Alchemy Goods Eastlake Tablet Sleeve Review

I don't always love surprises. But I bet that's how most people feel. For me, bad surprises generally include unexpected visits from distant relatives, discovering the milk has gone bad, finding random fluids dripping from your car and only having enough cereal left for half a bowl instead of a full bowl (also see: discovering the milk has gone bad). Good surprises include waking up Friday morning thinking it's Thursday and then remembering it's actually Friday, getting an unprovoked hug from your two year old, finding your favorite single track deserted on a Saturday morning, or like what happened to me last week, ordering something online, having it arrive only to find it's way cooler than you thought it was.

A couple weeks back I found myself on theclymb.com ordering some goodies during their free shipping sale. Needing a couple more items to hit the free shipping threshold I added the Alchemy Goods Eastlake Recycled Tablet Sleeve. My wife had just received an iPad from her school to use for the summer and I thought, "Hey, this looks nice. It's a good deal, looks like it will hold an iPad well." I hadn't looked into it any more than that.

When it arrived, boy was I surprised. I pulled it out of the box and thought, "Cool, this has a rubber coating on the outside….. wait a second, it's made from old bike inner tubes!"
Come to find out Alchemy Goods makes all kinds of bags, totes, electronic sleeves and wallets out of old bike inner tubes. They refer to it as upcycling, I refer to it as awesome. And it's not just blown out tubes that they're using. They also upcycle old seat belts and advertising banners into their products. This creates a very unique look that is durable but also extremely earth friendly. Their mantra is to turn something of lesser value into something of greater value.

The Eastlake tablet sleeve has been awesome for the iPad, It has just the right amount of padding to protect the iPad, a snug fit and a velcro flap to keep it inside. The inside is lined with micro fleece and helps wipe off finger prints as you slide your iPad in and out of the sleeve. The inner tube outside is exactly what you're thinking it is, rubber. Tough, tear resistant, stain resistant and a great conversation starter.

If you have another tablet besides an iPad that is sized differently I'm sure it might not fit as snug but we test it out with an iPad 2 and the New iPad (iPad 3rd Generation) and both worked great. It's snug enough that fits the iPad by itself, so if you have a smart cover or anything of the sort, you'll have to remove it first.

We generally don't' review tech gadets on GearGenius.com but we felt that due to the construction of Alchemy's products, it was rather fitting. We'd recommend the Eastlake Tablet Sleeve to anyone looking to protect they tablet style electronics.

Genius Feature: Upcycled inner tube exterior. Looks great, super durable and good for the planet.

Not so Genius Feature: Fits iPads really well. Do some measuring before buying for non-Apple tablets.

For mor information check out Alchemy Goods' website.

Looks for a good deal on an Alchemy Goods Eastlake 10" Tablet sleeve of your own? Amazon has 'em.