As most of you know by now, I’m not your typical, muscle atrophied capsuleer. By no means should I be considered a bodybuilder, but rather a retired military Colonel that continues to pursue the ideal of “functional muscle”.
I’ve taken up distance running these last few years, as well as other forms of intense exercise to combat the aging of this body. Thus far, that war has been a success despite my learning the following:
My right ear canal is oddly shaped.
It probably doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, and it really isn’t in the grand scheme of things, but when you’re wearing headphones blaring the latest and greatest workout tunes, and your right headphone keeps falling off, it frustrating as hell. It ruins your rythmn, your productivity, your mood, your motivation. Such a simple thing with such a big impact.
It actually got to the point where I simply stopped listening to music during these intense routines, which of course led to boring and repetitive movement, and meditation during exercise only goes so far before my attention span waned.
That led to excuses as to why I couldn’t exercise on a particular day, at a particular time, blah, blah. We all make excuses.
I tried every sort of headphone you can think of: earbuds, over the ear, full headphones; and all of them either fail to stay in my ear or are so bulky as to be unusable during exercise.
Enter Yurbuds.
I was greeted by a slick website design, high quality photography, and an explanation as to why the company came into existence. Earbuds created by an athlete (marathon and triathalon, right up my alley) for athletes.
I read the explanation on the patented lock technology and was impressed.
The price was right, so I ordered the Ironman series Yurbuds.
At this point I’m starting to realize the internet hates me.
Once again, I had trouble with an ecommerce website. The irony infuriates me as I am a very tech savvy person, so maybe it’s karma screwing with me. Who knows?
Anyway, after several attempts I think I managed to order my headphones.
I downloaded their iPhone app, which actually will help you measure your ear for your custom pair of Yurbuds. It took another few tries, a few app crashes, and a few creative curses on my part, but it submitted, then wanted to place the order. Hell, I did things out of order.
So now I’m not sure if my order was successful despite the Order confirmation email I received, nor if my ear photo upload was successful for them to customize the ear piece for me.
So off to Twitter I go, messaging @Yurbuds about my concerns.
They responded within minutes and I provided my email address and order id. Not long after, they message me that they have found the order and escalated its priority, as well as passing on my comments regarding website issues.
Two days later, my Yurbuds arrive: a full set of headphones, an extra pair of Yurbuds, a slick carrying bag, and two inspirational trading cards, which are a great idea (Can you smell Roc inspiring trading cards next Fanfest?). Also included was a convenient quickstart guide.
This morning, I did my 5 km run at 5 AM, during a thunderstorm, Yurbuds in place. They were comfortable the entire time, not moving a millimeter. The sound quality was impeccable, yet still allowed me to hear everything else around me, which is a plus when your exercising outdoors.
For the price, this custom quality set of headphones can’t be beat for its designed purpose of enhancing your exercise experience.
PRODUCT QUALITY = 9/10
SOUND QUALITY = 8/10
SERVICE QUALITY = 10/10
OVERALL RATING = 9/10
VISIT YURBUDS NOW
ROC'S RAMBLINGS 
Hey roc,
I’ve been trying to find a good set of workout headphones forever and these things look awesome. I’m going through the order process and at no point did it ask me for a picture. Where did you find that a picture was needed for the order?
The website order process does not require a picture. I followed up my order by using the Yurbuds iPhone application which will take a picture of your ear for the order.
Here’s a link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/size-yur-ear-we-fit-u-to-yur/id354167399?mt=8
It will take you to the website to order once your done uploading the photo. Ignore that. They still receive your photo. It’s just not clear what the app is doing.
I would suggest contacting @yurbuds on Twitter, or emailing them a picture of your ear (I added the picture from the iPhone app into the post), with your email address and order id number. Got to make sure you get the right size, right?
Distance running, hm? Ever thought of doing the Pikes Peak Marathon?
But interesting earphones – so far I haven’t found any which stick in my ears, and have pretty much given up on music during activities.
I’ll have to look that one up.
My next event is the Warrior Dash: http://www.warriordash.com/register2011_ontario.php
That looks like fun! Just way out of my fitness range for this year – but they do have an event near my area. …something to consider for 2012.
The PPM is plain in comparison – just a marathon with a hill in the middle: http://www.pikespeakmarathon.com/
Each of my ear canals are a different size by a dramatic difference. I wonder if they’ll customize to each ear.. hrm!
I agree with Roc for the most part.
I’ve spent hundreds of dollars, maybe even thousands on headphones and ear buds looking for a set that fills all of my needs and these are almost certainly the best on the market.
Some background: I run…exclusively…that’s all I do. I do a 10k 6 days a week, outdoors.
I have mutant small ear canals. Outer ear is fairly normal, but even ‘xxx-small’ ear canal ear buds will not go in in the first place, let alone stay in. I had to have my own custom made ear plugs for shooting, or wear over the ear cups.
I’ve used a pair of the Ironman ear buds a few times. And as Roc says, for $50bucks, they’re probably the best buds out there. Sound is awesome, ambient sounds are there. And at least initially, they stay in.
That’s the upside…the downside at least for me was 2-fold.
1. That same feature that allows ambient noise in, creates issues when running against a stiff wind. Anything more than 5mph wind or so, and the wind-tunnel and whistling effects overwhelm the music.
2. The lock-in-ear feature is great…unless you sweat. Yea, I’m probably mutant that way too, but 2 miles in and fully warm and dripping causes the buds to get slippery and start to rotate and ‘unlock’ themselves. So I spend the last 4 miles constantly wiping them off and re-inserting and hope they’ll stay put for more than 2 blocks.
That said…I still think they’re the best available. They just didn’t work out for me, and I’m back to my el-cheapo Sony MDR 210s. If their web site wasn’t so terribly bad, I might consider trying a pair of their ‘sized’ ones, or the ‘behind-the-ear’ ones just to see if that helps, but I’m not really sure how it would overcome the issues that I have.
Good to hear I’m not the only “mutant” out there, sad to hear they didn’t work out for you.
I sweat like a fiend when I get into my workouts. Ask anyone; it’s really quite something.
I actually had the “slip” issue only once while running, and that was because my iPhone was in my hand, and I hit the wire. Once I put the iPhone in a stationary belt, I’ve had no issues at all.
I’ve done weight training, distance running, some martial arts classes, and outdoor boot camps with my Yurbuds, with no issue.
I will agree with you about the wind tunnel effect though. Hit a good breeze and that’s all you can hear.
Still, I’m impressed.
Hope you find something that works well for you, and thanks for posting.