Apple-owned Beats hooked up with Japanese fashion brand Wacko Maria to release a new special-edition set of Beats Flex earbuds Friday featuring a leopard print, the companies said Thursday.
Beats Flex are the brand’s most affordable wireless earbuds. But now they pack a little more street cred.
Beats and Wacko Maria collaborate on special-edition Flex earbuds
Beats has indulged in plenty of special-edition collaborations in recent years with fashion brands, including a few with Beats Studio Buds.
The new special edition is a purely cosmetic tweak to the $70 Beats Flex, first released in 2020. Students who subscribe to Apple Music can get regular Flex earbuds for free, by the way. Flex uses Apple’s W1 chip.
Available for a limited time, the Wacko Maria x Beats Flex buds sport a leopard print, Wacko Maria branding and a dual-colored cable.
The cable connects the two earbuds and has controls on it. The cable lets the buds hang from your neck when they’re not in your ears.
Flex features:

Photo: Beats
- Beats Flex earbuds feature Auto-Pause and Auto-Play, so the music stops when you take them out and resumes when you put them back in.
- An advanced acoustic platform features custom layered drivers.
- You can use one-tap Audio Sharing to sync with other Beats headphones or AirPods 2.
- Up to 12 hours of listening time
- 10 minutes of charging get you 1.5 hours of playback.
- Class 1 Bluetooth
- Control volume, music, and calls with on-device controls.
Big in Japan, maybe

Photo: Beats
The limited-edition earbuds go on sale Friday at selected Japanese retailers.
Price: $69.99
Where to buy: Wacko Maria and other retailers