Many music-loving action sports enthusiasts face an eternal conundrum. We love rocking out to our favorite tunes, but the various helmets, gloves and other equipment required for such activities as mountain biking, snowboarding and the like make a lot of headphones and earbuds not only awkward to wear but difficult to control. Throw in the fact that many are quite pricey — raising the stakes in environments where it’s quite easy to lose or break stuff — and many of us end up just humming whatever earworm is currently stuck in our heads.
Enter the Skullcandy Vert Clip-Anywhere Wireless Earbuds, which aim to change the game. They just became available today, but we’ve had a chance to sneak preview over the past month or so on bike and motorcycle rides and have been thoroughly impressed. The Verts offer three distinct advantages over most of what’s out there.
First, the Vert buds themselves are super low-profile, which enables them to easily fit under any kind of helmet without painfully pressing into your ear canal the way some other options do.
Second, the big disc they attach to — and which attaches the whole unit to your goggle strap, shirt, backpack, etc. — not only prevents them from flying into a gutter when you remove the helmet; it also serves as your control center, allowing you to pause, adjust volume, take calls and handle other necessary functions simply by tapping and twisting, without having to remove your gloves.
Third, at $80 the price is pretty damn hard to beat. Suffice it to say, these buds rock. Now your biggest concern is landing that misty flip.
Gear Patrol