When he was a sophomore in college Michael McCarthy spent a sizeable amount of time running on the treadmill each day to rehab an injury. Every time he got on the treadmill he put his headphones on, turned up Spotify, and put his phone in the cup holder.
The problem he ran into here was one most of us gym-folk are unfortunately familiar with: the cords constantly got in the way. It doesn’t matter if you send your phone flying or only rip the headphone cord out of the jack – it’s dangerous and halts your cardio.
McCarthy could only take so much of this, so he set out to work on a solution to build a disruptive, new type of earbud. Five months later he had a working prototype of the T-Rex earphone.
At its base level the T-Rex earbud is all about ending the fight with your cords and sports an entirely cord-free design. However the team realized that they’d have to build a product that did far more than cutting the cord if they wanted to be successful.
To that end the headphones have employed a magnetic charging technology that’s totally cordless – the earbuds are one hundred percent cordless. There are also intuitive user controls built into the hardware that let you answer calls, up the volume, or pause tracks with a few quick finger swipes. The newest Bluetooth tech also lets it connect to both smartphone and Apple Watch.
Let’s be honest though, all of this would be irrelevant if McCarthy didn’t put effort into developing the actual sound of the T-Rex earbuds. Thankfully, he got a referral to speak with Carl Masters – product designer, engineer, and industry veteran at Martin Logan.
“After explaining my initial idea, Masters was sold and wanted to be the first to create a revolutionary technology,” says McCarthy.
Over ten weeks Masters helped produce 3D prototypes, design the earbuds, and put together the suit of online services T-Rex would need like a landing page, videos, and ultimately an Indiegogo campaign.
When they launched the T-Rex campaign on Indiegogo they were looking for $50,000. Now, they pushed it live about two weeks ago, and with 31 days still left on the clock they’re fully funded. In fact, they’re beyond funded: they’re nearing $70,000. No doubt about it, this one has the potential to be one of Indiegogo’s most well-funded campaigns yet if it keeps this trajectory.
https://youtu.be/MLDyO4JRgTc
Image Credit: T-Rex video
