Nothing snaps up ex-Dyson design chief to spearhead new London design hub

Adam Bates
Adam Bates (Image credit: Nothing)

What you need to know

  • Dyson's former design chief has joined Carl Pei's Nothing startup.
  • Adam Bates is going to lead design at Nothing.
  • He will also help launch Nothing's first London-based design hub.

Carl Pei's startup Nothing, creator of excellent AirPods rival the Nothing ear (1) buds, has today announced the company is bringing in former Dyson design chief Adam Bates to head up design at the company.

Bates, who spent more than 14 years at Dyson, helped to shape some of the company's most iconic products including the Supersonic and the Airwrap, as well as other cordless vacuums and purifiers.

In a press release, Bates said "I'm looking forward to working with the Nothing team and founding partners Teenage Engineering, whom I've long admired, to achieve its vision of bringing people and technology closer together" and that his mission "is to build a team and develop a design culture so we can create iconic products that will change the consumer tech landscape."

Founder Carl Pei, formerly of OnePlus, said he was excited to welcome Adam to the team.

Along with overseeing design at Nothing, the company says that Bates will also launch Nothing's first design hub in London, which will focus on building the team and design culture as Nothing seeks to fulfill its mission of shaking up consumer technology.

After announcing in December that the company had sold 200,000 units of its Nothing ear (1) buds, the company says it has now shifted more than 400,000 units to date.

During that announcement Nothing also unveiled its new black edition earbuds, carbon neutrality, and support for crypto payments.

We reviewed Nothing's ear (1) buds last year and found them to be some of the best true wireless earbuds available on the market and a clear competitor to Apple's AirPods and AirPods Pro, in part thanks to their extremely competitive price point.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9