Extreme sports and music go hand in hand, so it's not surprising companies such as Skullcandy and Nixon take advantage of this relationship to market headphones to teens and young adults with an interest in such activities.
Now you can add Roxy to the list. The female-centric surfwear maker has teamed up with JBL to offer a line of stylish earphones aimed at young women. The middle-of-the-road model is a canalphone called the Reference 250 earphone that sells for $40. This reasonably priced set offers the best value of any of the headphones in the Roxy line, and sound quality isn't half bad.
Read our full Roxy Reference 250 earphone review.
Extreme sports and music go hand-in-hand, so it's not surprising that companies such as Skullcandy and Nixon take advantage of this relationship to market headphones to teens and young adults with an interest in such activities. Now you can add Roxy to the list.
The female-centric surfwear maker has teamed up with JBL to offer a line of stylish earphones aimed at young women. At the top end of the spectrum are the still-affordable Reference 430 headphones, an on-ear set that lists for $70. They're not particularly comfortable, and the bass may not be thumping enough for many, but the colorful style has a good chance of appealing to the target audience.
Pink is great and all, but you can't expect to plaster a Pepto paint job on a product and have the ladies come running. The majority of tech-savvy females place more weight on quality and functionality than color and style anyway. Still, that's not to say we don't care at all about how a gadget looks, which is exactly what JBL and Roxy are counting on.
The two companies, one an audio device manufacturer (JBL) and the other a clothing and accessory line for women (Roxy), have just announced a partnership that will have them working together to create a headphone line aimed specifically at fashion-conscious women. Although there are no product particulars or images available at this time, you can expect the earphones to live up to JBL's standard of audio quality while incorporating Roxy's sporty-yet-fashionable ideals. In short: the headphones will be compact, lightweight, and stylish while not sacrificing on audio quality. Or at least that's what the two companies assert.
There's no solid date set as to when we might expect to see the products available on the market, though JBL hopes to start pushing out the first models in the line sometime next month. Vestalife did quite an admirable job incorporating the style of Element Skateboards into its special edition Ladybug iPod speaker, and I'm hoping to see similar results from JBL and Roxy.
Addendum: The rep for JBL pointed me at the "teaser image" below. It gives some idea of what the first products in the line will look like, despite the fact that it's not quite in focus.
(Credit:
JBL/Roxy)
We can hardly blame the people at Plantronics if they've gotten tired of making and remaking headsets. But the last thing we would have guessed they'd get into is clothing. Not just T-shirts, mind you, but apparel with built-in technologies that can be used with media players and mobile phones.
(Credit:
Gadgetell)
Its new line is being marketed through a partnership with Quiksilver and Roxy--and, judging by the names of the first three products, Plantronics has deferred to the judgment of the apparel industry's marketing reps as well: the "Pulse Helmet" and "Double Daffy Snow Jacket" from Quiksilver and the "Shiver Helmet" and "Teen Angel Snow Jacket" from Roxy. Gadgetell also says they're not shy to charge market prices for the name brands, selling the helmets for $250 and the jackets for $370 (Quiksilver) and $340 (Roxy). Ah, the joys of American capitalism.
We've seen only a few photos of the line, but from what we can tell any of these items will score more fashion points than this knit hat or London bobby helmet lookalike.
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