Apple's industrial design team seems nearly infallible, and its few false starts—such as the hockeypuck mouse, G4 Cube, and Apple Hi-Fi—all stand out like dings on an otherwise flawless glass and aluminum surface. Their stock headphones don't fall into the flop category, but even after being redesigned for a better fit, the rechristened EarPods can still slip out with a small jolt or jostle.
A simple accessory called the Sprng, created by Ohm Industrial Design, could mean musical salvation for millions of Apple fans. The Sprng is a rigid plastic clip that attaches to the EarPod stem and an overmolded rubber spring that hooks under the concha of the ear, creating an extra point of contact and a more secure fit. The $10 add-on can be adjusted by changing its position on the EarPod, making it useful for high-performance athletes or kids who just want to watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba on a long car ride.
A multibillion-dollar industry has been built creating stylish covers for Apple devices and dongles to expand their functionality, but very few gadgets are expressly designed to fix product flaws. "It feels a bit sacrilegious," says Kirk Mosna, a cofounder of Ohm Industrial Design. "We've been using Apple products since the early '80s – my son is a certified Apple fanboy – so it feels a bit awkward creating a fix for one of their products." He notes that the Apple designers, though deified by fans and the press, are in fact human and the staggering variety of the human ear is too great for any standardized design to satisfy—necessitating a solution like the Sprng.
The Sprng was a self-directed product developed in between design assignments, and the team was so passionate about the idea that they decided to take a huge financial risk and fund the product's manufacturing without a partner. Then disaster struck.
"We had a concept for this product designed, tooled up, with pre-production parts that were being reviewed for Apple’s original earbud, when Apple announced the new version," says Mosna. "We had to scrap the tool and make adjustments to the design to deal with all of the new constraints."
Fortunately, the product made it to market, but it remains to be seen whether the setback was bad timing or divine retribution for design hubris.
