How Shokz Is Leading The Rise Of Open-Ear Headphones

[00:00:04] What if the next big change in audio is not about blocking the world out, but learning how we can listen while still being connected to the world around us? Well, for years, headphones have been all about isolation, better noise cancellation, deeper immersion and shutting everything else out. But over the last 18 months, something very different has been happening. Open-Ear Headphones.

[00:00:31] It's a genre that has moved from a niche product into a fast-growing category. One that people are using every day, whether they are running, commuting, walking the dog or juggling life at home. And after reading about Shokz and sampling some of their products, I've invited them onto the podcast today to join me in unpacking why open-ear audio is gaining momentum.

[00:00:54] What has changed technologically to make it a viable option and why awareness, comfort and safety are becoming just as important as sound quality. So if you've seen the phrase open-ear audio popping up in headphone reviews and wondered, what is this? Why does it matter? This conversation will break it down in plain language today.

[00:01:16] So is this just another audio trend or are we witnessing a genuine shift in how people listen to music, podcasts and audio books? We're going to explore that together today. So enough from me. Let me introduce you to today's guest. So thank you for joining me on the show today, Nicole. Can you tell everyone listening just a little about who you are and what you do? Hello, everyone.

[00:01:43] I'm Nicole and now I'm the Shokz UK marketing manager and to look after all of the same Shokz in UK. And yeah, today, very excited to chat with Hope. Through our chat, we can know more about Shokz and also the open-ear headphones in this category. And open-ear headphones, it's something I've been hearing more and more about over the last 18 months. Traditionally, people wanted to block everything from the outside world and just have noise cancelling.

[00:02:11] But due to a myriad of reasons, there's a huge market for open-ear headphones now. So for listeners that are new to this category, how would you explain open-ear audio in simple terms? And why do you think the industry has started to move away from this idea of blocking out the world as the end goal to something completely different? And almost offering the best of everything. Actually, I will usually explain open-ear audio like it's giving your ears a window, not locking the door.

[00:02:39] Actually, I think traditional headphones are basically saying, OK, the word is too loud and I'm not available right now. But open-ear audio is more like, I love some music, but if the bus is going to hit me, I'd appreciate a heads up. So yeah, this is something I understand as the open-ear headphones and also the audio.

[00:03:05] It's like you can enjoy the music greatly and also to have awareness of your surroundings. And I think in the past few years, we can say this category has really taken off and increased a lot. And from the market side, you can say many traditional audio brands are showing up at this party. And from our data and also the reporting from professional organizations,

[00:03:33] you can say open-ear headphones are growing even faster than the classic stuff. So it's very interesting is that I think three years ago when I first joined Sharks, at that time we are only the player in this playground, but now things changed differently. I think the reason why these things changed fast is that now we are recognized something is like

[00:04:01] for real life, you are not isolated all the time. Sometimes you still need to be open and to keep awareness of your surroundings, such like running, commuting, walking the dog or crossing the road or looking after the baby. So open-ear isn't about rejecting immersion, it's about recognizing that sometimes you need to stay aware. Now that's so true.

[00:04:28] And as you said there, sometimes you're in situations where you need to be aware of your surroundings. And I too, if I'm walking my dog or going for a run or something like that, you need to have that level of awareness. And open-ear headphones, they have existed for years, but adoption really seems to accelerate last year and a huge hit at CES this year, where I know you were attending as well. But what do you think has changed culturally or technologically that turned open-ear listening

[00:04:55] from a compromise into a credible everyday option? I think the first one is from the technology side that I think three or four years ago, when we first released our earhook products like the OpenFit, that time when we gave this product to the consumers, that almost all the consumers, they will think the products are lack of bass,

[00:05:21] or the bass is not so great and the sound quality is not great. Although you are open-ear, you have benefits, but we don't want to try that. So things have changed because this, I think now for open-ear headphones, from the sound quality, the sound units, and also the algorithm, and also even for the sound leakage, this kind of technology are becoming more and more. I think it's, yeah, it becomes,

[00:05:51] it has a really great major improvement in this kind of technology since. So now for the sound quality, it's almost the same with the in-ear headphones, and especially for open-ear headphones, it will be more comfortable and also stable, and it has a higher waterproof level, so it becomes a better choice for consumers. I think this is the first reason.

