It comes off the back. I have fairly wide feet, fallen arches, and a bad back. I bought one of Amazon before and that one was broken in 2 days. Probably helps if you follow the directions closely! After a long cross country, the weight of these can start to bug you, but I have no problem wearing these for three hours. But it was missing from mine and there is no way I can contact Amazon support to let them know about this It came with three sizes of foam tips but I didnt get the three sizes of Sure-Lock fins as advertised. I tried using them anyway, and so far my pictures are staying up okay (they’re much lighter than the max weight), but I imagine the strips can hold less weight with less adhesive. This is a nice, average quality elastic beading cord. I figured Id just keep the mic off and use them as basic headphones.