The Sure In-Ear earbuds are designed for profesional musicians to where on stage while performing so they can hear the monitor mix, and get the protection of an ear plug. They are that tranparent or flesh color so they are less noticable to the audiance.
Koss makes some inexpensive nice in-ear type earbuds called "The Plug". They are like an earplug combined with an earbud. I have a few pair they are great. I use them when Im mixing music on my laptop. They keep background noise out so if your on a plane or in a car they keep a lot of the outside noise out. I used to use them onstage when I played with my band. That way my ears were safe from instruments like drums and screamign guitars, but at the smae time I could hear a good clear monitor mix.
Josh