[00:06:20] The second reason is culturally, I think it's the rise of the sports culture. Now after the COVID, that more and more people, they are going to like running, like to care more about their own health, such like listening health, the mental health, the fitness health, and they want to keep aware of themselves and also to be aware of the safety.

[00:06:48] So it has more scenarios to use this kind of headphones, so it's become growing up very quickly. Yeah, I completely agree. And I think safety and situational awareness, these things go up time and time again in this category. So from your perspective, what you're seeing and hearing from conversations with your customers, how do your users balance awareness with audio quality? And why does that balance matter more than it did a decade ago? Because I would say a decade ago,

[00:07:18] it was either you could have one or the other, but it feels like you can have both now. Yeah, I think for such like for 10 years ago, headphones were mostly about escaping reality. People want to dive into the music and treat listening as this almost isolated experience. And now it's totally different. And I think for the sound quality and also the situational awareness balance,

[00:07:45] it also depends on what kind of scenarios you want to be safer rather than listen to better music. And when you are just at home, you may want to not everyone disrupt you and you want to have the better sound quality and to listen to the music clearer. So I think this is highly depends on what kind of scenarios you are.

[00:08:13] And I also, from doing a lot of research on open-ear audio, Shokz always comes up and it always seems to be the default brand if you are after open-ear audio. So what is it about your long focus on bone conduction and open-ear design that allowed Shox to take the lead in the industry while others are only just beginning to enter the space? I think for this question, firstly, I'd say it's about the persistence. Actually, for Shox,

[00:08:41] I've been in the bone conduction technology and also open-ear headphones, this category, I think, almost over 10 years. So when we first try to bring bone conduction headphones to the market, it's really tough. And come to that time, when we take the bone conduction headphones to the consumer, they won't think this is something that may work. And many consumers, they were like, oh, I can feel the vibration,

[00:09:11] but no. So we've had a very long time to find the great scenarios to use it and to tell consumers what is it. Also for the three years ago, when we first released our earhook-style products, the OpenFit Theories, we spent a long time educating the market on the benefits and especially to let consumers know why it benefits your life.

[00:09:39] But the good thing is our effort and also the persistence paid off and now it makes us to be the leading one. And I think the second one is about our patents and also the innovation. Today, from the technology side, now over 70% of our team are tech staff and also the researchers and the engineers. And now globally, we had more than 5,800 patents.

[00:10:09] Yeah. So this has been a very great foundation for us to keep improving our products. And now we got our own factory and also such like both the silicone on the headphones, we also produce that by ourselves using a very secret method to combine the silicone together. So this is something makes us different and special

[00:10:38] and also reliable. Secret methods. I love that. But what I love more than anything about your story here is the headphone market, the audio market is incredibly crowded. And I see so many big brands just trying to get headphones out there of any genre and they all fail because it's dominated by just a handful of companies. So to bring in a completely new genre in here and succeed and lead the way is incredible. And anybody working in tech will tell you just how crowded that market is

[00:11:08] and how many headphones are there. So kudos to you and your teams there. But when you look at how people are actually using earbuds today, and you mentioned running, commuting, dog walking, parenting, how does real world behavior influence your product designs compared with those companies that might just be chasing pure audio specs? Because it seems that you bring so much more to the equation here. Yeah. I think for us at Sharks, for every new generation of the headphones,

[00:11:37] we will definitely work on improving the sound quality because it's the basic thing for the audio brand and also the headphones. And just as you say, different groups may use the products in a very different way as they have different habits. So before we release the products and produce them, we will do a lot of consumers to know for different group favorite functions and also their preference. For running,

[00:12:07] I think our oldest fan, the runners, for our bone conduction headphones, will design the headphones according to the runners' needs and such like, we will push the waterproof level to the highest. So runners feel sweet a lot during exercise. You don't need to worry. We will level up the waterproof level and the buttons. Sometimes for runners, it's hard to touch the button,

