Leather mouse gnaws into market

Some of us at Crave are depressingly old enough to remember when just about any product made with genuine leather was considered a luxury item. That was long before global trade opened the floodgates to leather goods at polyester prices. So there's really no reason that cowhide should be applied to desktop equipment, PETA notwithstanding.

Hong Kong-based Earth-Treck (not a typo), maker of everyone's favorite USB tape dispenser, is the latest to wrap a line of computer peripherals in leather with its matching mouse and USB hub, according to Akihabara News. The mouse looks familar to us, somewhat resembling a handmade "graphite-aluminum composite metal matrix" model from Russia that's already sold out, even at its prohibitive $397 tag.

We're not sure how much Earth-Treck's mouse will cost, but it's unlikely to be anywhere near that price. Which would show, once again, how quickly (and cheaply) Chinese entrepreneurs jump in with products to fill any void.