You’re entrance row to your favourite artist. The lights flash and the bass reverberates by your physique all night time lengthy. After the present is over, the adrenaline wears off, however one thing else lingers—a high-pitched ringing that definitely wasn’t a part of the set. You sweep it off and the ringing fades the subsequent day. However what if it didn’t?
That’s the query Maarten Bodewes—co-founder of Loop Earplugs—discovered himself asking after an evening out throughout school practically seventeen years in the past. He stood too near a speaker and ended up with tinnitus (the notion of ringing, buzzing, or different phantom sounds within the ears) for weeks. That second grew to become the catalyst for Loop, a listening to safety model that’s now bought over 11 million earplugs throughout 150 international locations.
All these years in the past, Loop was simply an thought born of ache. It was a wake-up name for Bodewes, not nearly listening to harm, however concerning the lack of listening to safety choices. He started testing all of the earplugs obtainable on the time, however they have been “ugly foamies or awkward clear ones that caught out of your ears,” Bodewes instructed EDM.com. They have been uncomfortable, distorted the music, and worst of all, made wearers really feel like they didn’t belong within the room. “Individuals gown as much as exit,” he mentioned. “Nobody desires to spoil their look with one thing clunky protruding of their head.”
The statistics are sobering. The World Health Organization estimates that around 1.1 billion young people are prone to listening to loss from unsafe listening practices at concert events and festivals. Plus, a 2023 EDM.com poll discovered that almost half of music pageant attendees don’t put on ear safety.
Some really feel earplugs will spoil the music. For others, the post-show ringing within the ears is a part of the expertise. A short lived buzz, perhaps even a badge of honor. However audiologists and researchers say that sensation—referred to in the scientific community as a “temporary threshold shift”—is definitely your ears begging for assist. This sensation generally impacts artists as effectively. Martin Garrix and Alesso have each spoken publicly concerning the affect of tinnitus on their careers.
A part of the issue is that folks don’t understand how shortly the harm can set in. Publicity to excessive volumes, even briefly, can have long-term penalties. To make it worse, the ears don’t have ache receptors, so in contrast to a lower or burn, listening to harm doesn’t set off instant bodily ache. By the point the ringing or muffled listening to kicks in, the hurt might already be achieved.
According to the National Institutes of Health, listening to loss can start at simply 85 decibels (dB). The common digital music live performance clocks in at 100–112 dB, with front-row levels often spiking to 120 dB or higher. That’s greater than sufficient to trigger everlasting harm in underneath quarter-hour. Publicity to these sound ranges overstimulates delicate hair cells within the inside ear, that are the microscopic buildings answerable for translating vibrations into sound alerts. As soon as broken, they can not develop again. This ends in long-term listening to loss, tinnitus, and elevated sensitivity to noise over time.
These dangers propelled Bodewes to sketch a distinct imaginative and prescient for earplugs. He believed listening to safety needs to be much less of a compromise and extra of an adjunct. “I like every part that is loud, whether or not that is festivals, concert events, quick vehicles or bikes,” Bodewes described his ardour for sound. He wrote his school thesis on reinventing earplugs, and whereas holding a day job at Microsoft, spent nights and weekends making an attempt to create a brand new kind of earplug with longtime good friend Dimitri O.
In 2016, they launched Loop’s prototype and pitched it to a Belgian startup accelerator. After getting accepted, Bodewes instantly stop his job and poured all his financial savings into Loop. Going all in like that was powerful however needed. “I am not very threat averse. If I drive a motorbike, I drive all out, if I play poker, I am going all in very often,” Bodewes mentioned about ditching stability to pursue his ardour. “If you wish to resolve an issue that you simply face personally, you are very motivated, it’s not about earning profits.”
The early Loops have been 3D printed and spray-painted by hand in Bodewes’ yard. They have been bought principally to family and friends. By word-of-mouth and a rising fame for high quality, Loop began gaining traction.
As momentum constructed, Loop doubled down on the scene that impressed it within the first place—nightlife. “We at all times went to festivals and Tomorrowland was simply 10 kilometers from the place we lived,” Bodewes shared about his private connection to bounce music. He describes his tastes as “100% digital music.” At dwelling, Bodewes enjoys listening to Lane 8’s seasonal mixtapes and different melodic home artists like Ben Böhmer. He additionally recounts Pete Tong, Swedish Mafia, and deadmau5 as a few of his favourite reside performances. He even named their web site loopnightlife.com and signed emails off as “Nightlife Evangelist.”
Bodewes’ enthusiasm and understanding of the digital music neighborhood impressed him to place Loop in a different way than different earplugs. The product was marketed as liberation as a substitute of safety, want as a substitute of guilt. “Different manufacturers mentioned, ‘It’s too loud, defend your self,’” he identified. “However our message was, ‘go entrance row.’”
