I bought a new phone recently. It cost me a few dollars more than I would normally spend on something I look at as a necessity more than anything else. Before I bought it I watched some reviews on Youtube discussing the device. One in particular spoke positively of the phone and then mentioned a phone case and skin sold by a company called dbrand which looks like its located in Toronto which is excellent. I’m always looking at supporting local/provincial/national if I can before looking South or East or China for stuff like this. Anyway, bought the case, its called the Grip, and bought a skin called a Teardown because it shows the inner workings of the device in question. Using my best Borat: It’s very nice!

They shipped Purolator, also nice but really unnecessary and when I opened up the box I found a couple of things inside. The skin came in a plastic sleeve with a cardboard insert with some logo stuff and a link to show me where I would go to learn how to best install it. The second item was a book sized box with foldout doors to reveal the Grip firmly attached to a foam slab inside.

I get that this is a special item and I guess by wrapping it in this extensive case it makes me appreciate it more? But really I don’t see the value in putting something plastic and solid and phone, for the protection of, into a case of such elaborate design. My initial, and continued, thought was that this package was a terrible waste of resources and was completely unnecessary. It probably costs them substantial amounts and is without doubt going to the landfill as soon as the Grip is removed. That makes me sad.