Tempest in a Specialty IPod Case

This is something I've been familiar with for some time, and wanted to give a little input. The first case I got for my origional iPod was an iSkin. I mainly liked the plastic cover with the loop for a wrist strap. Later on, however, iSkin released it's cases without a wrist strap loop. Instead, they expected users to put a metal belt clip on the back of the case to attach a strap. My problem with this is that I had no intetion of adding a big hunking metal strip just to add a strap.

I emailed iSkin commenting about this, and they NEVER responded (this was a couple years ago at this point). I then found Xskn. In the beginning I did get confused due to the 2 companies using the same names for their cases. After some time reading about them, I now understand what's going on.

I did buy an Xskn, since it had everything I was looking for (everything = wrist strap loop on side of case). Also there was one other neat feature: Since the 3G (Third Generation) iPod has all touch sensitive surfaces, the Xskn case has a covering completely over all the buttons & scroll wheel. This is kind of neat, because the buttons are fully protected, yet they still are touch sensitive...

iSkin recently released a new line of iSkins called Evo. And while the material used to make them is nice, they still expect you to use the big metal clip to use a wrist strap. I still don't understand the theory behind this. If I use a wrist strap, why would I need a belt clip? If I use a belt clip, why would I need a strap??? That would be like someone writing the combination to a pad lock on the pad lock so they can be sure they don't forget it... They also don't protect the touch responsive surfaces like the Xskn does...

The case I got is the Xskn 3. It's made of a very thin plastic material. I want to order an Xskn 2 to replace it, however, because they are much thicker. It will protect the iPod better than the Xskn 3. The Xskn 3 retails at around $10, which is less than half the price of the Xskn 2's, and the iSkins... However, for now I think I'll just stick with my Xskn 3... It does it's job very well...