Why Do We Need Earplugs?
This is a question that has been ignored for too long. You may also ask why you need it now when you have endured not wearing them for a long time. We’re here to tell you that it’s never too late to protect your ears from imminent hearing damage. After working with Dr. Weiss, Director of Bands at the University of South Carolina, as well as with hundreds of musicians at the university, we were able to get to the root cause of why marching band members prefer not to protect their hearing. After spending five years understanding why musicians choose not to wear hearing protection, we approached this problem by enlisting musicians themselves to guide our prototype phase and to help refine our products to match their demands.
After working with Dr. Weiss, Director of Bands at the University of South Carolina, as well as with hundreds of musicians at the university, we were able to get to the root cause of why marching band members prefer not to protect their hearing. By experiencing music through the ears of performers as they choreograph and plan for months before they perform, we concluded that most earplugs on the market simply don’t work for musicians.
Hence, with all the information we have, we developed the best earplugs for marching band members and musicians alike. We patented a solution that will allow you to have total situational awareness while protecting one of your most crucial assets: your hearing.
Protect your students
What We Do
There are thousands of collegiate marching bands in the US alone and countless others around the world; all of whom must have a hearing conservation program. This means that bands must compete to keep their music program alive and fully funded.
With this in mind, we provide schools the most cost-effective means of informing students about the importance of hearing conservation and the tools to protect them from the dangerous decibels they face on a daily basis. The process is straightforward – we visit your school to discuss your goals of hearing conservation for your band and create an individualized plan for your program.
As fellow music lovers, we want to do whatever is possible to safeguard you from hearing damage and to assist you in pursuing your interest in music.
Four Years in the Making
For four years now, we have been working directly with the University of South Carolina, University of Delaware, Michigan State University, and Northern Illinois University. During this time, we have developed and patented our custom marching bands earplugs called The One®. It is our ambition to solve issues that musicians have regarding wearing hearing protection.
We found out that the major problem is the lack of adequate hearing protection for musicians especially while practicing for prolonged periods of time. Even band directors and other staff who OSHA requires to wear hearing protection do not wear them as they claim to not be able to fully hear the music, tonality, color, and to completely have situational awareness while playing. The heartbreaking result of our findings is that 60% of all incoming freshmen have ringing in their ears and 70% have noise-induced hearing damage.
Until now, it had been impossible for them to protect their hearing while doing their job. With our customized products, having possible long-term hearing problems is now preventable.
Incoming USC freshman video
If USC is performing hearing tests for their students, shouldn’t your school too?
Marching Band Drum Warm-ups
MSU Snair Drum Warm-Ups
How The One® Works
Customized Filtered Earplugs
How to change the main filter of The One®
Dr.Tonya Mitchell, USC:
A review on the performance of her hearing protection
Testimonials from Marching Band Members
Chase Banks, USC
Brian Mulburg, Baritone in the MSU Marching Band
Kelsie Montgomery, Trumpet in the MSU Marching Band
Jake Walker, Drum Major on Trumpet






Big Ear®
Big Ear Inc
Big Ear®
Big Ear Inc®