diff --git a/bench/src/sjsonnet/bench/StrMatchBenchmark.scala b/bench/src/sjsonnet/bench/StrMatchBenchmark.scala
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e64974b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench/src/sjsonnet/bench/StrMatchBenchmark.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package sjsonnet.bench
+
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.*
+import org.openjdk.jmh.infra.*
+import sjsonnet.{Position, Val}
+
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit
+
+/**
+ * Micro-benchmark isolating the `case Val.Str(pos, s)` extractor cost — the operation changed by
+ * the zero-allocation `Str.unapply` rewrite (value-class extractor vs the old
+ * `Some[(Position, String)]`).
+ *
+ * The end-to-end [[MainBenchmark]] dilutes this to noise; this loop does nothing but match Val.Str
+ * (mixing the `AsciiSafeStr` subclass) and consume the bound `pos`/`str`, so any per-match
+ * difference shows up directly in ns/op and gc.alloc.rate.norm.
+ *
+ * Run: ./mill bench.runJmh ".*StrMatchBenchmark.*" -f 4 -wi 10 -i 15 -r 2 -w 1 -prof gc
+ */
+@BenchmarkMode(Array(Mode.AverageTime))
+@Fork(4)
+@Threads(1)
+@Warmup(iterations = 10, time = 1)
+@Measurement(iterations = 15, time = 2)
+@OutputTimeUnit(TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS)
+@State(Scope.Benchmark)
+class StrMatchBenchmark {
+
+  @Param(Array("1024"))
+  var n: Int = _
+
+  private var vals: Array[Val] = _
+
+  @Setup
+  def setup(): Unit = {
+    val pos = new Position(null, 0)
+    vals = Array.tabulate[Val](n) { i =>
+      // Alternate plain Str and the AsciiSafeStr subclass so both flow through the same extractor.
+      if ((i & 1) == 0) Val.Str(pos, "value_field_" + i)
+      else Val.Str.asciiSafe(pos, "ascii_field_" + i)
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Benchmark
+  def matchStr(bh: Blackhole): Unit = {
+    val arr = vals
+    var i = 0
+    while (i < arr.length) {
+      arr(i) match {
+        case Val.Str(p, s) =>
+          bh.consume(p)
+          bh.consume(s)
+        case other =>
+          bh.consume(other)
+      }
+      i += 1
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/sjsonnet/src/sjsonnet/Val.scala b/sjsonnet/src/sjsonnet/Val.scala
index c2b9e379..3acc8ffe 100644
--- a/sjsonnet/src/sjsonnet/Val.scala
+++ b/sjsonnet/src/sjsonnet/Val.scala
@@ -357,6 +357,11 @@ object Val {
 
     override def asString: String = str
 
+    // Product-extractor accessors backing `case Val.Str(pos, s)` (see Str.unapply). Reading these
+    // off the scrutinee avoids the per-match Some+Tuple2 allocation the old extractor incurred.
+    private[sjsonnet] def _1: Position = pos
+    private[sjsonnet] def _2: String = str
+
     /**
      * Iterative rope flattening — stack-safe for arbitrarily deep trees. For a left-leaning rope of
      * depth N (typical from repeated foldl concat), the ArrayDeque holds at most 2 elements.
@@ -422,8 +427,23 @@ object Val {
     /** Create a leaf string node marked as ASCII-safe (no JSON escaping needed). */
     def asciiSafe(pos: Position, s: String): Str = new AsciiSafeStr(pos, s)
 
-    /** Backward-compatible extractor: `case Val.Str(pos, s) =>` still works. */
-    def unapply(s: Str): Option[(Position, String)] = Some((s.pos, s.str))
+    /**
+     * Backward-compatible extractor: `case Val.Str(pos, s) =>` still works, now allocation-free.
+     *
+     * The result is a value class ([[StrExtract]]) implementing the name-based extractor protocol
+     * (`isEmpty`/`get`). Because it is an `AnyVal`, the match desugaring consumes it without
+     * allocating — replacing the `Some` + `Tuple2` the old `Option[(Position, String)]` extractor
+     * allocated on every match. These matches are extremely hot across the evaluator, stdlib, and
+     * materializer. The `Str` type test before extraction keeps the match refutable, so
+     * `AsciiSafeStr` (the only subclass) is matched exactly as before.
+     */
+    private[sjsonnet] def unapply(s: Str): StrExtract = new StrExtract(s)
+
+    /** Allocation-free extractor result for [[Str.unapply]]; `get` exposes `_1`/`_2`. */
+    private[sjsonnet] final class StrExtract(val self: Str) extends AnyVal {
+      def isEmpty: Boolean = self == null
+      def get: Str = self
+    }
 
     /**
      * O(1) rope concatenation. Falls back to eager concat for small flat strings to avoid rope node