U npair your AirPods and chargers be damned. Wired headphones – the once infuriatingly tangled white cord tethering us all together – are booming after five straight years of tech advancements and subsequent declining sales.

We are plugging back in, so much so that there was a 20 per cent wired headphone revenue surge in the first six weeks of 2026, bringing the tech accessory back from the brink after it suffered a $42m (£31.2m) drop in 2024.

For the style set, this isn’t a surprise. Vogue declared the “humble” wired headphones to be on the up as far back as 2019, heralding the model – and Gen Z’s all-round Y2K fashion It-girl – Bella Hadid, the leader of the movement after she was spotted sporting a pair alongside some Prada boots and a grey slate coat at New Orleans International Airport.

The wired inclination spread quickly through showbiz circles, with a cool crowd of stars, including actor Zoë Kravitz, Euphoria star Zendaya, Normal People ’s Paul Mescal, “Denial is a River” rapper Doechii,…