There are few first-world problems more annoying than a tangled pair of earbuds. When reaching for the sanctity of your musical asylum, especially on a crowded bus or subway car, that knotted mess of a cables can seem to take an eternity to unravel, no matter how carefully you stowed them away. Zipbuds’ new Kickstarter campaign aims to change all that, with a sleek new pair of earbuds that stick together called the Slide. (Update: And here’s the company’s official site.)
You may have heard of Zipbuds before. We featured one of the company’s previous stabs at the tangle conundrum on our weirdest headphones piece, linked above. However, while the cables for those headphones literally zipped together via protruding teeth (hence their placement on our “weird” list), Slide’s solution is decidedly more elegant.
Through Zipbuds’ patented new technology, the forked cable at the top of the Slides melds together to form a tight seal, ensuring the buds won’t batter against each other in transit, and won’t come apart like the old Apple earbuds solution. And perhaps most appealing, the buds come together via a simple … well, slider that does just that to connect and retract the tight seal.
At the ends of the cables are an attractive pair of angled earbuds layered in silver finish, which the company calls the ComfortFit2. Zipbuds’ founders claim they used “top-of-the line” drivers, and since the company has been around for awhile, there are already established manufacturers in place to start construction once the campaign concludes.
The buds are available with the basic design, as well as with a mic and single-button control piece for an extra 10 spot above the purchase price. At the time of writing this post, there were still some of the Early Bird Slides and Slides + Mic left, which can be picked up for a mere $29 and $39 respectively. The company has raised around $20k of its $50,000 goal, with 28 days to go.
Of course, we have no clue if these things sound any good. And although the creators assure potential buyers the sound is “amazing,” at $30, we’re not expecting miracles. Still, if you just need a pair of traveling buds to blast your tunes from points A to B, the Slide make an enticing choice. If you’d like to pick up your own Slides, you can pledge your support at the Kickstarter page today.