[00:12:36] especially when running a marathon. So the buttons, we will try that in the different positions. touch another scenario, commuting and taking care of kids. We will keep our open ear design shape to adjust the ear hook and also the angles to different angles to make it fit with everyone and to improve the comfort and also the stable. And in,

[00:13:06] such like in office, people are more care about, oh, if open ear audio will have the sound leakage to affect my colleagues. So for this kind of occasion, we will just use a better sound leakage technology and then for, such like for our OpenFit Pro, we will, yeah, to reduce the sound leakage so it can be used in the office. And also, we know some,

[00:13:35] some consumers they'd like to be immersive at the office. So we, now we end the noise reduction mode so you can switch very easily in the office. I love that. And as you said that, isn't that a one size fits all here? Some people will want their earbuds just for office use. Others will want them just for their run or their dog walk. And if we look at some of your models here, you mentioned the OpenDots 1. They marked a visible design shift, look incredibly cool. So a clip-on

[00:14:05] almost jewellery-like earbud. What did you learn from that product about comfort, wearability and how open ear devices fit into everyday life beyond sport? Yeah. I think for this product, the OpenDots 1 is actually our first clip-on. and when we launched that, we have learned a lot from this product. The first thing we find the new shape of the technology isn't easy at the start for us.

[00:14:34] The first step is to tell people how to wear this product because you know the product got the sea bridge and also got the different side of the speakers and also the bottom. So I think a lot of consumers when they buy the products, they just put the earbuds to the totally wrong direction. So for us, the first step is to tell people how to wear it and

[00:15:04] how it works. And other things we learn from this product is that such like for this kind of product especially you want to use in the daily life, the first thing is you need to be comfortable enough. This means people need to wear this for a very very long time without feeling their ear pain. And the second thing is that the case and also the headphones needs to be as small

[00:15:33] as possible so it's easy to be put in the pocket. And the third thing for this product is it can't fight with your glasses or like your hat. It's very important because for our ear hook this kind of design sometimes people will complain oh it's difficult to fit with my glasses. So this is something we just learn from this product and actually from the marketing side

[00:16:03] we find that sometimes we want to let consumers know this product is fashionable but people won't buy the electronics products because it's fashionable so this is some interesting thing lovely and of course you've had an exciting start to the year we're recording this episode in February but January is CES but Las Vegas you were there and you also unveiled the OpenFit Pro

[00:16:33] with what you call open ear noise reduction so how do you explain the difference between noise reduction and traditional active noise cancellation to consumers who assume quieter always mean sealed ears because that's not the case is it? Yeah actually this is the question we've been asked for many times every time yeah many people ask us about what's the noise reduction we don't got the concept in our mind about noise reduction we just know noise cancellation

[00:17:03] why you just say it's noise reduction I think the truth is actually from the technology side what we call noise reduction the same tech basis as the ANC it's your microphone pick up the outside noise and then the headphones algorithm reduce it so you don't need to hear more about the noises but just focus on your music

[00:17:32] so for us we talk about noise reduction here it's more about reducing environmental noise while keep the open ear experience so yeah and I think for us we don't want consumers to understand the noise reduction of our products it has the same efforts as the over-ear headphones so this is the reason why we call it noise reduction and

[00:18:01] for the noise reduction of the open fit pro this product we can find when you listen to the podcast or like listen to the music with the noise reduction mode on the background noise can be reduced and the sound will be clearer and looking at the technology that you have here we have triple mic systems adaptive algorithms and Dolby Atmos all these things suggest open audio is becoming far more sophisticated

[00:18:31] there so how close do you think we are to a point where open ear buds are seen as a secondary option because the technology seems to be coming on so quickly now yeah I think for this question I think about that and I'd say less than a year for this question I'd say less than a year it's just about the time and now as we can say right now in many

[00:19:01] countries such like China mainland and also North America and also like Korean this kind of countries for open dots one this kind of ear clip has already been the very trendy thing and for a lot of users like one of my friends she's using the ear clip every day so this has already been the product that she only used for her daily life for

