Headphones Michael Phelps Wore At 2012 Olympics – SOL REPUBLIC Tracks

As part of my effort to point out audio stuff in pop culture, I wanted to write about those really cool headphones that American swimmer, Michael Phelps, was sporting prior to each of his events at the 2012 Olympics. They were colorful and sleek – very stylish. They were the SOL REPUBLIC Tracks.

The headbands are colorful, yes, but they are also twisty and bendy, nearly indestructible, and interchangeable. The last one is pretty unique. You can switch them out with others of different color, depending on what you feel like in the moment.

The headphones themselves, the actual “audio” part, are also awesome, boasting extremely high quality sound and comfort.

One other cool thing is the “mic + remote control” feature. There is a detachable microphone and remote control you can use to operate your iPod as well as answer and hang up calls.

Athletes frequently wear headphones like these because it helps them focus as they isolate themselves with noise reduction and great audio quality for music. American Diver, Troy Dumais for example, wears the Bose QuietComfort 35 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones. American Olympic swimmer, Anthony Ervin and diver, Kristian Ipsen, and Chinese swimmer Sun Yang wore Beats Isolation headphones/

Update: Since Michael Phelps seemed to be changing our his bands for every swim, we were ticking off all the different colors. But on one of the latest headphone appearances was a logo for something we couldn’t quite make out at first.

Then we paused the TV (gotta love DVRs) and got up real close to see that the logo was for dance music producer/DJ (he doesn’t actually like being called a “DJ,” apparently) Deadmau5. Not sure if the bands came already branded, or if Phelps put a Deadmau5 sticker on the band, but it does point out another cool thing about these headphones – you can easily put writing and/or artwork on the bands to further express your personality.