For decades, ear protection came in the form of foam plugs tucked away in a corner of the pharmacy aisle.

But friends Bob Verlaat and Nick Nijhof saw an opportunity to give the category a fashionable makeover with their own brand, Hears. It was a shrewd bet. Launched in 2024, the business generated US$20 million in sales in its first year, and the founders are now looking to build on that momentum with a marketing and product strategy designed to appeal to millennials and Gen Z.

That plan has also involved rethinking when and how the plugs are sold. A collaboration with German soccer club Bayern Munich, for example, has brought Hears to stadium crowds, while a deal with the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong has put its products within easy reach of guests struggling to sleep through the city’s sirens. In fact, they’ve even worked with French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, with the resulting collaboration selling out repeatedly.

Inside Retail spoke to Verlaat and Nijhof about turning an everyday necessity into a fashion accessory, their unconventional approach to reaching customers and what comes next for the brand.

Bob Verlaat: We both have an innate entrepreneurial spirit and an eye for building brands. In our early 20s, we loved to party and frequently went to music festivals and concerts. We both got hearing damage after listening to loud sounds without protecting our hearing, and it led us to question why we didn’t wear earplugs.

They were the solution to staying protected from noise-induced hearing damage, but they felt outdated, stigmatised and uncomfortable, and every brand we tried muffled the sound so we couldn’t enjoy the experience or talk with the friends next to us.

Source link