An Engineer Invented A Headphone-Friendly Hoodie That Could Break Silicon Valley

Wearing headphones with a hoodie can be tough. Often, it's an either/or situation. San Francisco clothing company Betabrand thinks one of its designers has come up with a solution.

Audio engineer Nic Pope submitted a hoodie to Betabrand's Think Tank in May that he says is "acoustically-transparent." In other words, you can wear headphones with a hood, and whatever you're listening to won't be muffled.

After his design proved popular with the community, Betabrand made a prototype. Pope works for Different Fur Studios in San Francisco so the hoodie is "professional-grade," Betabrand says.

"The hood's flanks are fabricated out of speaker cloth, enabling owners to wear headphones atop their hooded heads, with no fear of acoustic interference," Betabrand told Business Insider in an email. "Speaker cloth is a porous, open-structured fabric, that allows sound to travel through. We found an apparel-quality version and turned it into the side panels of a hood." It also has kangaroo pockets with a hole to led headphones slide through.

The Audio Engineer hoodie is just a prototype, but it's a popular one. Betabrand says Pope hit his pre-order crowdfunding goal within 24 hours. More than 85 hoodies have already been purchased, and pricing for early adopters ranged between $110 and $126; if you want to buy the hoodie now, however, it will cost about $143.

The hoodie is said to ship in October.

Here are some more details about the magical hoodie prototype: