Accessory review: Haul’s cases are awesome rubbish

Our latest haul

So: you’ve got your iPad 3G, you’ve stuffed it to the gills with apps and are you’re a real pro at the on-screen keyboard, so now you want to take it out with you and show it off. What you need now is a sleeve or folio for it, but being the fashionista that you are, you don’t want to dress it in just anything: you want something that’s unique. And being conscious of your impact on the environment, you want something that’s eco-friendly, too. If you think your order is too tall, think again.

Haul are an Australian-based company that take recycled or found waste such as vinyl billboards, rubber printing blankets and even old tyre inner-tubes and turn them into wonderful, colourful and extremely desirable objets d’art. Best of all: they turn them into iPad and MacBook cases. We thought we’d take a look so join us after the break.

Just a fraction of Haul's range

Haul create two types of iPad case: a sleeve and a folio. Both are made from rubber Offset printing blankets, which are used in the manufacture of printed items such as newspapers, packaging and brochures. The rubber is wonderfully thick with a smooth, firm, almost buffed leathery feel.

Haul clean the blankets up, cut them to size and bond them to a colorful, soft felt interior. The whole thing is then held together with industrial-strength stitches. The folio is a basically an iPad-sized sleeve with the opening along one of the longer sides, and a flap that closes over it. The flap is then held in place with a strong piece elastic.

Haul iPad folio

The iPad slips in and out nicely and there is just enough give to accommodate a molded case like the one we looked at from chillicase.co.nz. Just as importantly, it looks and feels amazing. The Haul website allows you to choose from a number of general colours and styles but because of the materials they are made from, no two are exactly the same.

The folio we received was a stunning turquoise / dark blue / purple on the outside and bright orange in the interior. It’s a great look that on the one hand looks really surfy / urban / street, but on the other hand wouldn’t be at all out of place in the workplace (especially one where nobody wears ties).

Perfect typing angle

One nice (perhaps unintentional) feature of the folio is that if you bend the flap back underneath itself and secure it with the elastic strap, it becomes a wedge shape, just at the perfect angle for typing on your lap. And because of the rubber texture, it is also non-slip which eliminates the situation where your iPad ends up slipping down your lap.

Protected in syle

The sleeve model is a slightly tighter fit than the folio and won’t accommodate a case – this is strictly for naked ipads only! The iPad still glides in and out nicely, but despite being open ended you can even shake this baby upside down and your iPad isn’t going anywhere.

Both cases leave you in no doubt that your iPad is well protected, and the felt interior means no chance of scratches. It’s also fascinating trying to figure out what role your case played in its previous life — for example our sleeve was obviously used to print the text onto the lids of bottles of Jacob’s Creek wine, and our folio was used to print some brochures for P&O Cruises. Don’t worry, these aren’t at all obvious — we had to stare hard to make it out, but it just makes them even more fascinating.

MacBook case: previously part of a vinyl billboard

If you own a MacBook then check out the range of cases that are made from vinyl billboards – again, these are really colourful and unique conversation pieces. They don’t offer quite the protection of the thick print-blankets but for unibody aluminium models they should be fine.

The sleeve is priced at A$69, the folio at A$79 and the MacBook sleeve at A$99. That might seem a little dear compared to a lot of the third-party mass-produced cases we’re used to seeing on TradeMe but this is a quality, Australian-made item made by a family-run business: plus the design is unique and the materials are extremely durable so we think that these are well priced. Shipping to New Zealand is around $14.

Haul are planning to expand their retail presence into New Zealand next year, so don’t let the others beat you to it – get one while they’re fresh!

-Haul