I’m Steve. And this is my workspace.

Wrapping the new office around my head

It’s my third day at MADE and I’m starting to settle into this new office. At first it was a little tight, disrupting an otherwise handsome hairdo, but I think I’ve found the optimal strap position.

My office, incidentally, is a pair of high-end, Grado, headphones. Standard-issue for everyone who joins the MADE movement. Later in this post, I’ll argue that this headgear has supernatural powers. But, first, some context.

MADE corporate headquarters is alive, open and growing. A raw space that’s built to foster collaboration and typically filled with a steady hum of hustle and construction. As productivity sometimes demands peace, we find refuge in the portable enclave of our listening devices.

This is by no means standard audio technology. MADE, walking the proverbial walk, has armed us with Grado Prestige SR125 headphones. For almost 60 years, Grado Labs has been manufacturing some of the finest audio equipment in the world. Their painstaking attention to detail delivers a truly sublime listening experience. What’s more, they, like me, Jay-Z and Biggie (RIP), represent Brooklyn, New York.

Now I’m pretty sure these headphones are doing more than just reproducing frequencies and cancelling out background noise. Some serendipitous shit is going down around me, suggesting cosmic side effects.

Never before have I seen so much eye contact. It’s at once creepy and wonderfully refreshing. To command attention, instead of knocking on nonexistent doors or picking up phones, we flail our limbs in foolish, awkward and exaggerated ways. And you’ll notice people slowly and melodramatically place their headphones over their ears, as if to say “I’m not listening to you anymore.”

Overall, they’re bringing us together at a remarkable pace. Blurring boundaries and squashing comfort zones.

So I say that, even if the distractions around us subside, we continue to wear our headphones with pride. As modern headdresses for a tribe of people who give a damn. Loyal to this movement.