Apple describes the Distinguished Schools program:
“Apple Distinguished Schools are centers of leadership and educational excellence that demonstrate Apple’s vision for learning with technology — and we believe they are some of the most innovative schools in the world.”
As of November 2024, Apple reported that there were 889 Apple Distinguished Schools in 37 countries. The district where I serve as an educational technology leader is proud to have three Apple Distinguished Schools.
This Apple logo lapel pin is violet, a shade of purple matching one of the stripes on Apple’s classic six-color logo. The pin package is wrapped in clear plastic and attached to a 3 x 3-inch black cardboard backing that is printed in white with the words [Apple logo] Distinguished School.
The pin is made from metal with a polished chrome finish. The pin is approximately 2 mm thick, 3/4-inch across, and 7/8-inch tall. The pin is held in place from the back by a silver butterfly clutch.
Apple describes the Distinguished Schools program:
“Apple Distinguished Schools are centers of leadership and educational excellence that demonstrate Apple’s vision for learning with technology — and we believe they are some of the most innovative schools in the world.”
As of November 2024, Apple reported that there were 889 Apple Distinguished Schools in 37 countries. The district where I serve as an educational technology leader is proud to have three Apple Distinguished Schools.
This “2024” lapel pin is polished chrome with a bright orange border. The shade of orange matches one of the stripes on Apple’s classic six-color logo. The font used for the pin is San Francisco, Apple’s corporate font since about 2015. The pin package is wrapped in clear plastic and attached to a 3 x 3-inch black cardboard backing that is printed in white with the words [Apple logo] Distinguished School.
The pin is meant to commemorate new Apple Distinguished Schools added to the program in 2024. The pin is made from metal with a polished chrome finish. It is approximately 2 mm thick, 1 1/4-inches across, and 7/8-inch tall. The pin is held in place from the back by a silver butterfly clutch.
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is a meeting held annually in and near Cupertino, California, by Apple. The event gathers thousands of software developers to learn about and discuss the latest software and technologies for Apple operating systems and platforms. Attendees can participate in hands-on labs with Apple engineers and in-depth sessions covering many topics.
Attendees of the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference expressed their interest to attend by entering an online lottery. Those who were selected and attended were given this canvas bag and some of the items shown in this post.
Canvas Bag
One side of the black canvas bag features a stylized “WW” representing “Worldwide” and printed below are the words “[Apple logo] Worldwide Developers Conference 2024.” The text is printed in light gray in a stylized version of San Francisco, Apple’s Corporate font.
The other side of the bag features the letters “DC” in a bold font representing “Developers Conference.” At the bottom, the location and date of the conference is printed, “Apple Park, June 10–14.”
The upper edge of the bag features a royal blue tag embroidered with “[Apple logo] WWDC24”
The bag measures 15.5 inches tall, 14.75 inches wide, and two loop handles add an additional 9.5 inches to the height of the bag.
Picnic Tarp
Some attendees referred to this item in a cylindrical drawstring bag as a “picnic blanket,” but it is made from a nylon material that more closely resembles a tarp. The cylindrical drawstring carrying bag is dark gray and has the words “Worldwide Developers Conference 2024” printed in black. The bag measures 5 inches tall, 4 inches in diameter, and has a 10-inch drawstring.
Inside the bag is a neatly folded royal blue nylon picnic tarp with a black border, rounded edges, and the designs are printed in black. One side features a single large black WWDC logo and the other side uses the WWDC24 logotype repeated multiple times to create a pattern. Although I did not precisely measure this tarp, I estimate it to be over 6 x 6 feet.
Small Pin PackageFolder
The smaller of two matte black cardboard pin packages is printed on the front in glossy black ink “WWDC24,” and on the back with “[Apple logo] Worldwide Developers Conference 2024.” This cardboard folder package measures 2.5 inches wide and 3.25 inches tall.
Inside is a single lapel-style pin with the year “2024” using a font design similar to the WWDC24 logotype. The back of the pin uses a butterfly clutch pin fastener.
Large Pin PackageFolder
The larger of two matte black cardboard pin packages is printed on the front in glossy black ink “WWDC24” and on the back with “[Apple logo] Worldwide Developers Conference 2024.” This cardboard folder package measures 3.25 inches wide and 4 7/8 inches tall.
Inside is a collection of six lapel-style pins, all using a butterfly clutch pin fastener on the backs. The pins include:
Apple Park—A round silver design in the shape of Apple Park. The center of the pin is black and includes the words “[Apple logo] Park” in Apple’s San Francisco corporate font. This round pin measures 7/8 inches in diameter.
Macintosh 40 YEARS—This rectangular design uses a 4-bit depiction of the original beige Macintosh in icon form with a smiling “face” on the screen. In all caps below is printed “40 YEARS” in Apple’s Chicago bitmap font (designed by Susan Kare) used in the original Macintosh user interface. This pin measures 5/8 inch wide x 7/8 inch tall.
theFuture = Date.now—This rectangular pin has rounded edges with silver text on a bright orange field. The text can be interpreted as “the future is now,” but written in the Swift coding language as “theFuture = Date.now” using a monospaced version of Apple’s San Francisco font. This pin measures 1 1/8 inches wide x 1/2 inch tall.
Dragon Face Memoji—This detailed pin shows a highly stylized and detailed version of the “Dragon Face” Memoji with stars replacing the eyes. This custom-shaped pin measures roughly 7/8 inch wide x 7/8 inch tall.
Vintage Apple logotype—This pin is a version of Apple’s logotype from the 1990s using one of Apple’s former corporate fonts, Apple Garamond, used between 1984–2002. Each letter is a different color from Apple’s original 6-color logo (with no red letter). This pin measures 1 1/8 inches wide x 5/8 inch tall.
