Our Story

The Local Story

In 2016, we knew we needed good quality headphones for our kids! Headphones that were sturdy enough to last, not have cords getting constantly tangled and chewed!! And most importantly Headphones that delivered great quality sound without making our kids deaf!

The more we researched, the more we realised how potentially harmful headphones can be if listened for too long a period, at too loud a volume  - we knew in today’s world kids needed headphones, but how could we keep their hearing safe at the same time as providing them what they needed to function in this online world?

Thankfully, we found Puro Sound Labs, volume limiting headphones, keeping young ears safe whilst not limiting the quality of sound, or the fun!! The reviews were great, the headphones looked amazing, they were cool and by all accounts the sound was incredible – we just had to get them!  

BUT because they were out of the United States, the shipping costs were ridiculous! We knew we were not the only people in New Zealand & Australia that cared about our kids hearing, so we had to find a way of getting this product to our kids here in our special part of the world at an affordable price.

Fortunately, the Puro U.S. family also wanted to make sure as many people as possible had the chance to look after their loved one’s hearing, whilst being able to listen to amazing sound. They were more than happy to work together to ensure the headphones could be brought to the Australasian market and protect kids from the damage that can be done to hearing by listening to headphones to loudly for too long. I learnt a lot about Noise Induced Hearing Loss and talked with both Hearing Australia and the National Foundation for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. Both organisations now promote Puro Sound Labs headphones.

In the new normal of online learning and working from home, kids are using headphones more than before. Puro BT2200 headphones block out 82% of ambient noise (we can all be in the same room and be doing our own thing, school, work or relaxing), kids Puro Quiets and Adult Puro Pro Headphones are Active Noise Cancelling (ANC). Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is a growing problem in younger people. We have some articles you can read about NIHL in our blog posts.

So here we are now, Puro NZ/AU an extended family of Puro USA, making sure that as many people as possible, kids and adults, can access these amazing quality headphones - so from our family to yours – HAPPY HEALTHY LISTENING!!   


The Puro Story

Hi! My name is Niki Russell. And I have Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL)….which basically means I’m partially deaf in both ears. And sadly, it is an entirely preventable condition. But unfortunately for me, we didn’t catch it soon enough. The culprit? My headphones. When I was young, I was listening to them too loudly for too long and over time, it damaged my hearing so much that I now can barely hear my friends talking to me from across the dinner table. Scary, huh? Want to know something even scarier? 1-in-5 teens (approaching 1-in-4) will lose their hearing, too. 

 After my parents and I came to grips with the diagnosis, we set out to do something about it. This epidemic shouldn’t be affecting so many kids…but with the prevalence of electronic devices hammering out loud music these days, we knew it would be an uphill battle. We scoured the market for headphones that would adequately address the problem and we realized what was going on….NOBODY was addressing this issue adequately. All we could find was cheap, plastic headphones intended for 3-year olds that would either break after a month of use or poorly measure and protect against NIHL. So, we knew what we had to do. To create the world’s best, safest, highest quality headphones. Thankfully, our founder, Dave Russell (my father), had an idea of how to do this after a career in the electronics industry. 

 So, after countless hours of research, product development, quality testing, and on and on….we’re now rated the world’s best children’s headphones! (Thanks New York Times and Wirecutter!) We’ve created the highest-quality, studio-grade, volume-limiting to 85 dB (the level in which you’re putting your ears in danger) children’s headphones at a price that won’t break the bank. And even better, our headphones are Bluetooth-enabled (no messy, tangled cables), aluminum-bodied (can take a beating from the little ones), enjoy 82% noise isolation (keeps out all the ambient sound), and have the Puro Balanced Response™. Our signature, flat frequency response curve that was developed based on research done by Dr. Sean Olive of the Harman Institute. 

 Just an FYI…Dr. Olive’s research found that optimally tuned headphones should mimic a perfectly tuned listening room (ie. Someone sitting in an acoustically designed home theatre). This minimizes the distortion, still gives you warm bass without being overpowering and allows users to have studio-grade audio quality at lower, safer listening levels (even in noisy environments like airplanes with the noise isolation feature). And we put that technology and brilliant thinking into our Puro headphones. Pretty cool, huh? 

 We’re just a small, family-owned start-up with a very big goal…eliminate preventable Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in the world’s youth. And we’re incredibly proud of our product and our mission. So much so that we fully-guarantee our headphones with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So please, help us get the word out. We’re working with audiologists, schools, non-profits, pediatricians, and retailers. We’re sold all over the world on Amazon.com and through our website www.purosound.com. But we need you! If you tell your friends, family, teachers, loved ones about this epidemic then maybe one day, no other children will suffer from NIHL as I have. 

 Thank you so much for reading our story. 

 -Niki

 

Mission Statement

Puro Sound Labs is dedicated to fighting the growing epidemic of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss by providing healthy, affordable, high-quality products that protect our consumers hearing.

Vision Statements

  • A Puro headphone set in every child’s hands.
  • A drastic reduction in the percentage of children and adults suffering from Noise-Induced Hearing Loss.
  • To forever disrupt the headphone industry, with affordable, superior-quality, safe headphones for children

Core Company Values

  • Family First – To us, our business is personal. We started the company to protect our families. And now we work every day with our families to make this company great.
  • Social Responsibility – Our products not only provide consumers a unique solution to a growing epidemic, but we go one step further by donating a portion of the proceeds of each sale to hearing loss research.
  • Highest Quality – Our products are made with the highest quality design and sound standards ensuring a perfect (and healthy) listening experience for our customers.
  • Top-Notch Service – We provide industry-leading guarantee programs combined with highly responsive and accessible support staff to drive complete customer satisfaction.
  • Having Fun – Driving positive social change makes our jobs fun. And that kind of environment drives the deep levels of respect, passion, and teamwork among our teams.
  • Staying Aggressive – We will be relentless in our pursuit of reducing the impact of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss around the world. And we will be tireless in developing new products and technologies to bring a better solution to our customers.
  • Creating Partnership – We will constantly seek out business and customer partners to enhance our exposure and build a powerful, broad-reaching network among those dedicated to fighting the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss epidemic.