Hearing Your Surroundings
The handful of times I actually hate myself enough to want to work out, I find that listening to music helps me out. I hate the gym, but if I must hurt myself to stay healthy then I at least want to listen to some hard hitting rock and roll as I do it. On a treadmill that’s not a problem, but if you go outside the sweat stained walls of your local gym then there are some definite risks.
This past December something tragic happened in my town. A woman had come to Kentucky to run in a marathon and after the race she was hit and killed by a fire truck. As the story unfolded it was speculated that the woman was crossing the street while wearing earbud headphones and simply didn’t see (or hear) the large truck until it was too late. Noise isolation may have been a contributing factor to the loss of a beautiful young woman far too early.
With tragedies like this popping up more and more every day, I certainly think there’s room to discuss safety when it comes to our iPods and mobile phones. This is the stage where Airbudz makes its debut.
Airbudz are an earbud attachment meant to alter the functionality of your existing earphones. So it doesn’t matter if you prefer some Beats by Dre buds or your favorite pair of Skullcandy earphones. These accessories should fit most existing earphones that have removable earbud attachments.
Airbudz feature specially designed air channels that allow you to simultaneously listen to music while still allowing the ambient noise around you to pass into your ear. That means that you’re still hearing the things around you while listening to music, something that reduces the risk of being seriously injured or killed.
I put my Airbudz on my Skullcandy 50/50 headphones and it was exactly as advertised. My music still came through clearly, but I was able to hear the ambient noise in the room around me. I also noticed that these earbuds are very comfortable. Each pack comes with Small, Medium and Large buds so there shouldn’t be much trouble or confusion finding the right fit the first time. You can also share the sizes you don’t wear with friends who might wear them.
Safety in Style
Airbuds come in three different sizes and tons of different colors. Packs of Airbudz come in preselected color packs, with about 20 colors available (there are 9 different color packs currently available). The following packs are currently available:
- All Black
- Monochrome
- Jewel Tone
- Primary Colors
- Neon Colors
- Caribbean Colors
- Patriotic Colors
- Glow in the Dark (+ $1 more)
I would really love to see custom color packs available, I can see these being really popular with sports fans and colleges.
You can even purchase an Airbudz headphone case to store your various earbud attachments in. These alone are really handy, as I’ve not been able to find headphone cases sold separately from the headphones they come with.
Airbudz won’t replace the standard buds you use with your current headphones, but I think they’re a great accessory to own. I recommend anyone who uses headphones outside of a contained space get a pair!
