Shaping
Let's go back...way back.
Our Story
The very first Flare products came to life at our first Flare HQ – a garage in our founders garden. As a small team of three we designed and built our first loudspeakers and provided PA for gigs and festivals. We prepped the kit in the garden under makeshift gazebos and tried not to wake the neighbours when we tested our speakers into the early hours.
It wasn’t long before we ran out of space...
Pro Audio
We spent our early years as a pro audio manufacturer and hire company. Our team of three re-inventing the loudspeaker, drawing praise from music industry luminaries including Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley and producer ‘Flood’ in the process.
Our First Warehouse
Our first warehouse was where things really began to change. We gained two new members to our team – Tom and Tristan (who came to us on work experience and never left) - and had an upgrade on space (but sadly not on facilities). No hot water and non-existent heating meant fingerless gloves were a necessity for a large portion of the year.
Here Comes The Tech
It was here we came up with our first patents and began to focus on reducing resonance (distortion) in our sound producing devices. Our two main developments were...
Space | An anti-resonance compression technology
Vortex | Pressure releasing exhaust technology (our very own ‘infinite baffle’)
A New Ear Era
We wanted to take a sidestep into the consumer audio world and were confident that our technologies could be miniaturised, so in 2015 we launched our first consumer earphone via a crowdfunding campaign.
The success of the campaign propelled us forward and soon after came our Isolate® ear protector raising over £2 million via crowdfunding campaigns.
We have now sold over 300,000 pairs of earplugs across the world and have extended our range of ear protectors to suit a range of needs.
Onwards!
Since then we’ve launched our pro earphone range and our high end recycled loudspeakers (Flare Zero) which have recently been installed in the new Selfridges cinema.
We also launched two new offerings in the slightly more quirky world of in-ear hearing devices that enhance and improve our everyday sound. Calmer and earHD.
earHD® and Calmer®
We had an epiphany in a swimming pool on holiday and realised 'what if our ears are the problem with distortion?!'.
This led to the launch of earHD and Calmer. Calmer is now changing lives for over two million people around the world. This was a shock since both products were originally designed with music in mind.
Tim's Listening Party
Covid-19 sent the whole country into lockdown but luckily for us Tim Burgess (lead singer for The Charlatans) came to the rescue and Tim's Listening Party was born.
Artists would be invited to comment live on a Twitter thread while everyone listened to their big album at the same time. Pretty cool.
We sent a set of our Jet earphones to Tim and together, quickly realised we could do something really great.
We've spent a lot of time in independent music venues both as a pro audio company and as gig goers. It's our time give something back so we decided to donate £5 from every sale of these special earphones to the Music Venue Trust.
To Be Continued...
We now ship to over 186 countries and the Flare family is spreading across the globe. We've gone from a small renegade gang of three working from a garage in a garden to a team of 20 in our warehouse and offices on the South coast.
We're always aiming to develop new and exciting sound technologies that improve, protect and enhance our sonic experience.