Loop’s mindset resonated with ravers and club-goers who had grown uninterested in selecting between their listening to and the music. “If you happen to put on earplugs, you’ll be able to exit longer and be nearer to the stage,” Bodewes emphasised about Loop’s mantra. “It is extra comfy and also you go dwelling with no beep in your ears.”
Whereas most earplugs sacrifice sound high quality for cover, Loop got down to do each with out compromise. Conventional foam plugs usually distort the listening expertise, muffling music and slicing off sure frequencies totally. The end result feels such as you’re listening to the present by a wall.
Loop’s strategy was totally different. They engineered and patented a round acoustic channel—roughly the size and curve of the human ear canal—to scale back quantity with out degrading readability. Paired with a precision mesh filter, this setup helps protect the total frequency vary of sound by filtering sound waves fairly than blocking them, so you continue to really feel the bass and listen to the highs, simply at a safer, extra sustainable stage.
Analysis backs up what Loop gives. A randomized controlled trial published in JAMA Otolaryngology discovered that concertgoers sporting earplugs skilled considerably much less listening to loss and tinnitus than those that didn’t.
Ear safety is changing into a part of rave tradition’s uniform. And with manufacturers like Loop main the best way, the message is evident: you don’t have to decide on between listening to your favourite drop now and with the ability to hear it once more 5 years later.
However nice sound isn’t sufficient. If earplugs aren’t comfy, nobody would maintain them in lengthy sufficient to forestall listening to harm. Most earplugs are a one-size-fits-none state of affairs. They both slip out mid-set or dig into your ear canal after an hour.
Loop prototyped dozens of designs to repair that. They examined totally different insertion angles, canal lengths, and tip supplies utilizing digital dummy heads and 3D-printed mockups. The ultimate end result was a system of soft-touch, food-grade silicone ear suggestions that are available a number of sizes, paired with an ergonomic loop-shaped shell that evenly distributes stress. This design doesn’t simply make the earplugs extra comfy, it retains them secure throughout motion, essential for if you’re dancing at a music pageant.
The improved match additionally helps cut back the occlusion impact—the irritating phenomenon the place one’s voice or footsteps sound oddly amplified if you block your ears. By minimizing this, Loop earplugs really feel extra pure and breathable. You overlook you are sporting them.
Fixing consolation and sound was crucial, however making folks need to put on earplugs meant getting the design proper as effectively. Most earplugs in the marketplace appeared disposable. They have been foam sticks or translucent cones you hoped nobody observed. You wore them despite how they appeared.
Loop wished to flip that. The objective wasn’t simply to make earplugs much less ugly; Bodewes wished them to really feel like jewellery. “Generally I evaluate earplugs to sun shades,” he mentioned. “They began as useful instruments for pilots, now they’re a vogue staple.” That very same logic drove Loop’s strategy. Their signature round design is fashion-forward. It does not scream listening to safety. As a substitute, it’s modern and expressive.
Colorways performed an enormous position in Loop’s kind issue as effectively. Bodewes noticed earplugs as an extension of id. From delicate neutrals to reflective metallics, Loop gives choices that work along with your outfit, not in opposition to it. Restricted-edition collaborations, seasonal drops, and soft-touch finishes helped place the model not simply as a instrument however as a life-style accent and type of self-expression.
In 2019, the New York Occasions named Loop the perfect earplug for concert events. “That gave us a extremely good increase,” Bodewes famous. “We expanded into retail, partnering with chains like CVS within the USA and Saturn in Europe, and have become worthwhile by the tip of 2019.” However progress got here with new challenges. “To start with, we thought we might scale 3D printing all the best way, however in case you do actually excessive volumes, that is troublesome.” Bodewes shared. “After we moved to injection molding, the primary run got here again with warped plastic and we needed to fly to China and repair the merchandise by hand.”
Loop overcame these early hurdles and located its footing, scaling shortly and reaching a broader viewers quicker than they ever anticipated. “Fifty to sixty % of our prospects by no means purchased earplugs earlier than,” Bodewes revealed. “We’re creating that class as we go.”
One milestone nonetheless loomed giant, bringing the model to Tomorrowland. “It was in our minds from the very begin,” Bodewes affirmed. “We went to Tomorrowland, even when it was small, and had a private motivation to see our product at that pageant.”
It took nearly 5 years of progress, iteration, and relentless pitching to make it occur. “We needed to be grown up sufficient to work with them,” Bodewes defined, referring to the extent of product polish, model maturity, and advertising muscle required to companion with arguably probably the most prolific digital music pageant on the planet.
