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Shoes & Gear serious motivator for us runners. Land on a song with the right rhythm and you’ll immediately find your feet in lockstep with the beat, the miles flying by almost effortlessly. The problem is, jamming earbuds into your hearing holes can leave you vulnerable when you’re running along the shoulder of a road. That’s why I appreciate the bone conduction technology used by AfterShokz, which lets me pump up the volume while still hearing everything going on around me.
I haven’t always run with music. For more than three decades, I happily pounded the pavement in silence, tuning in to only my breathing and the sound of the world around me—birds, wind, and, yes, cars. Part of that was because of technological limitations: Remember the Sony Walkman? It was bulky and you’d have to flip a tape midrun. But even when music players were small enough to carry easily, I hated that thump-thump-thump you get from sound-isolating earbuds with every footstep or bounce of the cable. Now, with totally wireless headphones paired with the Apple Watch, those annoyances are eliminated, but I still want to be aware of what’s going on around me—the bulk of my mileage is logged in the US’s largest metro area, where we have more people and cars than we know what to do with and the two are not always so neatly separated by a 6-inch curb.
Pros
- Open-ear design for safety
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- Sweatproof
Cons
- Lacks bass
- Can’t skip to previous track
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Stay safer on the streets: The Trekz Air sends sound waves through your cheekbones, leaving your ears totally open so you can hear approaching hazards.
AfterShokz put my worries to rest. The headset looks a lot like your typical Bluetooth headphones, a la the Advertisement - Continue Reading Below, but doesn’t actually go in your ear or cover it at all. Instead, the semi-rigid band that connects around the back of your head also suspends the small speakers directly over your cheekbones. As you play music, the pads vibrate and, rather than sending sound waves through the air to crash into your eardrum, it diverts them through your bones.
It may seem like voodoo, but bone conduction is a fairly simple concept, one which you’re already familiar. Go ahead, plug your ears and start singing your favorite song. Notice how you can still hear your voice? That’s because the sound waves are traveling through your head and reaching your inner ear.
Of course, there’s a trade-off for the added safety here: The sound quality won’t soon be mistaken for your favorite pair of Bose Soundsport or Jaybird Run. It’s admittedly thinner and quieter, but I find it totally suitable for the occasion.
AfterShokz makes a couple models of these headphones, but opt for the Trekz Air, which is vastly improved over the earlier, cheaper version, Trekz Titanium. That one can still be found, but the lower sound quality makes it a harder to hear soft sounds (like voices in a podcast) when you're running on loud streets. If you're logging miles on rural roads in Michigan, they might be fine.
But the Trekz Air has richer sound, with deeper bass, and more volume overall. The physical proportions are greatly improved, too. The headband is slimmer and lighter, especially over the ears. This is much appreciated in warm weather, when I can wear both sunglasses and these headphones at the same time.
I understand that we all have different needs, however, and my own vary depending on where I’m running. At the track or on a treadmill, safe spaces free from cars, I typically reach for Jaybird Run. But anytime I venture outside, I’m taking AfterShokz with me.
Running Shoes & Gear Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
