Lamine Yamal may have just revealed Beats' next headphones
The football star was spotted carrying mystery Beats headphones in a recent social media post
If Beats wanted people talking about its next pair of headphones, mission accomplished.
The Apple-owned audio brand appears to have kicked off the marketing campaign for a new set of over-ear headphones by putting them in the hands of a high-profile athlete and letting the internet do the rest.
This time, the athlete in question is football superstar Lamine Yamal, who shared a carousel of images on social media ahead of Spain's latest training camp.
While the post itself wasn't about headphones, eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed a pair of bright pink Beats over-ears appearing prominently throughout the photos.
The headphones are either hanging from Yamal's bag or draped around his neck, making them impossible to miss.
The appearance comes just days after a mystery pair of Bluetooth over-ear headphones surfaced in filings with the US Federal Communications Commission under model number A3577.
At the time, it wasn't clear if the device belonged to Apple or Beats, but Yamal's Instagram post appears to answer that question.
A familiar Beats playbook
This isn't the first time Beats has used athletes and celebrities to tease upcoming products before launch.
The brand has built much of its marketing identity around high-profile ambassadors, often allowing unreleased products to appear in public long before an official announcement arrives.
Yamal is certainly getting the word out. The post featuring the upcoming cans currently has 2.7 million likes and nearly 11,000 comments.
In several shots, the headphones are positioned front and centre, hanging from a designer bag, giving photographers and social media users a clear view of the distinctive pink finish.
The headphones themselves look markedly different from the current Beats Studio Pro, which launched in 2023.
The new model appears to feature flatter earcups and a redesigned headband with slimmer support arms that bear more than a passing resemblance to the Apple AirPods Max 2.
Several observers have also noted that the overall shape does not resemble any current Beats product.
More than a new colourway
The current Beats Studio Pro arrived with custom Beats silicon rather than Apple's H-series chip, a decision that improved Android compatibility but left the headphones without some of the ecosystem features found on AirPods.
Since then, Beats has used Apple's chips in newer products, including the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 and the Beats Powerbeats Fit, which led to speculation that these mystery headphones could follow the same path.
For now, Beats isn't saying anything publicly, but if history is any guide, seeing a mystery product hanging from the shoulder of a Beats ambassador is rarely an accident.
[via Macrumors]
