They may be more at home in a hardwood forest than on a catwalk, but NBA players are still setting fashion trends.
When LeBron James competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics wearing Beats by Dre headphones around his neck, the then-new brand’s popularity exploded overnight.
Almost two decades later, a different kind of headphone is dangling from the ears of rising stars and veterans alike. From Anthony Edwards to Stephen Curry, wired earbuds are the go-to play for a growing number of basketball’s elite.
And they’re not the only ones going retro.
Drake, Lily-Rose Depp, Harry Styles, and Zendaya are among a long list of A-listers who have been spotted disconnecting from Bluetooth in favor of cords.
“I like old-school plugged-in stuff,” Emma Watson told Vogue in 2023, while the magazine’s “What’s In the Bag” segment featuring Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande last year featured the two pop megastars swearing with a wire.
New York Magazine’s December cover story featured a number of celebrity duos sharing a wired connection on the subway, including Ben Stiller and New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns.
Shelby Hull, the founder of Instagram’s Wired It Girls account, has been the unofficial voice of the code’s resurgence since launching the handle in 2021, using the burgeoning platform to document and celebrate its resurgence.
Hull, who is based in Los Angeles, started the account after reading an article by then-Vogue senior writer Leanna Satenstein defending model Bella Hadid’s choice to wear “humble” wired headphones.
This resonated with Hull, who subsequently responded to Satenstein’s call for an Instagram account dedicated to the trend. Unsurprisingly, Hadid was the subject of the inaugural post.
“She’s obviously wealthy and can afford AirPods, but she’s always been obsessed with money,” Hull told CNN.
“And there was something very effortless about it. She was very cool and didn’t care about keeping up with the latest technology trends. She didn’t care. And that was kind of what was touched on in the article.”
That indifference to expensive new devices is what distinguishes “wired” It girls from regular It girls, defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “famous young women known for frequenting parties and social events,” Hull added.
While many people can’t fully embrace the It Girl lifestyle because they can’t afford to shell out thousands of dollars for a Birkin bag, Hull says the corded headphones, currently on sale for just over $25 (about £19) on Apple’s site, offer an accessible route to the effortlessly cool brand exemplified by pop star Charli XCX and fashion designers Mary-Kate and Ashley.
In contrast, Apple’s latest AirPods start at $159 (£119) and rise to $669 (£499) for the Max over-ear version.
Affordability, celebrity endorsement and 2024’s Charli XCX-inspired “Brat Girl Summer” of embracing imperfection have combined to accelerate a trend that Hull predicted would remain “niche.”
Influencer athletes also play a role. Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is flying the flag for the yet-to-be-conceived Wired It Boys, thanks to his well-known pregame ritual of matcha drinks and corded headphones.
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Ben Skowronek makes no secret of his status as a proud “wire guy.”
In the NBA, arena tunnels have become concrete runways for players to strut their carefully selected wardrobes, and last year’s New York Fashion Week saw plenty of immaculately dressed hoopers attend.
“[Fashion and the NBA]have to go hand-in-hand because ultimately it’s a culture…whatever’s going on at the time is also going on in the tunnel,” Chad Brown, founder of the NBA Fashion Fits account, which has a 500,000-strong following on Instagram, told CNN.
The resurgence of wire was not unnoticed by Brown, who launched his own platform in 2016 after spending a lot of time in the tunnel while previously working as a production coordinator for the league. Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard and Cooper Flagg all join the long list of cable headphone athletes.
How much of that has to do with practicality, rather than stylistic expression, remains to be seen by Brown.
Philadelphia 76ers center Andre Drummond once said he uses about 20 wireless earbuds, while Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart said earlier this month that he prefers corded earbuds for his pregame routine.
“The Bluetooth stuff is a little difficult,” he said in a social video shared by the Lakers.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it comes off, it disconnects, it turns off, and sometimes you forget to charge it.”
These are all concerns that Brown can relate to, but the fashion element remains important, especially among the league’s new recruits.
“Everything goes in cycles…it’s nostalgic,” he explains.
“It’s an accessory, it’s part of the fit…Recently drafted players are probably going to wear wired headphones.”
Since Apple launched the iPhone 7 without a headphone jack in 2016, many other phone manufacturers have since also ditched the headphone jack. According to Future Marketing Insight, wireless headphones accounted for 66% of sales in 2025, while wired earbuds accounted for 34%.
But cable enthusiasts will point to a variety of benefits, from ease of setup to security. Unlike Bluetooth-enabled headphones, wired headphones cannot be hacked and are considered more secure for sensitive conversations.
But the nods to nostalgia suggest a deeper yearning, one for a more offline existence, that underpins not just a renaissance of cabled headphones, but a renaissance of a broader generation.
The “analog lifestyle,” a focus on specific ways to complete daily tasks and find entertainment in an increasingly AI-driven environment, is a growing phenomenon that is being embraced by Millennials and Gen Z.
From an explosion of interest in analogue hobbies such as knitting to emerging industries such as “dumb phones” (phones with limited functionality) and instax cameras, there has been a growing desire in recent years to scale back, if not completely eliminate, digital use.
For Hull, the enduring popularity of wired headphones must be seen in that context.
“There’s so much AI right now, so many things that are digital and not real to people. I think people want tangible touchpoints. That’s why there’s so much nostalgia for the ’90s and early 2000s. People want things they can touch, things they can feel,” she said.
“I love being able to have my phone, computer and camera in my pocket. It’s an all-in-one device. But recently I’ve been buying a vintage VHS camera, a film camera, collecting old headphones, and rewatching DVDs.
“I really want a more analog experience, and I think a lot of people do.”
