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The girl with the olive headphones: Urbanears launches colorful headphones to break the winter blues.

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Urbanears Plattan headphonesWinter 2013 has been especially brutal for the eastern seaboard of the United States, and even those of us from the Great Lakes or Sweden have had little to cheer about. Cold is cold; it feels the same whether you are from Detroit, Toronto, Asbury Park, or Stockholm. Even those of us who run at 4 am will admit that a pair of closed-back headphones don’t work as well as some dorky looking toque when it comes to keeping the heat in. Stockholm-based Urbanears has made quite a business out of funky looking headphones; although we can’t picture Lisbeth Salander walking around that stark city in a pair of pink cans listening to Radiohead.

According to the groundhog, we only have 6 more weeks of winter before the sun comes out and flowers bloom. But Urbanears isn’t waiting for the snow to melt. It has three new happy colors for Spring/Summer 2013 to wash away the winter glum: olive, coral, and petrol – petrol screams the loudest. 

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The three new colors are available on the Plattan headphones and will run you around $75.00 (which includes shipping from Sweden). 

The Plattan have a couple of features that make them somewhat intriguing at a time when even my Grandma is launching her own headphone line. Not only do they fold up better than most closed headphones into a compact package, but they offer a 4-foot tangle-free cord which gives you some added length when you hide your phone deep inside your coat. The Plattan also offer a ZoundPlug; a fancy Swedish term for an additional input jack for your friend to plug their headphones into. We’re not sure how well that would work in heavy pedestrian traffic in NYC but if it gives one an excuse to stand closer to Noomi Rapace, we’re all for it.

Ian White
Former Contributor
Ian has been a full-time A/V journalist since 1999, covering the world of high-end audio, video, music, and film for Digital…
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