"Apple Inc. is meeting consumers’ demands and setting a tremendous example for other top companies by ditching leather" - Apple named PETA Company of the Year after ditching leather iPhone accessories and more

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The iPhone 15 Pro with a Pacific Blue Apple FineWoven case on.
(Image credit: Gerald Lynch / Future)

Apple has been named PETA’s 2023 Company of the Year for setting a good example by ditching leather from all of its products earlier this year. 

In a statement on its website, PETA, the animal rights charity, said, “Apple Inc. clearly recognizes that today’s conscious consumers want to support sustainable brands—in the past five years, global searches for sustainable goods have increased by 71%, and surveys indicate that a vast majority of shoppers care about the environmental impact of the products they buy. As the largest company in the world, Apple Inc. is meeting consumers’ demands and setting a tremendous example for other top companies by ditching leather as part of its goal to be carbon neutral by 2030.”

In the award announcement, PETA explains why leather is so cruel, “animals’ skin is one of the most profitable coproducts of the meat industry, purchasing leather directly contributes to the slaughter of countless individuals. Worldwide, the meat and leather industries kill more than a billion cows, sheep, and other animals for their skins every year.”

Apple’s decision to get rid of leather from all of its products is setting an example for other tech corporations to move forward in fighting animal cruelty. PETA says the decision will “spare countless animals and help mitigate the climate catastrophe.”

FineWoven for everyone?

Apple announced the removal of leather from its lineup when it launched its new best iPhone, the iPhone 15, and Apple Watch Series 9 earlier this year. Accessories made of leather, such as Apple Watch straps and the premium iPhone cases, were replaced with other materials like its own developed FineWoven.

While the material has come under criticism for its durability, we didn’t like how easily it scratched in our FineWoven case eview, there is no denying that the move to use the material has set a precedent for other companies in the technology industry. There’s a hope that Apple will take everything it has learned from the first iteration of the FineWoven products and improve them for the next generation of iPhone, the iPhone 16, when it launches in 2024.

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John-Anthony Disotto
John-Anthony Disotto
How To Editor

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019.  John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.