JADCR - Just Another DODOCase Review

If you're a devoted follower of iPad accessories, there's been a lot of attention directed at the DODOCase that you're probably aware of. The case itself consists of a bamboo tray that the iPad sits in, and is married to a black hardcover book cover, wrapped in faux leather. The iPad is held in the tray by rubber pads on the corners that make the device sit in the tray in a very snug manner.

The cover is held closed by a black elastic that makes the entire case look like a resemble a Moleskine notebook. The case has a solid feel that and there are no noticeable blemishes or indications of the case being a mass-produced accessory.

Now, I've never owned a Moleskine notebook but I know of the high quality of the world-renowned notebooks. The Moleskines have a reputation of being artisan's notebook with attention to quality that precedes the notebooks themselves. The folks that manufacture the DODOCase, though unaffiliated with Moleskine, have produced a product that would probably do the folks at Moleskine proud.

If you don't know the DODOCase story, the production process of the case utilizes traditional book-binding techniques to produce the case exterior. DODOCase hired a San Francisco-based book binder to oversee the cover production process and each cover is hand-pressed and glued. There are even videos posted by DODOCase that show how the cover is produced. While I won't re-tell the story of how the company came to be, and the craftsmanship that goes into each case, it's part of the lore that draws customers to the case, and is one of the main reasons that has resulted in $1 million in revenue for the company since the case was available in April. It's a great success story that is part-marketing savvy, part fortuitous timing, and the benefactor of some glowing reviews by social media celebrities and internet stars, such as Kevin Rose.

When I initially read up about the DODOCase, the wait times for the case were in the 3-week range. That, in itself, was probably a good indicator of how good the case was. The long wait time wasn't due to a long production process, but due to the overnight success of the case, and DODOCase not quite prepared for the onslaught of orders. As the days ticked by, DODOCase updated its followers on a daily basis via Facebook and Twitter which orders had been shipped. And as each day went by, the production time decreased, and I only ended up waiting about a week for my order to be shipped.

When I opened the package, I was somewhat concerned that there was no interior packaging inside of the box that the case was shipped in. While the fit of the box to the case was pretty close, it didn't snuggly fit the box so there was some space for the case to shift inside the box.

I inspected the case, and it was a thing of beauty. It had quality all written all over it. The seams inside the book cover were clean with no peeling or lift. The cover itself had a bit of a warp to it as it was sitting in the Texas heat for a few hours. I carefully curled the cover opposite the warp for just under a minute and that cured the warping.

The inside material is a deep red, laminate paper-based material that has a nice finish, and the bookplate is a nice touch. While the bookplate doesn't have the uniqueness as the initial, hand-signed batch of 1,000 cases, the inclusion of the bookplate adds to the human-ness of the case. This isn't a mass-produced case assembled by faceless machines overseas. These are made in the U.S.A., hand-produced, hand-assembled.

The bamboo tray had a smooth finish, especially around the rounded corners where the tray was cut away except for some roughness on the side closest to the spine of the book, and I was concerned about the roughness of certain parts of the bamboo and it possibly being susceptible to cracking. Some customers had reported that their DODOCase trays had broken apart, though it's unknown what usage or handling may have occurred to cause the damage to the tray. I ended up applying a coat of clear nail polish in areas of the bamboo laminate strips where the bamboo grain was exposed.

The rubber tabs glued into each corner of the tray do a very good job of keeping the iPad in place. Even when the case is held face-down, the iPad didn't budge from the tray. There were some reports from customers that the tabs were coming apart from the tray or had lost their ability to keep the iPad snug. Again, I'm not sure if the customers were continuously placing and removing the device from the DODOCase.

On the DODOCase website, there are various videos that show off the uses and flexibility of the book cover as well as the production process. There is one video that shows case as a stand in both a vertical and horizontal manner, not unlike how the Apple iPad case can be used. While I have used the case in that manner, I noticed rough seams appear on the outside of the cover joints along the spine of the case. I'm not sure if the seams were there before but I plan on monitoring any additional wear in that area of the case as time goes on.

All in all, the construction and craftsmanship put into this case is worthy of the $59.95 price tag. There are other companies that produce cases that resemble the characteristics of a Moleskine book, one of them also utilizes bamboo for the tray, while the other uses birch to construct the tray, but none have had the social media exposure that DODOCase has had.

This case exudes style, street cred, high-craftsmanship, and even a bit of creativity, and is definitely worth the week-long wait. Since I had ordered my DODOCase, the company has expanded beyond it's sole color option of a red interior and is available in 11 different colors. I've found the case is ultimately as valuable as the device itself to where I've taken extra care in preserving the exterior and the tray of the case.