- PopSockets unveils its thinnest iPhone MagSafe grip yet
- It’s 2.6mm thick
- Comes in 12 colors and is available exclusively at the Apple Store — for now
Every gadget has an origin story, but PopSocket’s Low-Pro iPhone grip might be special. Unveiled today in the Apple store, it’s an idea as old as the PopSockets brand, but one that waited almost a decade, until the original grip had become a smartphone industry icon, adorning the backs of hundreds of millions of phones.
PopSockets makes a wide range of grip styles, and some, like the Kick-Out & Grip, are pretty low profile, but nothing is quite like the 2.6 mm-thick Low-Pro, which PopSockets ‘ VP of Marketing Lisa Li calls “a labor of love.”
The idea for the Low Pro traces back to the first few months of PopSockets when Founder and CEO David Barnett was already percolating ideas for an ultra-thin grip. But to understand that notion, you need to know why and how Barnett developed the PopSocket grip in the first place.
Blame it on the wired headphones
Image 1 of 3
A former University of Colorado Philosophy professor, Barnett had headphones he frequently used with his iPhone, which got tangled in his pocket. As a solution, he purchased a pair of large coat buttons and glued them to the back of his iPhone 3G (I saw it, it’s real). Then he wrapped the headphone cord around them.
Problem solved. That spark of ingenuity ignited a little flame of innovation: Barnett realized he could do more with his phone cable holder and envisioned an attachable and collapsible pair of grips. He even taught himself CAD and created a 3D print of a 2.1mm-thick disk. The print was a bit of a failure in that it didn’t expand and was basically a stiff disc he now sometimes carried with him.
Even as Barnett started to hand out early grip prototypes to his students…
