What's the point of "behind the neck" headphones?

Factual Questions
1

Here is an example of what I’m talking about: headphones that have a piece of hard, non-adjustable plastic that, apparently, hooks onto the ears and loops around the back of the head.

I had a pair of these given to me recently, and once I figured out it’s not like the normal over-the-head type that you can adjust to a comfortable fit, and instead seems to clip on to your ears and have this big piece of plastic hanging off the back of the head, I just couldn’t understand the point of the design. The fit is loose and awkward, the ear clip is uncomfortable, and the plastic looping around the back keeps rubbing against my collar and getting pushed around, and if I’m not wearing a collar it just hangs out in space and adds weight to the part clipped to my ears.

Am I missing something here? This is a design I haven’t encountered before this year, and I can’t see the advantage or making them this way. Is there some trick to getting them fitting comfortably, or is the above really the way they’re intended to be worn? Aside from the fit, the headphones are great, and I’d hate to be neglecting their use just because I don’t know how to wear them properly.

2

They are made for spikey-haired doods and anyone else who doesn’t want their do mussed up.

3

The “free market” is a funny thing. I see people with them every once in a while… and although I would never buy them, obviously somebody does.

The real answer to your OP is “to make money for their manufacturer”.

4

I think they are easier to wear than the normal ones when sporting a hoodie or a skullcap.

5

I always hated when the headphone clips got caught in my long hair,
then when the phones with just the earclips came out, i could finally lean back and get some sleep on the train.

6

As a bald headed man with no sense of style, I can only say that the behind the neck earphones give me better fit, comfort and audio qualities than the over the head types…I’ve used many pairs over the years, and was wary of the neck types until I tried them.

And as an added benefit, I can wear a hat in the hot Southwest sun and not have fit problems.

7

I like those kind - they worked better while I was running on the treadmill. I never really gave much thought to fit - at the standard size they seemed to fit quite well, and were more comfortable than over-head ones.

8

You can walk and jog with them; over the top of your head would fall off. And the jam-it-in-your-earhole ones are painful (for me at least) and presumably of lower quality.

I would note that the version they are selling in the US (like the one in your image) has a design flaw with the bit cupping the top of your ear. Japanese ones have a nice ear-stop thing where the arm from the speaker goes around to the behind of the ear where you would expect, so it holds there nice. The American ones have the damn arm connect at the front of the speaker with nothing to stop it, so the thing slides back and pinches your ear and waves about and such, overall causing it to eventually become painful.

9

I’ll second this.

This is my hair after wearing regular headphones |||||__||

this is my hair using ear buds or behind the head headphones |||||||||

The flat spot is really noticable but more importantly it * feels* strange. Mostly because that one spot on my head is now susceptible to wind as it doesn’t have the tensile strength of gel + many hairs.

10

I’m not sure if this has anything to do with it, but I remember before there were any headphones of that style, alot of people wore the regular over the head ones tilted so the top part was back near the neck. I think it was supposed to look cooler or something. Maybe someone took this idea and made it into a product where this style would be incorporated into the natural wear.