“You’re always mooooving,” a parent friend once said in my direction, as he rapidly disappeared over the horizon. As the working parent of two kids, I … don’t disagree. Luxurious over-the-ear headphones are great if you primarily use headphones at work or for meetings, but for the rest of your life—working out, traveling, or puttering around your house pretending you’re putting things away—you probably want something much more convenient and durable.
To a certain extent, how the headphones sound matters less than if they fit correctly. They can be the best-sounding headphones in the world, but I will still find them irritating if they won’t stay in mid-run. So how do you keep your headphones from falling out? Here are a few of the tips and tricks that I’ve tried over the years to make sure they don’t fall out.
- Dial in the fit. To put on your buds, pull open your ear a little bit and give it a little twist to fix it in place. If they don’t fit, don’t be afraid to switch or mismatch ear tip sizes—one ear might need a medium tip and the other a small, for example, or one might need a foam tip while the other needs a plastic tip.
- Accessorize. Still can’t get it to fit quite right? There’s a healthy market for aftermarket clips and wings to get your earbuds or AirPods to fit more securely.
- Check the IP rating. Ingress Protection ratings give you a quick indication of the headphones’ dust- and water-resistance. If you’re running outside in the pouring rain, you need a higher IP than if you’re doing gentle calisthenics in the gym.
Since I started testing workout headphones years ago, the sound, comfort, variety, and features have all improved dramatically. I pretty much always have a pair on or around me during the day, whether I’m biking on errands, running, rock climbing, or following along to mildly embarrassing yoga videos on my laptop in my bedroom. If you also need the distraction of music or podcasts while scrambling up stony slopes or mowing your lawn, here are a bunch of WIRED’s favorite pairs. We’ve worn and sweated on all of them. Don’t see anything you like? Check out our Best Wirefree Earbuds, Best Cheap Headphones, Best Bluetooth Speakers, or any of our other buying guides for more.
Updated September 2024: We updated the information on the Apple AirPods and added the Shokz Openrun Pro 2 and the Openrun Mini, the Suunto Sonic, and the JLab Flex Open. We also updated links and pricing throughout.
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