apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love the idea of cords wrapped in fabric. Mine get so damn cold in the really cold weather and they freeze in weird positions and then poke freezing cold plastic against skin. All bad things.

They look okay, but... they're earbuds. They go in your ear. They get earwax on them. I get that we don't want ugly earbuds, but there's nothing offensive about most of the ones out there. The point of them isn't to look good, it's to sound good!

I don't worry about my etymotics not 'catering to my sense of style', or destroying my femininity or something. The biggest style decision I made with them was 'blue, red, or black?' (red, because it was cheaper at the time). I bought them to sound good, not look good.

I'm not sure I like the implication. Technology-driven, sporty things aren't for women, but stylish things are? I hope I'm just misreading that.

Why not focus on earbuds that are comfortable instead of "they look like jewelry so women will like them?" This is the same ethos that just paints tools pink and says they're for women.

The "powerful message" sent by these earbuds isn't that they were designed "by women for women," but that girls like pretty things instead of that icky tech stuff. I'm sorry they won a design award for that.

When you mentioned earbuds designed for women, especially combined with that statement about research they did, I thought that these earbuds would have a slightly different frequency range/profile and perhaps be smaller for smaller ear canals. I find myself disappointed by the lack of substance.

What, they're designed for women because they're pink? Or because they look like jewelry? Please, nix the sexist posts.

Why, do they vibrate?

I am more mystified by "most headphones are designed for men."

Hi
Thanks for your comments. Most of this post came directly from Vestalife's press release. All of the statements you refer to were theirs. Their "Think Tank" came up with them.

I just thought that it was an interesting product, that's all.

I reviewed the post and changed the wording. I hope that you guys no longer regard it as sexist. Cheers!

I don't buy my power tools based on their color. I buy them based on how they work for me. Why would this be any different?

I was initially enticed by this post because I am small, and most earbuds are a bit large for my ears. I was hoping by "designed by and for" women, that this issue might have been addressed.

However, to come in and see all they did was slap some pink (or other cosmetic changes on them) is kind of insulting. I want something that works, lasts a long time, and is comfortable. Otherwise I'll stick with my giant headphones.

I thought that when it said specifically designed for women, that the headphones would block out all other background noise so you could focus on what was coming through them. I know I can't just listen/focus on one thing at a time, or maybe it's my ADD...

My earphones are those 'pre-bud' kind. They're about 1.5cm in diameter with tiny, oval lobes that insert into the ear. When I bought them, I was looking for earphones that had (in equal measures!) smooth, rich sound quality, comfortable stay-in-place design (actual earbuds just refuse to stay put, which is why I don't use them)and zero 'noise pollution' (even at full volume!) and that's exactly what I got! Did it matter what they looked like? Of course not. That's the last thing a person worries about, whatever their gender.

I'm assuming that the members of their 'all female team" are more than competent in their chosen professions but, perhaps someone should point out to Vestalife that there is also an abundance of appropriately qualified, skilled and talented women already out there and that, actually, men are just as capable of finding out what women want in their ears! To scrape together a random bunch of females to do the job under the pretence of, what, 'product equality' is about as patronising and sexist as it could possibly get! ;)

I was hoping when I read this that they were engineering earbuds to better fit women's ears. I was disappointed to find it was mainly aesthetics... I can't seem to wear earbuds (no matter which ones I try, they fall out) and changing the color or making them look like earrings is useless...