There’s a Method to this Vision Pro Cover’s Seeming Madness
Credit: dbrand
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The market for Vision Pro accessories isn’t exactly booming, but at least those few companies that are working on solutions for Apple’s spatial computing headset frequently come up with interesting and whimsical ideas.
The latest to enter the fray is dbrand’s Aperture, a cover for the Vision Pro that CEO Adam Ijaz candidly told us is “the ugliest thing we’ve ever made.”
Or, as The Verge puts it, it’s like strapping Crocs to your face.
As Ijaz explains, Aperture is actually the brainchild of design engineer Kyle Goodrich, who shared the design concept in a tweet last year. However, Goodrich’s design wasn’t merely to create something zany-looking — he was looking to blend form and function to solve a very real problem.
The Vision Pro defies fully protective covers due to its abundant collection of sensors. “If even one is obstructed, you have a $3500 paperweight strapped to your face,” as dbrand’s product brief explains.
That’s unfortunate, as the front glass is the most fragile thing about the very pricey headset. Even if you’ve splurged on AppleCare+ for the Vision Pro, the repair cost is $300, and that increases to $800 if you’re not covered.
Traditional solutions to this problem have come out looking awkward at best. You have to leave open holes for all the cameras and sensors, and there are a lot of them to accommodate. Making the whole cover clear mitigates this somewhat, but not much.
So, like any clever industrial designer, Kyle Goodrich realized that the only way to create something with even the vaguest sense of style was to embrace the holes instead of ignoring them. Don’t try to hide the holes you need — just add a whole bunch more so that the design looks intentional rather than awkward.
Goodrich was formerly an AR Designer at Snap, and when he put forward the idea of his cover on X, it was little more than a proof of concept. He suggested making a small run if there was enough demand, and after another user tagged dbrand in the conversation for a “big run,” Ijaz and company decided that the concept was just “too interesting to pass up,” even for such a low-volume product as the Apple Vision Pro.
We’ve done the impossible: designed a product that will have an 80% attach rate to the global addressable market and will only sell twelve units.
Adam Ijaz, dbrand CEO
The accessory maker began its collaboration with Goodrich nearly a year ago. It took 91 prototypes to perfect the design, even with dbrand’s reputation for extreme precision in its manufacturing processes. However, the result of that collaboration has borne fruit, and Aperture is now available for purchase in two colorways: a vibrant orange and a more basic black.
Crafting Aperture wasn’t just about getting the holes right. Engineers strove to also create a cover that would provide solid protection with minimal bulk and no cosmetic blemishes. To accomplish this, they used a single-shot injection process for the unibody construction, making the final product remarkably thin and light.
The collaboration is also unprecedented for dbrand, so it wanted to be sure to give ample credit where it’s due; every Aperture is clearly labelled as “Designed by Kyle Goodrich in California” and includes his signature debossed on the inside.
Goodrich and Ijaz may have had higher hopes for Aperture when the Vision Pro was still new and shiny, but dbrand stayed the course and released it despite the headset’s waning popularity. The “trypophobic nightmare” is now available from dbrand for $49 for the cover by itself or $69 for a bundle that includes a matching battery holster. While it’s technically a “limited edition,” that’s mostly because the company can’t possibly imagine it will garner enough demand to warrant a second production run.
