Normal earbuds aren’t so normal!
First instance of true, mass-market personalized manufacturing?
First instance of true, mass-market personalized manufacturing?
I was on a flight from SFO to JFK (VX, of course). A rather successful and well-known NYC venture capitalist popped out of the bathroom in front of me. We got to talking like VCs do, about what is new and interesting. He said, “Have you heard of Normal? They have a store right near where I live, but I never see anyone in it.”
The Normal store, inside out, with Yoshi and CTO James in front of the counter. The offices and factory are behind glass behind the count.
A retail store called Normal that never has anyone in it? I had to check it out. What I found was one of the most intriguing businesses I’ve seen along the way. You don’t need to go to the store because, of course, there’s an app for that (IOS and Android). Whether in app or in store, you use a smartphone to take pictures of your ears so that Normal can manufacture a unique set of earbuds for you, form fitted to your particular ear shape. (Yup, little bit of magic in that simple idea.)
The first thing I learned in the Normal store is that ears are complex, weird structures that are just as unique to each human being as a fingerprint (and each side different from the other in subtle ways). That’s why, on average, most mass-produced earbuds barely fit, no matter how flexible or otherwise adaptable they are designed to be. I know this from personal experience, since I’ve had at least three dozen earbuds since I started using mobile phones; half of those, those goddamned white plastic earbuds that Apple hands out like candy with its mobile devices and always fall out of my ears. (Comhear, in which I’ve made a personal investment, has developed a new material called EarPuff, which promises to solve this problem without personalization, but it will take time for earbud makers to adopt the technology and integrate it into their products.)
My current favorite is the Sony XBA4IP earbuds, which have four drivers (teeny weeny little speakers inside the earbuds) and sound like you have a concert hall inside your head. But they are expensive, $360 a pair. And I lose them! So far, I’ve lost three pairs, which gets kind of expensive. I can go on about earbuds: the number of drivers, the acoustical profile, the original quality of the audio, blah blah. Back to Normal. (I’m getting to like the name.)
Yoshi did my ear-scanning in the store. She told me to hold still for a few seconds, while she stuck colored circles on my ears and took photos using the app. That was on Friday in NYC; on Tuesday in SF, my custom earbuds arrived, snug in a 3D-printed package that only fits my particular earbuds and with my name on the cover, with the color scheme and cords that I chose.
Sorry I didn’t shave that day, but the Normals fit tight, eh?
Yup, they fit snug. And the fit doesn’t have anything to do with the shape of the audio device; instead, Normal uses the metrics it gets from the photos to figure out how 3-D print a shape attached to the audio device that fits right inside the inner circle of your ear. If you have the right fit, it’s pretty hard to dislodge the things.
The audio is great; the CTO of the company went through the blah blah I mentioned above, and basically said that if your earbuds fit and the driver is of sufficient quality, they can get about 80% of the way toward the quality of audio with just one driver that you expect to get from having multiple drivers. I still want a better audio device, but he also indicated that the piece parts snap together so that it is possible to upgrade the audio and keep using the cords. Meanwhile, the company stores your template for earbuds and can always make a new pair with any upgraded audio devices they produce (in the future, if ever).
My Normals snug in their custom bed, with my username stenciled in the cover.
That’s it. I’ve got my custom Normals. I feel good about the transaction, including the fact that there isn’t a pair of Normals in anyone else’s ears that are identical to mine!