The concept of luxury has historically hinged on gentle cognitive dissonance. A furtive glance at a freeway tent camp from the safety of your car. The chill of a perpetually 68-degree room overlooking the sweltering desert. Lush, green lawns in the midst of a drought. So often, beauty is achieved only by intellectually unpleasant means — guilty pleasures.
Leather is hardly different. It’s a beautiful material as long as you don’t think about it too much. If you’re shifting in your seat, you’re not alone. Tabletops readers admire the design and style of Apple Stores. And for the past eight years, leather has been a defining element of the look. That moment has passed.
During last Tuesday’s keynote, Apple announced it will no longer use leather in any new products, and that includes its largest — Apple Retail Stores. Combined with initiatives to shrink product packaging, engineer more sustainable materials, and hold suppliers’ feet to the flames, Apple’s carbon neutrality goals are significantly reshaping the look and feel of its stores.
When Apple announced its 2030 plan in 2020, I made the catastrophic error of assuming Apple Stores were already “all set.” Every Apple facility was already powered with 100 percent clean energy, so the problem must be elsewhere, right? Three years later, the green Earth Day logos are already beginning to resemble quaint tokens of a less responsible time. Yesterday’s store designs may someday feel as astonishingly impractical as the asbestos-tiled, fluorescent-lit hallways of a mid-century office building.
When Apple last reshaped the feel of its stores, saddle brown leather became a key accent material. It’s everywhere now: Forum seats, try on mats, benches, tree seating, Boardroom sofas, and more. At Apple’s scale, eliminating leather is still more environmentally impactful for iPhone cases and watch bands (don’t forget the MacBook sleeves) than a handful of fixtures scattered across 526 stores. But Apple would be hypocritical if it were inconsistent in its commitment. So the cubes must go.
Every fixture pictured in the collage above is destined to someday disappear. It won’t happen overnight, and Apple isn’t wastefully swapping serviceable leather just to get it out of sight, but as these products wear out, they won’t be replaced like-for-like.
The Vintage E store design unveiled earlier this year is, at its core, the first model compatible with 2030. You might’ve noticed there’s not a single leather fixture in these stores. In fact, the only soft surfaces customers touch at all are new white try on mats that feel like an iPad Magic Keyboard.
What’s striking to me is how suddenly and forcefully the visible design goals within Retail transformed. In 2021, Apple Cherry Creek opened with a stunning glass-walled Boardroom at the center of the store, a design that ultimately celebrates gratuitous luxury. The same year, Apple Tower Theatre opened with a balcony filled with upholstered leather seats (and railings)! Even Apple The Mall at Bay Plaza, the first in a generation of more sustainable stores, debuted a new leather seating area. And through this April, Apple was still installing leather Forum cubes and tree seating.
Some critics of last week’s “Mother Nature” skit say the carbon neutrality initiatives amount to greenwashing and virtue signaling. I don’t think that’s an astute analysis. In terms of retail stores, clearly the planet won’t perish or thrive over a few leather mats. So much of the environmental work Apple is doing is as much if not more about shifting the status quo and setting new precedents for commercial construction.
Think about it like this: Apple’s hardware manufacturing can incur a massive environmental cost because the company produces a massive quantity of products. At the level of physical stores, the equation is flipped. Apple’s retail choices can incur a massive environmental cost due to Apple’s massive influence, despite the fact that there are relatively few Apple Stores globally. By moving the conversation on supplier responsibility, unlocking availability of sustainable materials, and leveling up acceptable best practices, Apple can have an outsize impact on global architecture relative to its actual retail footprint. It starts with the cubes.
Wenzhou confirmed
In a short interview published after last week’s Apple Event, Deirdre O’Brien confirmed that Apple will open a new store later this year in Wenzhou, China. Hiring for this location began at the beginning of 2023.
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Apple Aventura
Photo via @robinhillphoto.