The RetroPod was a handmade iPod case created from a vintage Sony Sports Walkman shell. It was big, heavy, and yellow, and only mostly waterproof. You had to open the case to get at the iPod's controls. I had a great time prototyping it, learning how to cast Nerf in the process! (But eventually settled on die-cut Neoprene)

After about a year of noodling around, I felt like I had a product I could sell. I convinced my friends Consuelo and Oraia to play the part of PBR-soaked Billyburg hipsters (instead of the decent, self-respecting punks they are in real life), and had a photo shoot during lunch in Madison Square Park (Flickr photo set here.) I marketed it as a retro-kitsch "love it/hate it" thing.

The completed case was sold for a hundred bucks (artisanal price), but there was also a do-it-yourself kit with some neoprene, measure drawings, and instructions offered for twenty dollars (DIY price).

I opened the storefront in July of 2004. I quickly got some press in Engadget, Gizmodo, Newsweek, ReadyMade, and a Dutch hipster zine called "Pulp." I started getting orders from NYC, California, Scandinavia, and Japan. Lots of orders from Japan.

Six weeks later, on September 2nd, 2004, I got a letter from Cooper & Dunham, LLP, Sony's law firm [emphasis mine]:

"Sony recently learned that you are selling a case for carrying an iPod personal stereo that is made from a WALKMAN tape player. The product is being offered at your website at www.retropod.com.

Your use of casings for such a purpose is a clear infringement of the SONY and WALKMAN marks because it is deceptive. Consumers likely will be misled and deceived into believing that Sony is somehow connected with the iPod personal stereo when in fact it is not. Moreover, they will be misled into thinking that Sony is backward in its design of products and is going away from miniaturization, as the size of the tape player housing is quite large by today's standards.

Accordingly, we demand on behalf of Sony that you immediately cease and desist from selling, or offering to sell or distributing your Retropod product..."

[the letter continued in the same vein.]

Yes, you read that right, and no, it's not a joke -- Sony was C&D-ing me for reselling used cases, worried that people would think that they had gone into a consumer-electronics time warp. So I thought about it for all of ten seconds, folded up shop (This was a tongue-in-cheek project, after all), and noticed that the email I got immediately switched from "OMG you loser this is ridiculous who would by this you damn billyburg hipsters in your trucker hats!!!" to "OMG this was awesome SONY sucks can I still buy one?"

So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me: john DOT young AT gmail DOT com.
(And no, I don't sell them under the table. )

John Young <-- My homepage
Ex-RetroPod maker

Some other "iPod in an old tape case" projects that I've seen online:

• Nickee's PhotoPod <-- used the dock connector instead of the headphone jack, which is slick.
• Ted's iWalkman <-- well and truly stealthed, with a cassette tape inside the door so you don't see any ipod at all. Also, Ted wired up the dual headphone jack, which is so badass it brings tears to my eyes.
• Ndesh's nice clean build

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If you like the Retropod, you might like one of my other projects, the Ultimate Water Gun. It's made from a fire extinguisher, a scuba backpack, and a sixties gold-fleck motorcycle helmet. In August of 2005, I did a photo shoot with the Ultimate Water Gun, the World Famous Pontani Sisters, and my 1977 BMW sidecar outfit.

You can get instructions I wrote on how to build your own in MAKE:07!