You make it sound like a good clone of the Leather Loop is a unicorn. It's not. There are good ones and bad ones out there. The problem is, ordering online, you can't tell which ones are good without someone else (preferably many people) having tried first. (And, of course, you can't ask the seller, "is this one good", because they'll all say yes.) And there's no guarantee that the seller who had good ones this week will have ones from the same production run (or factory) next week.
I have two real Apple Leather Loops, one black and one blue. The black I ordered from Apple when I preordered my watch. The blue I purchased in an Apple Store (just before all the new colors came out). I also have a red leather loop that I bought from freedomoclock09 on eBay, in mid-July, for $48. I've compared them extensively. This knockoff is about 90% as good as the genuine Apple ones, at one-third the price (I got it partly out of curiosity - others were reporting good luck with freedomoclock then - and partly because I wanted red and Apple doesn't make one yet). The grain of the leather is a bit more pronounced, but the two Apple ones actually vary considerably (black from very early on, has rather faint grain, while the blue has more pronounced grain). Curiously, on the red one, the "buckle end" is almost exactly 10mm longer. The leather feels very nice, the flexibility and magnets are indistinguishable from Apple's. I've worn all three extensively, and there is no difference in feel, nor any apparent difference in durability.
Given this, and the reports I was reading from others at the time, I'd say that there are more good knockoff Leather Loops than you might think, it's just very hard to tell good from bad without holding one (or reading reports from someone who has). Actually, I have an odd feeling that Leather Loops are a bit played out in the Chinese factories - last I looked, there were a lot more posts for knockoff Milanese Loops than for Leather Loops (kind of like the factories have moved on). And I got a quite nice
black Milanese Loop from Amazon a few weeks ago, for $28. (If Apple ever makes one, I'll definitely buy it - the knockoff black ML is perhaps 75-80% of what Apple would do, quality-wise, but for day to day wear, it's good - I'd prefer Apple quality, but silver mesh on a black watch doesn't do it for me).
View attachment 606873
