Shokz OpenFit Pro Wins VGP 2026 Summer Lifestyle Grand Prize
The award signals that open-ear headphones are moving beyond pure situational awareness into active noise management, a shift that could broaden their appeal beyond runners and office workers.
Reporting from 1 sources: ASCII.jp.
Shokz Japan announced that its OpenFit Pro open-ear wireless earbuds have won the Lifestyle Grand Prize at the VGP 2026 SUMMER awards, a special award given to the top product in the lifestyle category. The VGP is organized by Otogen Shuppan and judged by a panel of 10 critics and major retailers. The OpenFit Pro, which launched on April 22, 2026, for 39,880 yen, features a proprietary Focus Mode that reduces ambient noise while maintaining the open-ear design's situational awareness. The award citation praised the product for proposing a new listening experience for open-ear headphones. In addition to the grand prize, six Shokz products received Gold Awards: the OpenFit Pro itself, OpenFit 2+, OpenFit Air, OpenDots 2, OpenDots Air, and OpenRun Pro 2. Another 17 Shokz products won category awards, bringing the company's total to 23 recognized items across open-ear, ear-cuff, and bone-conduction lines. The VGP awards have been held since 1987 and now occur twice yearly, with the summer edition selecting products across video, audio, and lifestyle categories.
The VGP 2026 SUMMER awards, judged by a panel of 10 critics and major retailers, recognized 23 Shokz products in total. The Lifestyle Grand Prize went to the OpenFit Pro, a flagship model that uses a Focus Mode to cut unwanted background noise while keeping the ear canal unblocked. The judging committee specifically cited this feature for offering a new listening experience in the open-ear category.
Six Shokz products earned Gold Awards: the OpenFit Pro, OpenFit 2+, OpenFit Air, OpenDots 2, OpenDots Air, and OpenRun Pro 2. The OpenDots 2 and OpenDots Air are ear-cuff style models announced in June 2026. The remaining 17 awards covered bone-conduction models like the OpenRun Pro 2 Mini and OpenSwim Pro, as well as office devices such as the OpenMeet UC and OpenComm2 series. The VGP has been running since 1987 and now selects winners twice a year, with the summer edition covering lifestyle products alongside traditional AV gear.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.