Seriously, what is with these folded cables?

[RomantheFabulous]

So in the recent livestream Linus pointed out a weird folded usb cable with heatshrink on it. I literally just recieved an ancient set of headphones from the 1930's with the same thing. Is this some kind of thing people do because of an urban myth? 

[HenrySalayne]

This will most likely be some form of strain relief. If you rip on the cable this thing will dampen the impact and might save your plugs / sockets.

 

BTW, I would recommend a second fold, so the cable doesn't do a 180 degree turn but 360 degree.

[RomantheFabulous]

9 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

This will most likely be some form of strain relief. If you rip on the cable this thing will dampen the impact and might save your plugs / sockets.

 

BTW, I would recommend a second fold, so the cable doesn't do a 180 degree turn but 360 degree.

 Still makes no logical sense to me.

[HenrySalayne]

Especially for headphones this can make sense. I have a headphone cable with 5 cm of curling just for this reason. If it got catched on something, you don't rip the cable out of the headphones.

 

But maybe somebody has another insight.

[Lurking]

If that black tape isn't very flexible, there won't be a dampening effect like with curled cables. 

 

The second pic shows quite a sharp bend that could break the copper wire. I know, it is stranded and soft. Still not good practice.

 

Is that factory made, or someone just put some DIY electrical tape on?