In fairness, any cable of this style I've bought has failed the same way. I have a bunch of generic lightning cables that are white, with the little nub of rubb

In fairness, any cable of this style I've bought has failed the same way. I have a bunch of generic lightning cables that are white, with the little nub of rubber strain relief like the genuine cables, and they fail the same way too. They look nice, and even on the ones where the insulation is torn, I've only had to throw one away for not working at all (Apple or generic) of the probably dozen I own. But I've also recently started buying braided cables to replace the Apple/apple-like varieties. The fabric braided ones from Monoprice look nice and seem a bit more durable - likely because the sleeving is also thicker and you can't bend them at sharp angles without feeling like you're doing something obviously wrong.