Scan Magazine | Design Profile | Happy Ears
Turn down the volume and listen In a world of constant noise, we should all be able to enjoy our everyday life. Now there is salvation in the form of earplugs that protect ears and hearing without blocking out necessary sound – for happy ears. By Malin Norman | Photos: Happy Ears Press
Stockholm-based brand Happy Ears is protecting ears so that consumers can continue to work, chat, travel, sleep undisturbed, and do all the other things we do – without constant surrounding noise. The Happy Ears earplugs are made from the best possible materials using the latest technology. The result is a comfortable, great-looking and award-winning product. Set up in 2012 by Karl Berglund and Jukka Viitasara, Happy Ears strives to offer an innovative, user-friendly and authentic product for the people. “Earplugs on the market at that time were out-of-date and boring, targeting either industry workers or high-end consumers,” says Berglund. “In comparison, we could see that headphones had become a trendy lifestyle product, and we want20 | Issue 108 | January 2018
ed to both raise awareness and improve the style of earplugs in a similar way.”
World’s best sound According to the World Health Organization (WHO), excessive noise can seriously harm health and interfere with daily activities. It can also disturb sleep – as many as one third of Europeans sleep badly due to noise – and reduce performance, increase risk of heart disease and diabetes, and provoke changes in behaviour. A report by Hörselskadades Riksförbund (HRF) states that four million Swedes are disturbed by noise. Happy Ears can help. Thanks to attenuation of low, mid and high frequencies with an average attenuation of 25 decibels, these earplugs offer the world’s best sound. While ordinary earplugs of-
ten give a tin-like feeling and keep out all sounds, Happy Ears provides the same protection but without that confined feeling. Filtering harmful noise while maintaining good sound quality, these stylish earplugs are also comfortable, discrete and re-usable. This is no simple creation, however, as it took the founders three years of product development, including collaboration with an expert in the production of industry earplugs, to design it. The state-of-theart earplugs are made in Sweden from an FDA-approved clear thermo plastic that is medically approved, CE-certified and allergy tested. They come in sizes small, medium and large, and are delivered with a case for easy re-use.
Partnering with music From the outset, the entrepreneurs have teamed up with the music industry, which seems to have a good understanding of the benefits of high-quality earplugs. In fact, Happy Ears has the same smooth attenuation as professional music earplugs.