[00:19:30] open ear headphones I think in some region and some group it has already been the first priority and the first choice and even the oily headphone for some people I just about one year is because I think now it's still the expanding period not everyone has fully experienced the product yet but once people get deeper for it

[00:20:00] and really understand and start to feel the great benefits it will be faster and as we look ahead into the future do you see open ear audio almost co-existing alongside sealed earbuds as part of a two device lifestyle where depending on what you're doing whether you're running whether you're on an aeroplane or in the office you will go automatically to the earphones that fit that purpose or do you think products like open fit pro will signal a longer term shift in how most

[00:20:30] people will listen and also what excites you about the future because you're right in the heart of this space yeah I think for this period open ear headphones will continue to co-exist yeah exactly and definitely because now open ear this category although it's increased very rapidly but it's still such like a small part and most of people they'll still use the earbuds use in-ear but so

[00:20:59] it needs time to change and I think when we put the timeline in a very long period most of the needs can be solved by the open ear headphones and it may coexist with over ear headphones but not the earbuds maybe yeah why is that because as I just mentioned for open ear headphones it has limits and for some very

[00:21:29] noisy scenarios such like the flight and also the train you still need to have very heavy physical blocks to keep your focus but for other scenarios like walking exercise daily life it can be covered by open ear headphones this is ear is a shift

[00:21:59] in form factor and user needs it's very similar to the move from wired to wireless and from in-ear headphones to open-ear headphones so I think this is the change for the different headphone shape and also the form this is some of the thing I think may be changing in the future and open-ear headphones will get bigger and for the future technology I

[00:22:29] think I'm very excited about the first thing I think it's of course AI and yeah although now we don't have this function a lot of audio brands they start to carry the AI function in the headphones and also the earbuds such like AI power translation and also like the direction and also I think with AI training that

[00:22:59] the headphones is the easiest thing to carry this kind of function and I think the second direction is about the glasses and now we can see a lot of glasses they already got the audio function and they can play music at the same time so I think this will be in a very long term future it will have the competition with headphones of course because

[00:23:29] glasses you can listen to music but it's hard to say how it can be competitive so I think this is some of the direction but I think what the glasses can't achieve maybe is the based sound quality and also the sound quality is something maybe the glasses can't achieve anymore incredibly exciting future real-time translation smart glasses we need to get you back on the future

[00:23:59] months to find out more about how things are evolving but I will add a few links to my experiences with some of the shocks earphones and I'll also include a couple of videos so people listening can go on and have a look at what they look like how they work etc but where would you like to point everyone listening that maybe they're intrigued about you can easily find us in our official website uk.shocks.com and now

[00:24:29] we've also have a lot of offline channels to experience the new products like John Lewis Costco in UK and also Emotions so yeah if you are interested in the products you can try it and I think you will love that awesome well I will add links to everything make it easy for people and I think for the last year 18 months there'll be a lot of people would have seen this

[00:24:59] phrase open ear audio and not fully understood what it meant but listening to you today and putting in a language that everyone can understand and the uses of it and why it is such a huge trend right now I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to sit down with me and share that but more than anything thanks again and we'll see you one thing this conversation made clear today it's that open ear headphones are not trying to replace

[00:25:29] traditional earbuds they're responding to how people are actually living now as they move and multitask throughout their day so as sound quality improves and designs become more comfortable open ear listening is shifting from a compromise to a deliberate choice and for many people staying aware of their surroundings whether they are in the office or out on a dog walk or going for a run it's no longer a nice to have it's part of feeling safe being present

[00:25:58] and connected throughout the day so a huge thank you to my guest and the team at shocks for walking me through the technology the use cases and why this category is growing so quickly right now and whether you are a runner a commuter or someone who just simply wants to stay engaged with the world around you and as this category continues to evolve will open ear headphones

[00:26:28] become a secondary option or become the pair that you reach for most often I'd love to hear your thoughts your experiences with open ear audio let me know please techtalksnetwork.com you'll find loads of ways you can connect with me or just send me an audio message and there's also 4,000 interviews on other topics too so thank you for your time today whether you are listening on open ear or close ear headphones hopefully you'll join me again tomorrow but thank you for listening

[00:26:57] bye for now