sold out on in the UK at the time of writing. That’s the bad news – the good news is that they’re available to buy on The fabric also covers the button housing found in both the left- and right-hand lines. And there are textures on the earbuds themselves too, though that only makes them more comfortable to grip for placing in or taking out. There are no buttons at all on the earbuds. The only interactive element there is the embedded USB-C port. Audio quality isn’t industry leading, but by running headphone standards the Adidas FWD-01 offer decent sound quality. The earbuds themselves are the same way. There was just enough flex in the ear tip wing to keep the earbuds in place without putting too much pressure on the outer ear. Meanwhile, the earbud tips are squishy and comfortable too. So wearing this in-ear all day didn’t present any trouble either.

adidas lists 16 hours of battery life, and while difficult to actually quantify, I believe battery life to be very close to this estimate. I wear them for hours per day (running, walking, using them for phone calls, house/yard chores) and seem to go for days before I remember to recharge them. You can also see a battery percentage within the app, but I rarely remember to look there for status updates (I just never need to really given the battery life, but it is a nice feature regardless). Charging is easy, simply plug in the USB-C cable provided (though very short).The only downside is that their chunky design can make them a little clunky to wear during specific workouts, such as boxing or climbing. The Adidas Headphones app (for Android and iOS) immediately recognizes the paired earphones and leads you through a tour of their features and customizable options. The aforementioned Action button can be set up through the app, and different actions can be assigned to single, double, and triple presses, but customization is limited to voice assistants and Spotify controls. Perhaps the app's most useful feature is the built-in five-band EQ, with several adjustable presets, as well as a user preset labeled Custom. The lightweight 25g design, combined with the secure fit of the earbuds, mean you’ll likely never have to readjust the earbuds once you’ve put them in – and that’s not something I can say of many wireless earbuds at any price point. Being Adidas’ first-ever range of audio equipment, the FWD-01 does a decent enough job in the audio department, though it doesn’t yet match up to the likes of Jaybird or Bose, both of which have been in the industry for much, much longer. The base preset EQ is pretty solid, which is by default bass-forward, which certainly pumps some adrenaline in your workout. As such, bass-heavy genres such as EDM and hip hop will no doubt benefit from it. But if that’s not for you, there are other EQ presets available in the app, or it can be manually edited, giving you a bevvy of audio options.

The FWD-02 ditch the stem-based design of the Z.N.E 01 models for a circular shape and attachable wings. You get a five-strong wing-tip selection (including one wing-less design) and four different ear-tips, so there should be a size to suit any person’s ear. I’d say it’s worth experimenting with the accessories before your first run; it would have saved me an ill-fitting set of earbuds had I done so. The mic offers strong intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded. The mic signal was strong and there was even some bass depth to the audio. There was a little bit of typical Bluetooth distortion around the edges, but nothing that did much to alter the clarity. Conclusionsadidas sport headphones blend intelligent, ergonomic design with incredible sound to support you every step of the way from warm-up, to workout, right through recovery.