Apple Vision Pro—My favorite of the pins is a depiction of the Apple Vision Pro. The pin shows the front view with a black display with sliver edges. A tiny Digital Crown can be seen in its relative position over the left (facing) lens. This pin measures 1 inch wide x 1/2 inch tall.
The swag bag also included a black water bottle with a white WWDC24 logo, but I do not [yet] have this in my collection.
The eMate 300 was designed specifically for the education market and released in March 1997. The device ran NewtonOS and featured a 25 MHz ARM 710a processor, 8 MB of ROM, 3 MB of RAM (1MB of DRAM+2 MB of Flash Memory for user storage), a PCMCIA slot, IrDA-beaming capabilities, and a proprietary Newton InterConnect port.
The eMate 300 design was unique for the time with a translucent aquamarine and black “clamshell” case with a 480×320 16-shade grayscale backlit LCD display. It included a stylus and a built-in keyboard (and did not support a mouse).
This eMate lapel pin is a gold representation of the device and features dark teal enamel to represent the LCD screen. The pin design depicts the eMate with the lid open to show the keyboard and stylus. The tiny screen representation includes an Apple logo and the Newton “lightbulb” logo.
The back of the lapel pin uses a protruding perpendicular pin with a butterfly clutch to secure the pin to clothing. The gold back surface has a textured grid pattern and the word CHINA.
The Apple Watch Sport Band was made from a flexible rubber material called fluoroelastomer with a metal pin closure. Sizes ranged from S/M, M/L, or L/XL. When purchasing an Apple Watch Sport Band, the S/M and M/L sizes are included in the box, allowing the band to fit multiple sized wrists.
Apple describes the Apple Watch Sport band:
“Made from a custom high-performance fluoroelastomer, the Sport Band is durable and strong, yet surprisingly soft. The smooth, dense material drapes elegantly across your wrist and feels comfortable next to your skin. An innovative pin-and-tuck closure ensures a clean fit.”
The Apple Watch Sport band has been available in the most colors so far. As of October 2022, 117 Apple Sport Band colors were available with an additional 41 Nike Sport Band colors (according to the Bandbreite app).
This example is Red with a stainless steel pin and is part of Apple’s (PRODUCT)RED line. The box states, “Apple is proud to join (RED) in funding programs to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
This multicolor Apple logo pin is made of lightweight dark gray metal and printed with the classic 6-color Apple logo. The pin is presented on a 7.5 x 7.5 cm piece of white card stock with rounded edges (reminiscent of an iOS icon). The card is printed with a black Apple logo at top-center about half the size of the pin.
The pin is in the shape of Apple’s classic logo and measures 18 mm wide x 23 mm tall. The back of the pin has a protruding pin with a butterfly clutch to secure it.
My collection includes an identical pin in black packaging.
This multicolor Apple logo pin is made of lightweight dark gray metal and printed with the classic 6-color Apple logo. The pin is presented on a 7.5 x 7.5 cm piece of black card stock with rounded edges (reminiscent of an iOS icon).
The pin is in the shape of Apple’s classic logo and measures 18 mm wide x 23 mm tall. The back of the pin has a protruding pin with a butterfly clutch to secure it.
My collection includes an identical pin in white packaging.
This magnetic lapel “pin” features the Swift programming logo in bright red on a black metal background. Although it looks like a lapel pin, it uses a strong magnet, instead of a pin, to attach.
The pin measures 24x17mm and is on a 3-inch white cardboard square in a clear plastic pouch.
Apple describes Swift as “The powerful programming language that’s also easy to learn.” In addition, “Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for all Apple platforms. It’s easy to get started using Swift, with a concise-yet-expressive syntax and modern features you’ll love. Swift code is safe by design and produces software that runs lightning-fast.”
This pin was distributed at an Apple Education event that discussed different uses of Swift programming in K–12 school programs.
On May 9, 2023, Apple introduced this new Apple Watch Pride Edition Sport Band. This Sport Band was introduced along with a matching watch face and iOS wallpaper. The design is a first for Apple and includes the most colors ever incorporated into a Sport Band. Apple described the Sport Band:
“…the new Sport Band design showcases the original pride flag rainbow colors and five others — black and brown symbolize Black and Latin communities, in addition to those who have passed away from or are living with HIV/AIDS, while light blue, pink, and white represent transgender and nonbinary individuals.”
Even the band’s manufacturing process is unique to this design:
“This year’s design integrates a joyful rainbow of geometric shapes on a white base, which are compression-molded into the final band. In the forming process, the base material flows around each individual shape, creating small variations in their layout. No two bands are exactly alike, reflecting the individuality of all members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
The following organizations are supported by Apple’s sales of this Sport Band:
The Apple Watch Sport Band was made from a flexible rubber material called fluoroelastomer with a metal pin closure. Sizes ranged from S/M, M/L, or L/XL. When purchasing an Apple Watch Sport Band, the S/M and M/L sizes are included in the box, allowing the band to fit wrists 140–210 mm. This example is the less common L/XL size.
Apple describes the Apple Watch Sport band:
“Made from a custom high-performance fluoroelastomer, the Sport Band is durable and strong, yet surprisingly soft. The smooth, dense material drapes elegantly across your wrist and feels comfortable next to your skin. An innovative pin-and-tuck closure ensures a clean fit.”
The Apple Watch Sport band has been available in the most colors so far. As of July 2022, 113 Apple Sport Band colors were available with an additional 37 Nike Sport Band colors (according to the Bandbreite app).
This example is Midnight, Apple’s current name for “black.” It includes L/XL size bands for the 45mm Apple Watch, and is also compatible with earlier larger-sized Apple Watch models.
