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View Full Version : Crikey! Animal Cases for the PDA!


Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 02:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.n-signia.com/' target='_blank'>http://www.n-signia.com/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"nSignia makes a high quality, custom designed, leather case for PDA devices, utilizing the finest materials. We handmake our PDA cases in Australia. This is what allows us to offer our Lifetime Guarantee on all our leather PDA cases."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041214-nSignia.jpg" /><br /><br />Australian company, nSignia, have a range of exotic leather and cowhide cases exclusively handmade for your Pocket PC (and Palm). If you've ever wanted to wrap a crocodile around your device, now you can! Other exotic leathers include the barramundi, kangaroo, ostrich and shark, and the cases can also be specially personalised with your initials embossed on the front cover. The current product range mainly supports the older Compaq and HP iPAQ devices, but will rapidly increase in the near future with support for the Dell, Toshiba, and Sony PDAs, as well as the Blackberry and iPod. Support for the new iPAQs are also coming soon. They are also offering the chance for you to win your own exotic leather case! All you need to do is fill out a survey and you're on your way to bringing out the "beast" in your Pocket PC. The survey is designed to provide feedback on what cases PDA users are looking for. Ultimately, this will help nSignia design future cases whose purpose is to meet customers' wants and needs in a case. But enough rambling on from me, head on down to <a href="http://www.n-signia.com/">nSignia</a> and check it out for yourself.

ctmagnus
12-14-2004, 03:05 AM
Fortunately, they have no eel-skin cases ;)

marcm
12-14-2004, 03:19 AM
Fortunately, they have no eel-skin cases ;)

Hmm... that would be a slippery experience... :lol:

&lt;sarcasm>On the other hand, an electric eel case could double as an extended battery for your PDA&lt;/sarcasm>

Deus
12-14-2004, 03:41 AM
Shark? I'm not too sure about that but...I won't get intot a Peta uproar quite yet.

Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 03:42 AM
Fortunately, they have no eel-skin cases ;)

Hmm... that would be a slippery experience... :lol:

&lt;sarcasm>On the other hand, an electric eel case could double as an extended battery for your PDA&lt;/sarcasm>

Funny. :lol:

I'm actually checking out these cases today. Despite the somewhat "queer-sounding" leathers they use in their exotic leather cases, I'm expecting nothing but quality. ;) I'll let you know what they're like.

You can't disregard the fact that they're handmade.

ombu
12-14-2004, 04:51 AM
http://www.greenpeace.org/images/greenpeace_3853_logo_en_GB.gif
:twisted:

Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 05:46 AM
I'll let you know what they're like.

Well, I had a look at a few of their products and I have to say I'm very impressed. It looks good, feels good, smells good, and works good. It's definitely worth heading over to their website and checking it out for yourself. :)

ctmagnus
12-14-2004, 05:53 AM
You checked them out in person? Already?

Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 05:55 AM
You checked them out in person? Already?

Yes. nSignia are only a few minutes away from me. I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to have a look at the cases today. ;)

Jonathan1
12-14-2004, 06:33 AM
eh....Give me the skin of the wily South American Neoprene and I'm happy. ;) :)
I've never been into leather for anything other then my car. I don't know. I just like synthetic on my PDA anything else feels a little too cowboyish. Like I should be walking around with spires and a 10 gallon hat on. :)

Leon
12-14-2004, 08:16 AM
http://www.greenpeace.org/images/greenpeace_3853_logo_en_GB.gif
:twisted:
:werenotworthy: :clap:
I hope nobody buys this stuff.

markan
12-14-2004, 11:35 AM
I hope nobody buys this stuff.

I have to say that since Ostrich and Kangaroo are farmed for food in Australia I'm not sure that I can get more upset about them than cows.

Cows are cute!

Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 11:41 AM
:werenotworthy: :clap:
I hope nobody buys this stuff.

You know - I don't mean to come across as an anti-Greenpeace person, because I'm not. But my question is how the cases from this company differ from leather cases built by any other company out there (e.g Vaja, Sena Cases, etc.)? In fact, how does it differ from purchasing a metal case? I'm sure in the metal extraction process, some pollutants are being delivered into the atmosphere. Isn't that a bad thing too? In fact, I think just about anything manufactured these days would fit under this category. Greenpeace have a truly respectable mission, but the fact is, it is unfortunately being violated in so many ways as we speak. Everywhere around us, environmental degradation is occurring. I don't think it's fair to pick on Company X, when you could critically analyse the operations of Company Y and Company Z as well. Think about it...

