Finally, I Found Earbuds That Are Actually Comfortable
I can’t tell you exactly what is wrong with my ears, because the answer is "too many things." I have always thought they were weirdly shaped. (I wore Lululemon headbands over them religiously for about ten years of my childhood to cover them up). Then, in college I wound up with a hole in my eardrum. Don’t worry, eardrums grow back on their own. I just now have very sensitive inner ears. So finding the right pair of running headphones for me has been a real journey.
I've been running for a couple years and tested more pairs than I can count. The basic criteria is that they need to not fall out (AirPods immediately disqualified), not cause pain (which the Beats earbuds with the wingtip do for me), and actually sustain a Bluetooth connection to my phone in a crowd of other runners (surprisingly difficult to find!). If you also have weird and sensitive ears, hopefully my trials and errors can be of service to you, too. I wish I could say that I have found one pair to rule them all, but alas I have found two: a winter and a summer pair.
Because of my sensitive eardrums, I can’t wear open-ear headphones when it’s cold or windy without inner ear pain. So in the cold months and on longer runs, I’ve found that the JBL Endurance Peak 3 work best for me and meet all my above criteria. But sometimes you need to be able to hear the world around you. That’s where the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 come in.
All of your favorite running influencers wear them for a reason: They’re the perfect compromise between safety and sound quality. If you’re unfamiliar with Shokz, their whole shtick is that they make open-ear headphones that use bone conduction—they sit over top of your ears and deliver sound via the bone in front of your ear. While I find the whole concept particularly jarring (how the hell can I hear through my bones?) Shokz’s signature tech is remarkable, and feels like a miracle of science every time you hit play. Save for when an especially loud truck goes by, you can hear every word of your podcast clearly with these on, despite the fact that there is nothing actually inside your ear.
If you’re used to noise-cancelling headphones, you might have a bit of an adjustment period. These are the opposite of that. But if you’re just listening to music, these are really all you need. And most importantly, you can hear everything that’s going on around you, so in a race or on a dark road, you’re still totally alert and in the moment.
Personally, I do not enjoy trying to keep up with other runners, but if you are an avid run club goer who likes to chat and run, these are a perfect option to do that and also listen to your music. Nothing worse than running alone with your thoughts.
The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are feather-light, which is why it’s so frustrating to me that my ears still get tired of wearing them after about an hour. I believe this is a me problem, because I guess my ear bone is not used to feeling any pressure on it and when it does, it gets very cranky. Consider this a warning that you might also feel this pressure after a while.
The ten-hour battery life gets me through about two weeks of running without a charge, which is more than I could ask for. They’re waterproof, which is important because they sit on your skin and not in your ear, so if you’re dripping sweat, they will get sweaty. No matter how sweaty you get though, they still sit securely in place due to the piece that loops around the back of your head and holds them together. So that's a big win.
The Buttons RockIt is most important to me that I can play, pause, or skip a song without touching my phone while I'm running. My winter JBL headphones don’t have buttons, but allow controls via a tap feature, and sometimes I am banging on the headphone four, five, maybe even six times before anything happens. It just winds up being more distracting and frustrating than useful. Shokz did it right with a big button to play/pause and volume controls on the opposite ear. It's really an impressive amount of buttons given the small surface area they’re working with. Tech is best when it's a little bit tactile.
- Great sound quality
- Lightweight
- Open ear means you can hear the noise around you, which is great for racing
- Long battery life
- After about an hour, they start to put pressure on the bone on top of my ear, so I wouldn’t wear them for a long run or race
If you’re looking for lightweight headphones that you can grab and use at a run club, solo, on the road, or on the trails, I highly recommend the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2. Even—especially—if you have self-proclaimed weird ears like mine.
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