PSA: Steelseries killed off most of the Arctis Ski Goggle Headbands

One of the coolest features of the Steelseries Arctis lineup is the removable headband made out of ski-goggle material. It’s quite flexible, and the durable, washable material allowed for fun designs to be printed on them.

The Arctis 3 and 5 use a “half wrap” design, where the stretchy headband sits under the frame on two support hooks. The Arctis 7 and Pro use a “full wrap” design, where the material wraps all the way around the metal headband frame of the headset.

Eagle-eyed Medium user Malcolm noticed that Steelseries no longer sells the half wrap designs on their web site. So Arctis 3 and 5 users are now stuck with the one that comes in the box, and maybe a warranty replacement if Steelseries will allow it.

This is silly, and disappointing. One of the big, fun features of the Arctis was the ability to customize the headset with different, affordable headbands. It was also nice to know that you could replace it if yours ever broke. Now that the half wrap headbands are gone, if you own one of the cheaper models, that’s no longer possible.

I’m guessing that these probably didn’t sell very well, and they never managed to get retail distribution for them. Still, it was one unique feature they had that’s now been a bit diminished.

I’ve had similar concerns in the past about the modular RIG headphones from Plantronics. Do enough people really buy the extra accessories to make such a business worth it, or will most gamers just use what came in the box and be satisfied?

Looks like Steelseries is banking on the latter.