Dyson, the brand best known for its wireless vacuums and much-adored hair dryer, just announced a new product set to launch soon on its website: customizable, over-ear headphones.
Called the Dyson OnTrac, the $500 headphones come with 55 hours of continuous run time, an eight-microphone system that ranges from frequencies as low as 6Hz to as high as 21000Hz, and an accompanying app that allows users to customize their level of noise cancellation.
Beyond that, the headphones are a pretty chic style statement. They come in four color options: aluminum, copper, black nickel, and ceramic cinnabar. And for a real fashion statement (and another $50), you can get ear cushions and outer caps in a variety of colors, materials, and finishes to mix and match and create your own customized look—from a Bauhaus-esque explosion of hues to a simplistic pairing of black and silver.
“Customization, of course, was a key design consideration,” Dyson principal industrial designer Phil Douglas said in an interview with Dezeen. “Each cap and cushion combination has been designed to look beautiful, feel great in the hand and when being worn.”
Dyson enters the headphone market
This isn’t actually Dyson’s first headphone model. Those who were following the wearable tech world back in spring 2023 might remember the Dyson Zone: a $1,000 headphone-and-air-filtration mask combo that, frankly, had an unsettling look about it.
While it’s unclear how well the Dyson Zone performed financially, it must’ve had enough promise to push the company into further exploring a headphone line. The OnTrac comes during a rough moment for Dyson—just last week, the company announced that it planned to cut around a third of its U.K. workforce (about 1,000 employees) due to “redundancies.” It seems likely that both the job cuts and the new launch are connected to Dyson’s larger plans to diversify its revenue streams by investing in tech innovation. The company reportedly boosted investment into research and development by 40% in 2023, and is now funneling about $10 million a week into developing AI tech, next-gen batteries, and software.
The OnTrac headphones appear to be especially geared toward younger consumers, who have pushed a burgeoning demand both for over-ear headphones and, more generally, better customization in their wearables. Back in May, the speaker company Sonos also debuted its first-ever pair of headphones in the form of the Sonos Ace, an extra-chunky over-ear design.