:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(665x0:667x2)/paul-wesley-natalie-kuckenburg-amalfi-coast2-71825-10b4444f9a6242c8aa742476e5d68235.jpg "Paul Wesley and Girlfriend Natalie Kuckenburg on Yacht Vacation in Italy: Photos")
Apple’s AirPods Max are iconic for lots of reasons. Firstly, it’s Apple, so they have just a teensy bit of name-brand recognition. Secondly, there’s the sound—Apple’s over-ear headphones might look a little boring, but they sound consistently great. Good enough to actually make a $550 price tag work. There’s also a third iconic aspect, though this one may be notable for the wrong reasons. If you guessed the “iBra” carrying case, congratulations, you win a free ticket to tech nerd jail.
As iconic as Apple’s AirPods Max carrying case—which looks a lot like a bra—may be, other companies apparently aren’t afraid to infuse a little AirPods energy into their own accessories, and one of those companies is Nothing. Here’s its own personal take on the oft-bullied iBra:
As noted by 9to5Google, Nothing’s take on the iBra appears in a video posted to its TikTok account for Saudi Arabia and appears to be a part of some regional drop for those who purchase its Headphone 1 in Dubai. As you can see, it’s the same kind of Apple-style, bra-shaped carrying case that houses both the earcups in their own holsters with some Nothing branding slapped on. It’s hard to tell just from this promotional video, but it even looks like it’s made from a similar material to the AirPods Max’s pioneering carrying case.
The fact that this is being featured as part of a promotion says a couple of things. The first thing is: you probably won’t be able to buy this off the bat. If I had to guess, the Nothing iBra is, at this stage, a one-off for people in Dubai. On a more optimistic note, however, if the company is already making the case, there’s always a chance that it could make more of them. That would probably require unexpected demand, though, so if you really want your own Nothing version of the iBra for the Headphone 1, it’s time to make some noise.
Personally, I dig it. Having just borrowed a colleague’s AirPods Max for a little bit, it was nice to have a carrying case to prevent scratching, even if it looked a little silly. Currently, Nothing ships its Headphone 1 with a felt case, which is fine but not exactly premium-feeling. Granted, the Headphone 1 are also $299 compared to the AirPods Max’s $550, but a few hundo isn’t exactly nothing in this economy. My vote? Give us the Nothing-style iBra we didn’t know we craved.
