2 Utah companies bringing wireless earbud innovation to the world

2 Utah companies bringing wireless earbud innovation to the world

(ELWN)


6 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah companies, Fireflies and ELWN have launched successful Kickstarter campaigns to bring improved wireless earbuds to the world. The companies have been working for years on their products, but just launched this month.

David Baum, co-founder of Fireflies, started work two years ago on their product. There weren’t many earbuds like these, and they weren’t really wireless.

“We saw people at the gym wearing bluetooth earbuds with a wire connecting one ear to another and asked, ‘Why can’t anyone do this? What’s the issue?' ” Baum said.

Bluetooth chip technology has been around since 2011, but Baum said no one had created a true wireless earbud “because of the cost barrier.”

Shaun Alexander, co-founder of ELWN also saw the gap in products, but said what really inspired him and the team was an experience with a military veteran. Alexander was in a meeting where he met a veteran who had a pair of headphones, but was only wearing them in one ear. Alexander asked, "Why just one ear?" and the Purple Heart veteran said he couldn’t fit it in his other ear because of damage during the war.

This got Alexander and his partner Jerry thinking.

“We wanted to make sure our earbuds fit everyone,” Alexander said.

They contacted the factory in China they were working with and asked them to include every earbud tip available for ELWN.

“There are 48 different fit options to ensure that a military vet can listen on his headphones,” Alexander said.

The team at ELWN and Fireflies had focused product development on long battery life and affordability. Both earbuds have similar price points, although a different look. ELWN comes with an infinity band, where you can recharge the earbuds as you wear them. Fireflies advertises its product to be used at the gym, and they are water resistant.

In addition to those similarities, both companies used Kickstarter to fund their product and solicit valuable customer feedback. The results were very successful. Baum said Kickstarter was a last-minute decision for Fireflies but that “it’s worked out great for us.” Both companies have more than met their funding goals.

Alexander said they were surprised at how fast the earbuds sold, but “very grateful . . . it’s been a ton of fun and a huge learning experience for us.”

For more information about the ELWN Kickstarter campaign, click here. For more information about the Fireflies Kickstarter campaign, click here:


![Carrie Rogers-Whitehead](http://img.ksl.com/slc/2585/258536/25853698\.jpg?filter=ksl/65x65)
About the Author: Carrie Rogers-Whitehead \-----------------------------------------

Carrie Rogers-Whitehead is a senior librarian at Salt Lake County Library. In addition, she is an instructor at Salt Lake Community College and CEO and co-founder of Digital Respons-Ability. Carrie can be reached at carrie@respons-ability.net.

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast