Craig Grannell, writing for Stuff:

This collaboration with Issey Miyake was, we’re told, inspired by the concept of “a piece of cloth”. The result of all that R&D? A crossbody sock. It’s as if someone raided a warehouse of iPod Socks, stretched them out and fashioned them up.

When Steve Jobs introduced the originals, he called them a “revolutionary new product for iPod … socks”. Clearly enjoying himself, he joked that case makers were making more money than Apple did on the iPod, and so Apple thought it’d offer something too. “And our design team came up with socks,” he said. You got six colours for $29 — about $50 in today’s money — and they were a warm expression of Apple’s playful side (and, as Jobs quipped, would “keep your iPod warm on cold days”).

When Jobs announced iPod Socks in 2004, a lot of people thought he was pulling a gag. Some people didn’t believe they were real until they went on sale. My wife and I bought a pack and we both enjoyed them. (I took the gray one, natch.) It was a nice way to protect your iPod before throwing it in a bag, and getting six for $30 felt like a lark.

No one seems worried that iPhone Pocket is a gag. Make of that what you will.