Nothing and teenage engineering make see-through earbuds

A first product that shows its insides

On 27 July 2021, Nothing launches its first product, the Ear (1) wireless earbuds.¹ Six months after Carl Pei announced the London company with a name, a mission and no product, the earbuds give the brand a physical form. Both the charging case and the earbuds are made of clear plastic, so the inside of the case and the internals of each bud stay visible.¹ The price is 99 dollars, 99 pounds or 99 euros.¹

Transparency is the product's central design statement. According to Nothing's launch material, the design "features transparency to expose the engineering, including microphones, magnets, and circuit board", and the company adds: "Everything that is ear (1) is there with purpose."² The clear housing turns the components into the decoration. It also makes a promise about the brand: what it sells has nothing to hide. Behind that promise stands a second name. The earbuds are designed with teenage engineering, the Stockholm company best known for its OP-1 synthesiser.²³

A design partner named before the product

The partnership is public five months before the launch. In February 2021 Nothing names teenage engineering a founding partner.⁴ Jesper Kouthoofd, co-founder and CEO of teenage engineering, becomes Nothing's Creative Lead, and Tom Howard, teenage engineering's vice head of design, becomes its Head of Design.⁴ At that point Nothing has raised $22 million from investors including GV, but has no product on sale.⁵ Carl Pei, CEO and co-founder of Nothing, frames the partnership around people.

"I'm really excited to welcome teenage engineering to the growing Nothing family. They consist of some of the best designers and creatives that I've had the pleasure of working with."⁴

For a start-up without a product, this is credibility borrowed in advance. The announcement spends its words on teenage engineering's record, praising it "for their unique craftsmanship and industrial design prowess".⁴ For teenage engineering it is a new kind of exposure: its reputation becomes part of another company's launch story before anyone has seen the work.

From a concept to a visual code

Nothing builds up to the look in stages. In March 2021 it shows Concept 1, a semi-transparent design study that, in the company's words, "takes inspiration from a grandmother's tobacco pipe".⁶ In June, an email to subscribers announces: "We've kept the design of Ear (1) top-secret, but it's time to take a look at our vision in action."⁷

The sequence introduces the visual idea before the product it belongs to, so the earbuds arrive as the confirmation of a style rather than a surprise. The style translates the brand's stated mission, "removing barriers between people and technology", into material.⁷ A clear case is the most literal version of that idea, because the barrier between user and machine becomes a window. For a company called Nothing, see-through plastic is also the closest a physical object can come to its name.

What the audio specialists bring

teenage engineering's share goes beyond styling. According to Wallpaper, it handles all the acoustics and brings the industrial design know-how.⁸ Its engineers tune the sound for balance between bass, mid and treble.² Small details carry an audio specialist's sensibility into the object. Pei explains that the colour red marks the right earbud, following the convention of RCA cables that hardcore audio fans recognise.⁹ In a product built largely from clear plastic, a single accent of colour stands out, and its logic is addressed to people who know audio equipment.

The music technology press reads the launch through the partner. MusicRadar heads its report "Nothing and Teenage Engineering reveal ear (1) wireless earbuds".¹⁰ For that audience, teenage engineering's name tells readers what kind of object to expect from a brand they do not yet know.

Scarcity before the reveal

Nothing sells the first units before the product is fully shown. With the resale platform StockX, it releases the first 100 units, engraved with the numbers 1 to 100, through a DropX auction from 19 to 21 July 2021.¹¹ One of the engraved pairs sells for 1,029 dollars.⁹ The auction presents a pair of 99-dollar earbuds as a collectible and places the young brand in the culture of limited releases rather than in the electronics aisle. The transparent design is what makes the object worth collecting, because it is recognisable at a glance.

A signature that outlasts the first product

Demand gives the look momentum. In September 2021, Pei writes that "100k ear (1) shipped".¹² When Nothing confirms in March 2022 that it is working on a smartphone, the phone is expected to carry "elements of transparency" and a "similar design language" from the earbuds.¹³ The Phone (1) of July 2022 has a transparent design, like the Ear (1).¹⁴

The partnership also reaches beyond electronics. In December 2023 Nothing releases a semi-transparent Labcoat at its store in Soho, London, a garment it describes as "Conceptualised with our friends at teenage engineering."¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ What begins as the look of one pair of earbuds becomes the feature by which Nothing is recognised across categories. For teenage engineering, the Ear (1) marks a different role: a brand known for its own instruments becomes the credit that another company puts on its first product.