Want to protect your hearing at the racetrack while being able to socialize, communicate clearly, and support your favorite Hendrick Motorsports driver?
Insert EAROS into the conversation.
High-fidelity hearing protection is a smart alternative to earplugs that allows you to turn the volume down to a safe level and still enjoy the thrilling sounds of the race. These innovative hearing protectors are designed to reduce noise by 20 decibels, making it easy to chat with friends and soak in the atmosphere, all while proudly showcasing your support for car number 9, 5, 24, and 48.
This is now possible thanks to a licensing agreement between Hendrick Motorsports and EAROS, a New York City-based company specializing in state-of-the-art hearing protection. Additional support was provided by Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, who is also an investor and advisor in EAROS.
For a modest price, NASCAR fans can purchase a pair of No. 9, 5, 24 and 48-branded hearing protectors that reduce the noise level around them by no fewer than 20 decibels without compromising their ability to enjoy the full spectrum of sound frequencies.
That’s especially nice at the race track, where the roar of the engines can cause hearing damage without proper hearing protection but is nevertheless part of the fan experience.
“You see people all the time at the races talking to their friends and they’re pulling each other’s radio off to scream in each other’s ears, or they’re pulling their earplugs out to talk to each other,” said Peter Ragonetti, EAROS’ chief product engineer. “What’s really cool about this product is you don’t have to take it out. You can sit there in the grandstands with cars going by, and you can talk to each other and hear each other.
“There’s still that overall ambient noise, but when you speak directly to someone who is wearing one of these and you’re wearing one, you can have a conversation in a 120-decibel environment comfortably, without screaming at each other.”
Manufactured in New Jersey and all made in America, EAROS Hearing-Protection acoustic filters are designed to be more effective and less easily misplaced than traditional foam earplugs – while being more fashionable and affordable than options that cover the entire ear.
“We were really diligent on functionality and form,” said EAROS founder and CEO Ronnie Madra, who worked closely with MIT acousticians and vibration engineers, a top medical device manufacturer in Upstate New York, Ragonetti, and others over several years to have the EAROS product patented and brought to market.
“It needed to look great, it needed to be packaged well, it needed to work and it needed to really be acceptable – acceptable to an audience that doesn’t wear hearing protection or that wears mostly earplugs.”
EAROS Hearing-Protection professional-grade protection products are available without the Hendrick branding, but for fans of one or more of the Hendrick wheelmen, having a Hendrick driver’s car number featured prominently on their high-quality hearing protection is an added bonus.
“Hendrick’s drivers are some of the best race car drivers in the world, and being able to work with a brand like Hendrick and a company like Hendrick, we think we have the opportunity to sort of say, ‘There’s a hearing-protection option that falls between those $100 big over-ear clunky things and those cheap foam earplugs,’” Ragonetti said.
EAROS’ innovative solution to hearing protection comes in six distinct product lines that include the four limited edition Hendrick Motorsports EAROS SPORT derivatives as well as more non-branded EAROS ONE and EAROS SPORT options.
EAROS products are available at roughly half of all CVS Pharmacy stores nationwide, about 200 Walmart stores and various locations around New York, as well as online at Amazon and the company’s website.
Madra, who began working with Ragonetti in 2015 to develop the EAROS concept, is no stranger to hearing issues from loud noises. A successful nightclub entrepreneur for two decades, Madra suffers from tinnitus – a persistent ringing in the ears – that stems from his days in environments where the decibel level was dangerously high.
“Since I was in the club business, I built this sound system and basically put one of the world’s most powerful sound systems in this 3,500-square-foot-space,” Madra said. “They usually put those in arenas, right? And, I thought that was a cool thing. Everyone loved the fact that, wow, big DJs came and played. … You wanted the right equipment, so we built that.
“And, then we also had inexperienced DJs that would come and play, and they didn’t know how to really use the equipment properly, so they would drive the system and you would get up to 150 decibels. Young ears will tolerate it, but after prolonged exposure, it becomes irreparable damage, and then it becomes a real problem.”
Madra founded EAROS to provide others with the hearing protection he desperately needed during his time as a nightclub operator. The tinnitus he developed from exposure to high volume will never completely go away, although it’s more manageable now than it was many years ago – when it led to some bouts with depression.
“I’ve learned how to find purpose through the pain,” Madra said.
Learn more at earos.com.
