The Wireless Headphones You Never Need to Charge
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I opened the box, and all that was staring back at me were the Adidas RPT-02 SOL. (Not the best name.) There was no charging cable, no block to plug into a wall outlet, nothing. Just headphones and a little instruction manual in an otherwise empty box.
My first thought—'cause I'm some asshole commerce editor—was that this was a cost-cutting measure. "Packaging is a bit stingy," I noted in my little commerce editor's work journal. After a week, I had to go back and scratch that out. There's nothing else in the box because the headphones are actually all you need. They are that fucking good all on their own.
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Yes, they run on light—just light
I did see there was a USB-C charging port—same as my MacBook, which I thought would be convenient. Turns out I didn't need it. The headphones ship fully charged, so I turned them on. They use a new solar cell tech called Powerfoyle, made by Swedish manufacturer Exeger, which runs all along the headband. Essentially, this stuff is solar tape. Like, its solar panels on a strip of fabric the width of tape. It charges the best in direct sunlight, but it even gets power from clouded sunlight, indirect sunlight, or even artificial light indoors.
All sounds cool and techy, but does it work? Well... I got these back in January, and as of present time (May 3rd) I still have not plugged these headphones into an outlet. Not only that, there was only one time when I had to dedicate time to charging them. They had run down over the course of a dark and stormy week, with a three-hour flight mixed in. So at 9 a.m., I set them in my north-facing window with bright, indirect light and by the time I finished work, they were fully charged. If they were in direct sunlight, it would have been even faster.
Look, this is all still a bit insane to me. I understand solar power. I have a general understanding of the Powerfoyle charging cell tape that powers these things, but the fact that it works this well has blown my mind. Even throughout the dead of winter, when all my workouts were indoors, I didn't have to think about charging. The combo of artificial office, subway, and gym light, plus the ambient light from my bedside table was enough to keep these running indefinitely. With summer right around the corner, I've got no expectation of dead headphones anytime soon.
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They're prefect for a workout
A workout headphone is what I originally wanted, and all the fancy solar charging shit took my attention away from the fact that these are really, really good workout headphones. There's three parts to it. First, the charging I already mentioned. They never die, so I'm never punished mid workout for forgetting to plug something in the night before. Second, they actually fit nice and snug. When I'm running through a set of burpees, I'm not having to adjust. But they're also not too bulky or heavy. Third, they're the only headphones I've used that have fully washable components. The ear pads rotate and slide out, and the headband pops off. At the end of the week, you can toss them in the wash with your workout clothes, and run them through a normal cycle. (Pro tip: Adidas says don't tumble dry, but I throw mine in the dryer for the final couple of minutes. It helps them dry a bit faster. But the main reason is that it re-tightens the elastic on the ear pads, which I found got a bit loose after a few months of washing.)
The last thing that makes these such great workout headphones is a bit controversial. It's a lack of noise cancelling.
"No noise cancelling? Fuck this!"
I get it. I really don't have anything against noise cancelling. I'm like everyone else, I get the appeal. But when I'm working out, I just don't want to be in my own world like that. You get into enough of a "zone" lifting, stretching, or doing whatever. Throwing noise cancelling into the mix just seems a bit excessive. And if you're running? On the street or sidewalk? Noise cancelling is straight up dangerous. Even if you're running on a track, without the threat of moving vehicles, not knowing what's going on left, right, and behind you is a bit crazy. For me, the lack of noise cancelling is a huge plus.
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They're surprisingly great everywhere
But what surprised me most of all? They've pretty much replaced the noise cancelling AirPods I use around town. There's no reason to bring two pairs of audio devices anywhere, so I've only been using these anytime I leave for work or the gym. Sure, on the weekends, when I'm traveling without a bag, it's AirPods, because they fit in my pocket. But I've really come to love the Adidas headphones on my commutes, and again, the lack of noise cancelling just ends up being a plus for me. The headphones get rid of enough noise, but the lack of noise cancelling makes me feel a bit more clued in—and less like a robot only cognizant of the 180° directly in front of me.
Lastly, there's a really intuitive square joystick thing—sorry, Adidas calls it the control jog—on the back of the right ear pad that I love to use. You press it to pause/play. You move it left and right to rewind and skip. And you move it up and down for volume. It's miles easier than on my AirPods, and it's obviously more convenient than digging through my pocket every time I want to hit skip. (I never even bothered to learn the AirPod controls because it's too complicated, and just easier to take out my phone.) Beyond that, the sound is great. There's enough bass to get you through a workout, but the mids and highs came through surprisingly clear, great for commuting. So... we've got a great commuting headphone that's also a great workout headphone, that's also crazy easy to keep clean, that also never requires you to plug it into an outlet to charge. Like I said, they are that fucking good.
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Photography by Philip Friedman. Prop styling by Caroline Colston for Halley Resources.
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