- Upcoming Beats headphones show up, again
- They have appeared around neck of World Cup player, again
- Fans are trying to come to terms with that color
When currently-unannounced Beats headphones were spotted in social media posts from Spain player Lamine Yamal ahead of the 2026 World Cup, I said “there’s a good chance we’ll see more of them”. Well, I called it, because it happened again.
A series of Instagram posts from South Korea midfielder Lee Kang-in, posted to celebrate the team’s 2-1 victory over Czechia in its first match of the tournament, gives pride of place to the same Beats headphones as we saw before.
This time though, instead of a rose hue, they come in white and… a neon yellow I’ll politely not refer to as ‘Sourz vomit’, although it looks like the result of one too many alcopops. How to describe it other than ‘slime’ or ‘puke’ though?
I know what you’re thinking: maybe they gave it to Lee to match his team’s colors? Nope, South Korea plays in red and black, with an occasional violet-slash-lavender away kit for the 2026 World Cup.
Some commentators are using this peculiar color combination as evidence that the cans will have replaceable cups, clearly hoping that Beats will let them ditch the pads for something else, but that feels like grasping at straws.
There’s no actual evidence of this, and the faint hint of a yellow headband behind Lee’s neck suggests that these are just two-tone cans, instead of it being a choice on his part.
The vantage gives us a better look at the rounded build of these new cans, which swaps out the noughties-chic of Beats’ previous cans with a CMF Headphone-looking tiered build. Beyond the choice color options, they actually look pretty suave.
The most appealing part of the redesign to me is the band, which looks much thinner than before, and circular, so it’ll potentially be much more comfortable to wear. We’ll have to see, but a launch will likely come hot on the heels of this World Cup catwalk.
Has anyone outside of a World Cup squad used them yet?
Just like when we saw them alongside Lamine Yamal, Lee Kang-in doesn’t get snapped actually using the new Beats headphones, although he does keep them closer to his person.
While Yamal kept them at arms’ length, hooking them to his bag and only being photographed with them around his neck once, Lee has them around his neck several times.
Neither of these soccer players has been seen actually using the new Beats headphones. Maybe owning, but not actually using, headphones is the fashionable thing to do. Or maybe they saw our critical Beats Solo 4 review and want to keep the new pair at arms’ length.
It’s unlikely that Apple has chosen two specific players out of hundreds to give its headphones to, so as the group stages of the World Cup progress, we’ll probably see more sightings of the Beats.
We’ve glimpsed pink, and white-yellow, and hopefully we’ll see a few more color options show up.
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