleeves that we have redesigned make sure they work with the 13" MacBook Air. 

The Air laptops are smaller than their predecessors. While they fit in the older versions of our MacBook sleeve, we want them to have a certain type of fit. This is one of the differences between MacCase and what a lot of other companies do. We have a "Goldilocks" standard when it comes to fit: Not too loose, not too tight, just right.

It's one of those things that customers know when they experience it. This is one of the things we like to deliver, meeting that expectation with a "wow" or a nod of "yes" when they first slide their 13" MacBook Air into our Sleeve. Sure the case has to protect, but a MacCase is about so much more than just protection. 

Our MacBook leather sleeve, whether for the Air or Pro, is about the experience. As mentioned, yes, they are extremely protective. They do the job. They keep your Apple laptop safe. In addition to all that protection and functionality, they smell great too. They feel wonderful in your hand and when you carry them. They put a smile on your face. How much is that worth? 

JKD - Thank you. 

FAQ - 

What is the best MacBook Pro Sleeve? 

The best MacBook Pro Sleeve is the one that meets or exceeds your individual needs. Things to consider when shopping for one are the amount of protection you require, the materials, (leather or man-made), who it’s made by, and if it uses a zipper closure (zippers can scratch).

What is the difference between a sleeve and a case?

A laptop sleeve is typically made up of 2 sheets of material sewn on 3 sizes with the open end sealed by a closure, either a flap or zipper. A case is similar but usually includes a shoulder strap to allow the user to wear the product and various other pockets for storage.

Do cases make MacBooks overheat?

Some MacBooks dissipate heat better than others. The same is true for cases. Look for cases that have a vent or do not fit too tightly, to allow the processor heat to escape naturally. A well-designed case and a little common sense will ensure your Apple laptop will not overheat.

What is a MacBook slipcase?

A MacBook slipcase is a kind of laptop sleeve that allows the Apple laptop to be "slipped" into the case. Slip cases of this kind can sometimes have closure flaps to seal the open end. Slipcases can provide good protection depending on the quality of padding and materials.