Brad Adrian
12-14-2004, 02:25 PM
Personally, I don't have much of a moral problem with these leathers, because they're not taken from rare animals. On the other hand, buying these kinds of exotic leather cases tends to contribute to the extinction of another rare animal -- dollars in my bank account!

(BTW, just what IS a barramundi?)

Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 02:51 PM
(BTW, just what IS a barramundi?)

:rotfl: I was just waiting for someone to ask...

Anyway, it's a local fish... :) Here's a link: http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/1948.html

Techtoys
12-14-2004, 03:17 PM
One of my friends has a wicked tattoo on his leg - - maybe they can do a custom job and make one from man-hide! :devilboy:

Don't Panic!
12-14-2004, 03:26 PM
I never thought I'd say this but 226 dollars for a case? You've got to be kidding me. :?

bjornkeizers
12-14-2004, 05:03 PM
What could be more natural then animal skin? I don't have any problem with it. If it was good enough for my great, great, great, great, great..... great grandfather the caveman, it's good enough for my Ipaq.

The only difference between a cow or say... an ostrich is purely in your mind. Yeah, it might be exotic, but that doesn't make it wrong.

juni
12-14-2004, 05:47 PM
Since Steve Irwin is so involved in preserving and rescuing crocodiles and many admire his work the "crikey" in the title of the thread is actually quite tasteless.

Kati Compton
12-14-2004, 05:51 PM
Since Steve Irwin is so involved in preserving and rescuing crocodiles and many admire his work the "crikey" in the title of the thread is actually quite tasteless.
I don't think he's the only one that says it. I think it's more an Australian thing. Given that Darius is Australian, and the materials include not only crocodile but also kangaroo, I'm not sure it was written with the Croc Hunter in mind.

(BTW - I went to his zoo a few days ago, but unfortunately he wasn't there!)

Darius Wey
12-14-2004, 05:56 PM
I don't think he's the only one that says it. I think it's more an Australian thing. Given that Darius is Australian, and the materials include not only crocodile but also kangaroo, I'm not sure it was written with the Croc Hunter in mind.

Spot on. I was actually going to do a follow-up post to Juni's a minute ago, but it seems like you read my mind. :)

Paragon
12-14-2004, 06:32 PM
Since Steve Irwin is so involved in preserving and rescuing crocodiles and many admire his work the "crikey" in the title of the thread is actually quite tasteless.

Who ever said any of use come here for the great taste........Shoot! It's less filling! ;)

Dave

PeterLake
12-14-2004, 06:59 PM
What could be more natural then animal skin? I don't have any problem with it. If it was good enough for my great, great, great, great, great..... great grandfather the caveman, it's good enough for my Ipaq.


I hope that your moral compass is not based on the behaviors of cavemen. Who, BTW, I doubt had crocodile wallets.

ctmagnus
12-14-2004, 07:34 PM
Mmm... Ostrich tastes good!

MaximumPDA
12-14-2004, 08:55 PM
Since Ostrich and Kangaroo are farmed like cattle I really don’t see what the big deal is.

These are nice cases, I am testing one now on our iPaq2200 lab mule and the mounting clip system is very ingenuous.

It would be cool is you could order smoked Barramundi with your case, then you would be completing the circle of life, eating the meat and using the skin, now what could a GreenPeacer or Peta-phile say negative about that?

--Bill

Cybrid
12-17-2004, 06:54 PM
Darius
How about some $1600 Ostrich Quill stylus' to go with that? Ivory maybe? :devilboy:

Cybrid
12-17-2004, 07:13 PM
Oh, and I'd like to see some Ebony PPC casing...not a case...I mean disassembling a PPC, taking the cheap plastic casing and cnc'ing it into a custom wood case. Now that I'd actually think of paying money for........

Paragon
12-17-2004, 07:31 PM
Oh, and I'd like to see some Ebony PPC casing...not a case...I mean disassembling a PPC, taking the cheap plastic casing and cnc'ing it into a custom wood case. Now that I'd actually think of paying money for........

I have a lid for my old Jornada made from Ebony.

