Fabulous Phone Covers

​I read that most of Apple's fortune comes from the sale if its iPhones. And I get a strong impression that there's a whole subculture going on around iPhone covers! Already there are literally thousands of them. (Check out Google!) I've even had a go myself (www.clive-littin.pixels.com)
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But I am wondering, what's the back-story with these kinky covers? Is it like, "Wow, look at your phone! Where did you get that?" or a more relaxed event like. "I paid a lot of money for this phone so I chose a really classy cover."