We’re excited to offer two Limited Edition Horween leathers for iPhone 17 this year: Burgundy Chromexcel and Olde Dublin. Each gives your iPhone 17 an unparalleled look and feel, and will patina with time to become uniquely yours.

What sets these two leathers apart from others? Let’s take a closer look, starting with Burgundy.

Burgundy is a deep reddish brown with dark purple undertones. We wanted to introduce a leather colorway that felt fresh and exciting, but also complemented our established Black, Rustic Brown, and English Tan shades. It’s bold and different, yet subtle enough for everyday carry.

Burgundy is made of Chromexcel, one of Horween’s finest leathers. It’s been hand-tanned the same way since the early 1900s, and requires 89 separate processes over the course of 28 days. The result is a material that’s rich and glossy, with beautiful color variations and a unique ability to patina much faster than other leathers.

Here are some of the features we love most:

• It has a deep, rich color and feels silky in hand.
• It patinas more quickly than other leathers.
• Scratches and marks can be polished out.
• It's heat-resistant.
• It molds and conforms easily.

CXL is combination-tanned, starting with a chrome base tannage for resilience and character, followed by a vegetable retannage for color and shine. For context, tannage is the initial process of turning raw hide into leather, while retannage fine-tunes the leather’s final qualities. After tanning, the leather is hot-stuffed with a blend of waxes, oils, and grease, giving it that silky feel and deep color. 

One thing that sets CXL apart from other leathers is that it’s air-dried. This allows the leather to shrink back on itself, creating a tighter, more calf-like break. And what exactly does a “tighter, more calf-like break” look like? It just means the leather has a smooth, refined texture with small, delicate creases typical of high-quality calfskin.

Our Limited Edition Burgundy Modern Leather Case and Modern Leather Folio celebrate all the best parts of Chromexcel leather. These first-of-their-kind cases have a luxurious look and feel and will develop a rich, beautiful finish over time. 

We’ve paired the leather with modern design touches like integrated neodymium magnets for MagSafe compatibility, a raised TPU bumper, and a touch-sensitive Camera Control button. For the Folio, we’ve upgraded the card slot to all-leather for a seamless leather look, whether it’s open or closed.

We made Olde Dublin available for iPhone 16 and received such positive feedback that we decided to carry it over to iPhone 17. A perfect combination of English Tan and Rustic Brown, it has a rich caramel color with some darker spots.

Dublin leather undergoes minimal, natural tanning that brings out the hide’s distinct colors and tonal variations. With a richer concentration of oils, it offers more shine and develops a deep, beautiful patina more quickly than most other leathers. No two cases will look the same, which means the Olde Dublin case in your hands is 100% yours.

Here are some of the things we love most about it, in no particular order: 

• It has a more rugged and varied look. 
• It preserves the natural qualities of the hide. 
• It burnishes rapidly to develop a rich patina.

Dublin leather is a rich, vegetable-tanned leather known for its unique finish. It shares the supple feel of Horween’s Essex leather but has a deeper, more refined color that highlights the natural features of the hide (think blemishes and stretch marks).

The leather is made using Horween’s century-old Cordovan vegetable tanning formula but incorporates a slightly higher concentration of oils and waxes. This gives it more shine and allows it to develop a richer patina. After tanning, the leather is ironed, which gives it its smooth texture and silky finish.

Our Limited Edition Olde Dublin Modern Leather Case and Folio are a true celebration of Dublin leather. They elevate your iPhone with a sophisticated leather look that only gets better with time. They’re finished with all the same design elements as our Burgundy cases.

Burgundy Chromexcel and Olde Dublin aren’t preserved or coated like synthetic leathers, which means they're more susceptible to scratches and marks in the first few weeks of use. With time, they’ll absorb scratches and marks into their finish and become more resistant to them. Check out this blog post for more info about the patina process. 

When you first receive your leather, be gentle with it as much as possible! Avoid sharp surfaces, objects, and any exposure to moisture, and be sure to regularly treat it with a high-quality leather conditioner. We’re big fans of this Leather Conditioner by Ashland Leather Co. Learn more about caring for your leather in our Leather Care Guide. 

Our Limited Edition leathers are made with care, and we hope you love them as much as we do. Since these are Limited Editions, we won’t restock them once they’re sold out. Grab your leather while you can. 

We love hearing from you! If you need to reach us, email support@nomadgoods.com, and someone from our team will be happy to help.