I have a co-worker who bought a pair of Apple’s shiny white AirPods, turned a black Sharpie marker on them and has been cleaning ink out of his ears ever since.
A company called BlackPods, which says it has a proprietary coating system for Apple’s wireless earbuds, just announced its service this week in an email blast to tech journalists — though too late for my colleague, who now reports model paint worked no better than the Sharpie.
BlackPods will send you a finished new pair of AirPods for $249. Or you can send in your white AirPods for a $99 paint job.
Apple infuriated some iPhone users when it announced last fall that the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus would not have an earphone jack, forcing music lovers to either purchase a dongle that plugs into the Lightning port or buy the Bluetooth-enabled wireless AirPods for $159.
Technical glitches delayed the AirPods release until just before Christmas, but positive reviews of the truly wireless earphones seemed to allay Apple fans’ anxiety about the new iPhone’s lack of a vintage audio jack.
But the white color remains a bit off-putting for some who want the AirPods to match the color of their iPhone. In fact, a sweet-looking mockup of black AirPods appeared not long after Apple unveiled the product last September.
BlackPods is just making that dream come true.
“We love Apple’s AirPods, but talked to many users who wished they could have them in other colors,” wrote BlackPods founder Peter O’Petteri. “(It) seemed that most AirPods owners wished they came in black to match their jet black/matte black iPhones.”
O’Petteri could not be reached for comment and the BlackPods website only shows what looks like computer-generated images of black AirPods. When clicking on a purchase option on the website, a screen appears with a notice of a high volume of orders and a form to fill out for the company to contact customers.
According to the website, “skilled artisans in Brooklyn, NY” hand-finish the AirPods with a semi-gloss black coating that won’t scratch and was developed by collaborating with automotive paint specialists.
