When you talk about trail running/outdoor headphones, most people seem to recommend AfterShokz products. Those use bone conduction technology, which is inherently limited in sound quality. I have used these and I understand the appeal, but I feel like they have been surpassed in the marketplace by other open ear technology. My go to in this space, what I feel is the gold standard, is the Oladance Wearable Stereo. The Oladance sound great, are very comfortable/ergonomic on the ear, and have insane battery life, while still providing the open ear awareness needed for trail use. That brings us to this product - the Lavales (as branded in the product listing)/E35 (as branded on the product package). How does this product hold up? How does it compare to AfterShokz or Oladance? On solely its own merits, I found these earphones to be surprisingly good. The audio quality is strong. It has good bass (sometimes a little too good on very bassy tracks). The volume is excellent; I pretty much universally have them at below 50% volume on my iPhone 13 Pro. They are not the MOST comfortable earphones I have ever used, but they are certainly not uncomfortable. They are very well balanced and stay in place perfectly. I ran up and down 8 stories of stairs two times wearing these, and they didn’t move at all. I also wore them for 6+ hours straight on consecutive nights, and experienced no real discomfort. So now the question arises - how do they compare to the market leaders? If you are cross shopping these against AfterShokz - just get these. You’ll thank me later. Bone conduction headphones had their day in the limelight, but they have been surpassed by better open ear technology. These headphones have significantly better sound quality in every way compared to AfterShokz, and they don’t have that “vibrating” sensation, either. Comparing these to Oladance is where things get more complicated. These sound good, but the Oladance sound just a bit better. These have okay comfort, but the ergonomics of the Oladance are just better. I didn’t max out the battery on these, but I would guess they are in the same ballpark as the Oladance. If money is no object, get the Oladance over these. So, this is where we get to the “value” proposition. If these headphones were $50, it would be an absolute no-brainer to get these. There would be no better value in the marketplace. But what about at the current price of $99? The Oladance are better, but Oladance plus the battery case is ~$200 (although they do occasionally run sales). As I’ve said, if money is no object, that should be your choice. But are the Oladance twice as good? This is where it gets tricky. These are certainly a better value than any tier of AfterShokz (OpenMove currently sells for $80, up to $180 for OpenRun Pro). But do you buy these, or save up extra for the Oladance and wait for a sale? That is the question for which I’m really having a hard time providing an answer. Overall, the Lavales/E35 are better than I expected, and are a very viable player in the open ear headphone space. They do not exceed the best, but they do exceed the most popular. If you have a legitimate need for open ear headphones and you go with these, I don’t think you will be disappointed at all.