Does anyone have a good recommendation on protecting your iPod, aside from the Apple-approved/groovy-colored iPod socks?

We’ve been using socks for a while and while they’re great for storage/travel, they’re not ideal for actual use, especially with an FM tuner, car charger or fast food-smudged fingers.

We use our “extra” socks (who needs 5?) as a cover for our Canon SD500 camera. Nice.

So we ended up buying an iFrogz cover for our iPod (20 gig/4th gen) and the new video iPod Jenn’s dad got for Xmas. Saying we’re less than impressed would be an understatement.

The sticker that covers the scroll/click wheel is laughable, the protective see-through plate won’t stick to the iPod’s face and bubbles and the plastic sheath doesn’t allow for us to plug in our FM tuner, even with the “bandz” removed. Poor, poor, poor.

But what option to chose instead?

foofpod looks like a prettier, non-Apple sock.

iSkin seems like the iFrogz, save for their “claro” model which looks like one of those underwater kits you’d buy for a digital camera. Not cool.

And Apple makes their own gel-like cover, but I’m wary of that too.

What do you, oh internets, suggest (save for buying something leather, guh!).

Maybe I’ll just make a paper cover and be done with it.

All I want is something as stylish as the iPod itself that allows for full functionality without resorting to knitted products (the socks) or something leather like you’d use for a cellphone.

Help me, please.