Apple has partnered with artist and designer Bailey Hikawa on a new MagSafe iPhone grip “designed with accessibility in mind from the ground up.” The $69.95 Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand is available from the Apple Store now, but is listed as a limited edition item.
The stand comes in either Brat green or a speckled stone finish from Apple, though there are also blue and swirly blurple options available from Hikawa’s own store, and is made out of soft-touch silicone. It attaches to the iPhone magnetically, doubles as both a grip and a stand, either horizontally or vertically, and was designed with “direct input from individuals with disabilities affecting muscle strength, dexterity, and hand control,” according to Apple.
The grip was designed “to support varied ways of holding iPhone while reducing the effort needed to keep it steady,” Hikawa says, though acknowledges on her own site that “not every adaptive need can be met with one device.” The artist, who was profiled by The Verge in 2019, runs a studio in LA where she produces chunky, structural phone cases alongside… decorative toilet seats.
“There’s this joy that I feel when somebody says that this is helpful, that they can’t live without it, that it’s comfortable in their hand, that they can’t believe that they have never experienced this,” Hikawa told Elle Decor. “This is the beginning of many more offerings for all kinds of bodies.”
Apple says the new grip is intended to mark 40 years of accessibility work at the company. It’s the second accessory partnership in as many weeks, following a knitted crossbody phone case produced together with Issey Miyake.