I have played around with a bunch headphones for exercise. First I tried the etymotics hf3s. They sort of advertised them for working out an they touted their Kevlar cover. But I went through a few replacement sets because of sweat breaking the microphone. Also bone conduction is a big issue so you get cable noise and fluctuations in sound. I still use the etys but not for working out. I got an iPhone 5 and I used their default buds for a while, not too bad but don't block out much noise which can lead to hearing damage as the temptation is to turn them up too high. After that I got the sennheiser cx680is. This design worked well for me. The insertion depth is shallow. But the wing design hold them in place and they are comfortable. Some wire noise, with a lot of sweat, I lose seal and the bass quality drops, but not too much. I liked those headphones. I like having the iPhone controls and mic. Unfortunately, I washed them and that broke them. So, I went to best buy on the way to a workout and the new sennheiser's do not have the mic. I do not like the over the ear designs. They feel funny to me. There were two options with a wing design available, a wireless Bluetooth jbuds, and I didn't want wireless and Bose sie2is. I bought the Bose. I've never owned a Bose product. I very much dislike their home theater stuff and their marketing. The sound of these headphones has the typical boomy bass and enhanced highs, they are definitely heavily eq'd. However, the fit is really nice for me. The wings hold the headphones in place very well. The insertion depth is shallow and the sound maintains evenly while working out hard (no cable sounds, no bone conduction issues. For working out, the eq'd sound works well and the sound stage is pretty wide for what they are. The cable feels solid. Overall, I am satisfied with these for working out.