Darius Wey
12-18-2004, 04:53 AM
Darius
How about some $1600 Ostrich Quill stylus' to go with that? Ivory maybe? :devilboy:

Where are you pulling all these ludicrous statements from? :roll:

A case is a case is a case. Sure, they may be leather, and sure, some of their products may be a little more exotic than your standard cowhide leather, but it's still a case nonetheless.

nsignia_cases
12-18-2004, 10:08 AM
Shark? I'm not too sure about that but...I won't get intot a Peta uproar quite yet.

I going to try to answer some of the comments posted here without getting into a big debate over whether or not leather should be used in a wallet, case, car, etc.

I appreciate that there are a number of people out there who have a problem with the use of animals in general and leather in particular. Heck, my sister is a vegetarian and is one of them. If you are of this line of thinking, I am not trying to convince you to change your beliefs and I'm not trying to convince you to buy our products. If you have a problem with the use of animals altogether, I acknowledge your point of view, but also feel that our points are also valid and reasonable and hopefully we can just agree to disagree.

If you are one of the many people who don't have a problem with cowhide leather and are wondering about the "exotic" leathers that we use, I want to put forward our position and philosophy about the leathers that we use in our products and hopefully you will see that we are not out to wipe out species of animals from the earth.

Our products are made from a variety of leathers and there are a number of leathers that we are looking at using in the future. Some of these leathers, like cowhide, are extremely common and usually cause no problems. Others are just a bit unusual, like Barramundi and Ostrich, and other types of leather, such as the crocodile, are more controversial.

We make sure that all of our leather comes from either a farmed animal, a government approved culling program or a byproduct of regulated human consumption.

For instance the Shark leather that Deus is concerned about, as well as the Barramundi leather, is a byproduct of the regulated fishing industry in Australia. This industry is carefully controlled to ensure that fish stocks in Australian waters are always maintained. The skins of fish that are caught and processed for human consumption are usually just thrown away. In Australia there is one company in Western Australia that takes these skins and tans them for use in leather products. To me this is a commendable enterprise rather than one that should be maligned.

The Barramundi and Shark leathers have interesting textures to them and make a very unique PDA case. The Barramundi is a fish with a large scale pattern and even though the leather origniates from a fish the resultant leather after tanning feels and smells just like any other leather. Currently we use a buffed shark leather. Natural shark leather is like sand paper and is actually used as sand paper in the medical industry. Buffing the leather reduces the abrasiveness of the leather while still providing a rough feel that lets you know that it is shark leather.

The Ostrich leather that we use is from farmed Ostriches. Ostriches are farmed all over the world for meat, leather and feathers and are not an endangered species.

We do not use the skins of wild Crocodiles. The Crocodile leather that we use is from farmed animals. There are only about a dozen or so crocodile farms in Australia. Each of these has to be run according to strict guidelines and have an approval number and certificate from Environment Australia. When we purchase these skins to make our products we always ensure that we get this approval information from the farm. When we ship the product we have to obtain a CITES export certificate from Environment Australia where we quote the approval certificate of the farm that provided the skin. This certificate is quite expensive and is part of the reason for the cost of the crocodile products as well as the very high cost of the leather itself.

The Kangaroo leather is from tanneries that obtain their skins from Environment Australia approved culling programs. These are strictly controlled programs to ensure that Kangaroo numbers don't get too low in drought periods (we actually have a drought at the moment so Kangaroo leather is quite hard to obtain due to reduced culling) or too high in high rainfall periods (where the Kangaroos would have a very high chance of starving to death once the weather returned to normal and food disappeared). The Kangaroos are used for both meat and leather so there is no wastage. If you own a pair of leather running shoes you most likely already own a Kangaroo leather product. The majority of Australian Kangaroo leather is used by large shoe companies as it is one of the strongest leathers available (about 6-8 times stronger than cowhide).

At present we don't have any snake or lizard leather products, however we are looking at making these products and will again be making sure that we get out leather from farmed animals only.

I hope this has helped clarify our position and has helped to show that we do not use endangered wild species and are careful to always obtain our leathers through legitimate, legal channels.

Regards,
Graham Walker
http://www.n-signia.com

Paragon
12-18-2004, 03:06 PM
Very informative reply, nsignia_cases. Thanks!

Dave