Quite Possibly The Best iPhone Case Ever

This iPhone case is so full of win that I can barely keep from giggling just looking at it.

Perhaps the best iPhone case ever made, or even imagined.

A good friend of mine, Elizabethe Kramer, just returned from a two month business trip in China and she bought this just for me. She and her husband Steve were also sporting new iPhone cases, each fascinatingly, bizarrely pirate in their own way.

Mine, of course, is pirated and knocked off in so many ways that it is comical, but the image itself is some sort of bizarre genius.

First, it comes in a box claiming to be a recognizable designer brand, “Marc” by Marc Jacobs.

The case features Steve Jobs, carrying a satchel and armed with an assault rifle, as he strides confidently across post-apocolyptic New York (it took me a few minutes to recognize Will Smith from “I Am Legend” with Steve’s head pasted on). The case is signed by Jobs in silvery marker. And, for some reason, if you hold the case just right you can make out overlapping hearts and Apple logos which include the following message:

Thank you Steve Jobs you will always live in our hearts.

I've never thought of Steve this way, but some how it makes complete sense.

Repeated four times. In different sizes. All run together.

The picture simply can’t do it justice. The silvery backing makes it difficult to see in detail. You have to study it, turn it into the light, to reveal its full beauty and wonder.

Unfortunately (or perhaps not), it is so poorly made that I to use as a case would quickly destroy it. So it will remain, pristine and unused, in its knockoff designer box.

I have a deep and working knowledge of physical pirating and knockoffs and the dangers that they represent. I spent three years as Vice President of Operations of a hardware refurbishing company and we developed a detailed program of identifying and destroying counterfeit routers, switches, and networking hardware of all kinds. It’s a significant issue. But this little iPhone case isn’t really a pirated item (except for the box it came in). It’s more of a bad translation, a view of our world through different eyes. It’s more sweet and creative than a direct attempt to steal someone’s copyrighted and patented goods.

I will treasure it always.