Skullcandy’s $25 ‘affordable’ TWS earphones are going to be an absolute disaster for our environment

What can you buy for $25? A great bottle of wine? Two large pizzas? A pair of TWS earphones? No, not those cheap ones off of AliBaba, I’m talking a real pair of TWS earphones from a bonafide audio company. Earlier today, Skullcandy launched Dime, a pair of budget wireless earbuds. They come with a 12-hour battery life (with the case), are IPX4 water-resistant, and cost 1/10th the price of the AirPods. At a price of $24.99, the Dime might be the cheapest pair of TWS earphones from a reputed audio brand.

“Dime breaks down all barriers formerly associated with true wireless,” says Jeff Hutchings, Skullcandy’s chief product officer, in a press release, “Offering stellar sound and unmatched simplicity at a price that makes it possible to throw a pair in every bag.” The TWS earphones come with a plastic construction and in 4 colours – Black, Gray, Green, and Blue. At their ‘throwaway’ price, the earphones really cut corners in a few places. They come with a 3.5 hour battery life, extended to half a day when charged in the case. The Dime doesn’t sport ANC (or any noise cancellation for that matter) or wireless charging. In fact, the earbuds don’t even come with touch-sensitive controls. They do, however, come with actual buttons (one on each earbud) that let you control volume, answer/reject calls, or cycle through music. Other than that, they’re just a pair of solid earphones with a secure fit and an IPX4 water-resistance rating, making them perfect for wearing while going on a jog or while at the beach. As far as sound-quality is concerned, $25 bucks will only get you so far… but given this is coming from a company as big as Skullcandy, they should sound pretty good for their price.

While this is a story about consumer-friendly innovation and how one company managed to make good TWS tech accessible to a large group of people by bringing the price down, it’s also a story of the environmental aftermath of such decisions. The earphones come made from plastic, although there’s really no indication of whether the plastic’s recycled or not (my money is on ‘No’). However, that’s just a small part of the Dime’s critique. The most important part about these earphones really is their price tag and the ‘throwaway’ culture that tag really feeds into, intentionally or unintentionally. At $25, there’s no way these earphones are designed to be repaired (repairing them may actually be more expensive), which means if and when they ever get spoilt, Skullcandy just expects you to throw out the old pair out and buy a new one instead. Given their size, and how ridiculously tiny the components within them are, chances are they’ll never be recycled for parts either… and once thrown, the Dime will just end up in a landfill or the ocean, resulting in plastic pollution, e-waste, and millions of tiny lithium-ion batteries entering our soil or waterways. Skullcandy? More like Skull-and-cross-bones…

Designer: Skullcandy

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A Designer’s Three Opportunities for Impact

Hi, I am Kelly from Knack, where we help mobility brands make their products irresistible.

I want you to think back to the last time a new pair of shoes caught your eye. Something tells me they weren’t the same pair that were already on your feet. Instead, they might have had a fresh new look. They could’ve had self-tying laces that promised you a tailor-fit. Or, they could’ve been a whole different type of shoe altogether. Maybe they were a waterproof work boot that deemed your old sneakers obsolete.

In today’s noisy markets, products have to first get noticed in order to be desired. They do so by doing something different from their competitors. There are three factors that differentiate and then drive desire for products: purpose, experience, and aesthetic.

Since our job as designers is to create desire to ultimately drive demand for a product, these three factors are our opportunities for impact.

Pain-Relieving Purpose

By solving a meaningful problem that no other product does or solving an existing problem better, a product will naturally attract people who are experiencing that problem. Conversely, if a product doesn’t solve a new problem or offer a better solution, it gets buried in a sea of similar offerings.

At the start of your next design project, ask yourself, “Will this product provide relief to a meaningful problem that no other product does?” If your answer is no, dive deeper into understanding your customer to get to the heart of what they really need.

Delightful Experience

When a product works better and delivers a more seamless experience than any other product, it rises to the top. The ideal scenario would be to have a product deliver a delightful user experience.

Thoroughly walk through the user’s journey and observe real users interacting with the product you’re designing. What hurdles do they face? What issues become apparent as they use your product? Work to resolve every point of friction and then go one step further to incorporate interactions that will delight them.

Enticing Aesthetic

This one is a little more obvious since designers are usually pegged for their contribution to aesthetics. However, how a product looks and feels can play two significant roles. One, it can grab attention. Two, it can resonate with the user.

When establishing the aesthetic of your next product design, make sure that you choose the aesthetic that is both attention-getting AND compelling to the user. Your product’s aesthetic should connect with the user on an emotional level and to do so, you need to understand your user on an emotional level.

Which of these three factors are you focusing your design efforts on? Are you able to contribute to more than just one? An irresistible product requires all three.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelly Custer is the Founder + Design Director of Knack

Pairing her transportation design education from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan with over 8 years of design consulting experience in consumer products, Kelly has built a strong passion for mobility. She founded Knack in 2014 and leads the studio to deliver irresistible simple mobility products.

When she’s not in the studio, she can be found on a mountain bike trail, trying to keep up with her husband on her dirt bike, or exploring the Tennessee river on their vintage stand-up jet skis.

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