Olive Union is a South Korean hearing aid maker on a mission to build high-quality, fashion-forward hearing aids at the lowest possible cost. At last week’s CES consumer electronics conference, we learned it will enter the U.S. market with its new Olive hearing aids through an exclusive distribution deal with the NationsHearing network of hearing healthcare providers.
Olive Union CEO Owen Song founded the company in 2016 after studying architectural design at Samsung Art and Design Institute, the Rhode Island School of Design and Columbia University. He decided to launch the startup after a relative with hearing loss tried and failed to find a hearing aid that provided enough hearing enhancement at an affordable cost.
“A decent hearing aid today costs around $2,000, and high-end devices can go for $6,000 or more” Song says in a video on the company’s Indiegogo fundraising campaign page. “The impairment when it comes to hearing is not physical—it’s financial.”
Attractive Design, High Performance, Low Cost
Song added that because most hearing aids are made to look like medical prosthetics rather than fashion accessories, they needlessly deter younger consumers. So the company made its Olive hearing aids look more like the popular wireless sport earbuds that are now ubiquitous at athletic clubs.
The Olive hearing aids are Bluetooth-enabled for listening to music and making and receiving phone calls. And a smartphone app enables individualized hearing screening and adjustment of personal hearing profiles. Because they are FDA-registered hearing aids, any audiologist or hearing aid dispenser can program and sell them.
Equally important, Olive Union focused its design and development on the lowest possible cost. Its Indiegogo campaign set a goal for a $100 price point for its hearing aid, an order of magnitude lower than many hearing aids with comparable features and performance.
That astoundingly low price may not carry over into the U.S. market, especially after resale by the NationsHearing network of audiologists and hearing aid dispensers. But it does give NationsHearing, which provides its network with numerous brands of premium hearing aids, a lower-cost solution for increasingly price-sensitive consumers.