Loop’s first official partnership with Tomorrowland launched in 2022. However it wasn’t only a sponsorship. Loop created customized earplugs particularly for the pageant, even adjusting the carry case, packaging, and equipment to match the Tomorrowland aesthetic. The limited-edition earplugs featured a gold-accented ring and the phrases “Reside, Love, Unite”—a nod to the pageant’s iconic slogan. The case was designed to resemble a compass, symbolizing sound as a information.
Now, with the 2025 version of Tomorrowland across the nook, Loop is coming into its fourth 12 months partnering with the pageant.
This 12 months, Loop has hit one other milestone. They grew to become Coachella’s first official earplug companion. To mark the event, the Loop launched customized earplugs that includes a desert-sunset gradient, bought on-site on the pageant grounds and on-line.
Loop has additionally ventured outdoors the music world, partnering with McLaren Racing earlier this 12 months. These earplugs featured the crew’s signature papaya orange and carbon black whereas spotlighting Loop’s most superior mannequin but, the Swap 2. Not like conventional earplugs, which supply a single stage of noise discount, the Swap 2 lets customers toggle between three distinct modes—”Quiet,” “Expertise,” and “Interact”—with a discreet rotating dial constructed into the ring. It’s a design that mirrors the McLaren ethos: precision, management, and adaptableness.
What began as a distinct segment product has now change into a part of the tradition. “To start with, it was a recreation for us to search out the primary individual sporting Loops out within the open,” Bodewes beamed. “Now, you go to the entrance row of a pageant and everybody’s sporting them. It’s actually cool to see that shift.”
That form of world visibility might sound inevitable now, however a couple of years in the past, Loop practically misplaced every part. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, nightlife shut down in a single day, and so did Loop’s core buyer base. “Our income dropped nearly 90 % in simply two weeks,” Bodewes recalled. “No extra festivals, no extra going out, and retail stopped ordering totally.”
It was a make-or-break second. As a substitute of ready it out, Loop tailored. They pivoted to a completely direct-to-consumer mannequin. Individuals caught at dwelling—dad and mom, college students, distant employees—began shopping for Loop earplugs not for events, however for peace and quiet. Others turned to Loop for assist with overstimulation, sensory processing, or higher sleep.
That wave of surprising demand led to the discharge of Loop Quiet, earplugs constructed for calm. Designed with soft-touch supplies and optimized for lengthy put on, it helped reposition the model past nightlife. The messaging developed as effectively. They shifted their tagline from “Shield your ears in type” to a extra inclusive ethos, “Your life, your quantity.”
This wasn’t only a intelligent rebrand. It was a survival technique that unlocked new audiences and use instances, ones that now make up a major share of Loop’s progress as we speak. “We now ask ourselves how we are able to empower folks to reside absolutely whether or not they need to go loud at a pageant, focus through the day in a busy workplace, or sleep on a airplane,” Bodewes acknowledged.
Orders began pouring in from folks craving focus, calm, or just much less noise—dad and mom in loud houses, overwhelmed college students, distant employees in shared areas, and lightweight sleepers in want of relaxation. A very significant wave of customers got here from the neurodivergent neighborhood—folks with autism, ADHD, sensory sensitivity, or nervousness. For many who expertise auditory overload, even routine environments can really feel like an assault. Loop supplied a technique to soften the perimeters of the world and switch the quantity down with out shutting every part out.
“After we began Loop, we did not consider with the ability to assist like this,” Bodewes marveled. “Now, once we hear tales about the way it helps folks stroll round, be at household occasions, be within the classroom, and keep extra calm, it touches our crew quite a bit.”
What started as a rave accent has developed right into a instrument for on a regular basis resilience. Loop isn’t simply serving to folks hear higher—it’s serving to them really feel safer, calmer, and extra comfortable in their very own lives.
Wanting forward, the corporate is increasing into new classes and audiences. “We’re engaged on 4 or 5 new merchandise, some within the listening to house, some past,” Bodewes revealed. “We’re going to make use of electronics and superior tech and there is going to be a whole lot of cool new collaborations coming in sports activities and vogue too.” Loop is now not a scrappy startup. It has 300 staff and places of work in Antwerp, Belgium, in addition to Amsterdam, New York Metropolis, and Shanghai.
“We’re nonetheless constructing for that 10% although,” Bodewes emphasised, referencing the early days when 90% of individuals thought nobody would purchase fashion-forward earplugs. “Generally our concepts might break up opinion however we have now to belief our intestine.”
For Bodewes, the objective remains to be the identical because it was nearly 20 years in the past: give folks management over how they expertise the world, whether or not which means turning it down or tuning again in.
