I got a callback from American Ninja Warrior last Friday and was informed I'll be competing in the qualifying round (not televised) in May. It will be less than a month before my inevitable fall into the murky waters lining the underside of the Ninja Warrior obstacle course. My only hope is that the fall takes place during my run on the 2nd obstacle course and not the opening one. To commence my first day of training I decided to take my XS out for a run and some light exercise/parkour drills. In the 65 degrees of early evening Brooklyn, the XS performed as well as I envision myself doing on Ninja Warrior. They held on until they no longer could.
For my half-mile jog to the bank I noticed no slippage, though in hotter conditions sweat may play a yet untested role. Microphonics, from both the SpeakEasy cable and my footfalls could be heard, though the added task of running, obeying traffic laws, and dodging cars and pedestrians left me little time to notice unless I specifically listened for it. There was also noticeable wind noise. After the run I wandered over to a park equipped with pull-up and parallel bars, inclined benches, balance beams and the like and went through some pull-ups, push-ups, wrist-ups, bar spins, and muscle ups and while the XS never slipped off, it did at times get pulled whenever the SpeakEasy cable, tucked inside my hoodie, was pressed against the bar. An example would be when I do a pull-up and my chest touches the bar pinning the cable between myself and the bar which causes a slight pull on the headphones. However, this problem isn't specific to the XS as all headphones with a cable, including IEMs, will have similar effects when stressed in this way.
Next, I did some light parkour. This included vaulting onto and over a railing, walking on the top of a fence, cartwheeling over a bench and leaping off of an elevated platform landing in a tuck and roll. Save for the roll, the XS stayed on my head with very little shifting throughout my training. Even during the roll where it slipped off my ears, the headphone was still clinging to my head and it only ended up around my neck when I consciously reached out, mid-roll, to put it there just in case it decided to swan dive off of me and do a roll of its own. I think for most normal eXerciSe the XS will perform fine. I know because it's cartwheel tested.
Just a thought. XerciS sounds like a cool name for a sports headphone. It's almost Italian looking and reading it phonetically it almost sounds Italian. How about a campaign asking, "What does XS mean to you?"
Val?
