Adidas FWD-02 Sport Review: Great Fit, Frustrating Details

Introduction

The Adidas FWD-02 Sport arrives with a clear mission: be the earbuds you grab automatically before a run. They follow the Z.N.E. 01 models from Adidas and, on paper, they cover the essentials for runners well. There is a genuinely secure fit, a sweat-friendly design, and a 25-hour total battery figure. The question is whether the details hold up in daily use, and at £139.95 in the UK (169 US dollars, 169 euros) whether they earn their price against rivals like the Beats Fit Pro, Jaybird Vista and Jabra Elite 4 Active.

After extended running and everyday testing, the picture is mixed: excellent fit and acceptable sound, but a case design and software experience that get in the way more than they should.

Design and Fit

The FWD-02 Sport uses a wing tip and gel design, with four sets of ear tips and five sets of wing sizes in the box so you can mix and match. Controls are handled by a force sensor rather than a full physical button, designed to be sweat proof, glove friendly and responsive. There is also in-ear detection via an optical sensor that auto-pauses and plays when you cover or uncover a bud.

Fit is the strongest part of the package. Each bud weighs just 5.25 grams, among the lightest available, and the default tips held firmly with no looseness on outdoor runs or sweaty indoor cycling sessions. They stayed put on steep descents and never felt like they would come loose. For headband wearers, the force sensor is also easier to press without jamming the bud painfully into the ear, and long all-day wear only caused mild irritation from the wings. If you have struggled to get a locked-in fit from other sport earbuds, this is a real selling point.

The Case: Clever Idea or Misstep?

The slimline case is the most distinctive part of this package, and the most divisive. Its fabric top is designed to let damp or sweaty buds breathe and dry inside the case, and the lid is magnetic and detachable, intended to remove the risk of a hinge snapping.

In practice, both ideas create more problems than they solve. The fabric collects rather than wicks moisture: a brief splash left the fabric soaked and the buds wet underneath. Slip the case into a running belt or a non-waterproof pocket and moisture gathers over time, and the earbuds protrude through the fabric so they can get knocked out of their seating. The magnetic lid can detach if the case is held or knocked the wrong way, and the magnets holding the buds themselves are not always strong enough, with occasional seating issues that stopped charging. The case is compact and ergonomic, but the design choices feel like solutions to problems that did not exist, and they undermine the buds slightly.

Sound and Controls

Sound is powered by 6mm drivers and is acceptable rather than impressive. The out-of-the-box profile has decent top volume but a light, slightly thin bass, and instruments tend to mash together at higher volumes, losing clarity. The app offers custom EQ and a few presets, but the differences between them are subtle, and you cannot save custom profiles, which is frustrating when tweaking is often needed.

There is no active noise cancellation, only an awareness mode, and it is not a pleasant one. It introduces a scratchy, white-noise quality and lets in a lot of wind that you cannot adjust. It makes you more aware of your surroundings, but it feels like something from buds costing well under 100 pounds.

Controls sit between a button and a touchpad. Single taps and play or pause work fine, and they do work with gloves as promised, which is genuinely useful. But double presses do not always register, and skip and skip-back gestures are unreliable.

Durability and Battery Life

The buds are IPX5 rated and the case is IPX4. For sweaty runners this holds up fine: heavy-sweat testing sessions caused no issues. Battery life matched the spec in real use. An hour-long run at high volume burned around 23% of the bud battery, and a two-hour run used roughly 30%, so the six-hour bud claim is realistic. The full package of six hours on the buds plus 19 hours from the case translates to roughly two weeks of typical training between charges, and rapid charge gives an hour of playback from 15 minutes. A full charge of the buds in the case takes about 90 minutes.

Connectivity and App

Pairing to a phone is reliable once established: buds connect promptly and stay connected on runs. Everything else is bumpier. The Adidas app was buggy, sometimes refusing to connect at all, or recognising the buds on one screen while claiming they were disconnected on another, which blocks EQ tweaks. One tester experienced occasional audio dropouts mid-run, brief but noticeable, something not seen with the Jabra Elite models or Jaybird Vista.

Multi-device switching is clumsy: you must disconnect from one stored device before connecting to another, and even then recognition can be slow. And in one bizarre incident, music kept playing from buds sitting in the charging case, likely related to imperfect seating in those weak case magnets. Compared to the seamless experience of the Beats Fit Pro within the Apple ecosystem, or the Jabra buds at swapping devices, this feels a generation behind.

How They Compare to the Competition

Against the Jaybird Vista, the FWD-02 Sport loses on sound quality. Against the Beats Fit Pro, it loses on overall polish, ecosystem features and connectivity, despite the Beats costing slightly more and fitting some ears less comfortably. Against the Jabra Elite 4 Active, it loses decisively on value: the Jabras are significantly cheaper, sound better and worked well even without wing tips.

The pattern is consistent: at this price point, the FWD-02 Sport is outclassed. If you want better sound or a more refined experience, you do not have to move far up the price ladder. If you want similar performance for less money, the Jabra Elite 4 Active is the obvious pick. Where the Adidas genuinely wins is fit security, and for some runners that alone may tip the scales.

Buying Advice

Buy the FWD-02 Sport if you have struggled with earbud fit in the past, value a light, locked-in wing-tip design above sound quality, and can live with a case that is better left at home than carried in a running belt. Roughly 20 pounds off the asking price would make these considerably more compelling. Otherwise, look to the Jabra Elite 4 Active for value or the Beats Fit Pro for a more complete package. Of the Adidas earbuds tested so far, these are the best yet, but that is a low bar.

Conclusion

The Adidas FWD-02 Sport is a perfectly acceptable pair of running earbuds with an exceptional fit and honest battery life, undermined by average sound, a buggy app, no ANC, and a case design that creates problems of its own. They will do the job for runners whose priority is a secure fit, but at £139.95 most buyers will find stronger alternatives elsewhere.