Loop’s quiet revolution: design-conscious earplugs that really work

‘We empower people to choose how to hear the world,’ says Maarten Bodewes, co-founder of Loop, the Belgian brand that is rapidly making earplugs ‘cool’ in its mission to protect our hearing. ‘For some that's hearing protection at a festival. For other people, it's being able to sleep quietly when you're beside a busy street. It goes from the loud side of life to the quiet side of life.’

Having tried Loop earplugs at a Formula One event last year, and used various iterations since for focused work time, evenings in the pub, and sleep, this tiny but mighty piece of ‘earwear’ is set to be my wellbeing companion of choice for 2025. It offers simple, effective, noise-filtering ear protection in a neat, design-conscious package.

The entirely analogue, injection-moulded earplugs rely on a signature plastic ‘loop’ element that sits snugly in the outer ear, a series of integral filters, and a soft, silicon tip. Sound enters through a tiny hole in the loop and is filtered out or blocked to varying degrees depending on the model, each tailored and fine-tuned for a different use.

Loop earplugs, a quiet revolution

The brand launched back in 2016, after engineers and longstanding friends Maarten Bodewes and Dimitri O – who had ‘always loved all things loud’ – experienced tinnitus following a night out during which ‘we were probably standing a little bit too close to the speakers for a little bit too long’, recalls Bodewes. The ringing in the ears lasted several weeks ‘and we started asking, why don't more people wear earplugs?’

The health benefits are clear. Loop cites a World Health Organization report that 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices, and notes a risk of hearing damage when exposed to sounds of 100 decibels for just 15 minutes without protection – festivals, it states, can be around 97 decibels, nightclubs 100 decibels, and rock concerts 104

But for Bodewes and O, it was apparent that the earplug options of the time were both naff and somewhat lacking. ‘There was a kind of stigma; it was not cool to wear earplugs, because back then earplugs were those ugly foamies, or those “Christmas trees”.’ The other problem was the lack of an effective product. ‘We would go to a festival or concert [with regular earplugs], and we didn't feel the music came through very well. It was distorted, and the experience was not always very comfortable, because [the earplugs had], for example, these triple flanges that would go quite deep in your ear.’

The pair set about developing and launching their own earplugs, ‘something that looks great, sounds great, and is super comfortable’, with the initial product focused on nightlife. ‘And that went quite well. That was our core use case until coronavirus; of course, during the pandemic, all the parties and festivals were gone, so we had a big dip [in sales]. And then we asked, why do [some] of our customers still wear earplugs? And that's when we heard of all these different use cases, like motorcycling race events, concentration and focus time, sleep, noise sensitivity. And that's where we’ve had a very big boost in the past few years, by going broader and by helping more people with noise.’

Today, having sold more than eight million of its broadened product range worldwide, Loop appears to be on to a winner. The brand was named No 1 in the design category of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 for ‘designing ear protection people want to wear’; and past accolades include a Red Dot Most Life Enhancing Object award for the Loop Engage earplug in 2022.

The earplugs: choose your sound level and colour

Available in an increasing array of colours, finishes and variations, the core range – all in a version ‘2’ iteration thanks to continuous innovation and improvements – comprises the Experience 2 model, designed for nightlife, festivals and other live events, offering up to 17 decibels of noise reduction without impacting sound quality, so perfect for music fans; Engage 2, for social situations such as restaurants, which provides 16 decibels of noise reduction, effectively turning down the background hubbub a little while allowing conversation; and Quiet 2, in soft-touch silicone, which has a closed tip and provides up to 24 decibels of noise reduction, making it useful for zoning out during work or travel (or nodding off). Each of these models also comes in a ‘2 Plus' version, which adds another 3 decibels of optional filtering in the form of a removable ‘Mute’ accessory or, in the case of Quiet 2 Plus, double tips.

A new, Dream model was recently introduced, specifically for sleep, with ​​27 decibels of noise reduction and designed with increased comfort in mind (which sounds promising; I’ve slept with the Quiet 2 earplugs and they were comfy enough for me to fall asleep on my side, stayed in all night, but I could feel the earplug on the side I’d slept on by morning).

The most flexible model comes in the form of Switch 2, a three-in-one design that lets you switch between Engage, Experience and Quiet modes by turning a control on the earplug’s loop. ‘You turn a wheel and, mechanically, there are different filters that turn in front of each other to give a different acoustic experience,’ says Bodewes.

‘When you go to the Quiet setting, it blocks the entire channel so no sound comes through. When you go to the Experience setting, you combine a filter and a membrane, which makes sure that the bass and the highs are reduced equally. And the Engage setting uses only a mesh, which gives less noise reduction, especially in the lower frequencies, which [means] the sound of your own voice [is also clearer].’

All models come with a set of variously sized, wipe-clean tips, a compact, pocketable case and clear instructions.

From the stands at Silverstone as Lewis Hamilton sped to victory in the British Grand Prix last summer, both Experience 2 and Switch worked for me, taking the edge off the overwhelming roar (a quick Google tells me F1 can be up to 140 decibels, eek) but not cutting me off from the still-considerable thrum, nor from my teenage companion, with whom I could talk normally the whole time. Once I’d tried the earplugs during the day’s earlier races, I couldn’t contemplate going without them for those that followed. Alas, with the nonchalance of youth, my companion took his earplugs out for the final race and insisted he was ‘fine’ – perfectly illustrating the challenge for Loop in its ongoing bid to convince all generations to save their own ears.

What’s next for Loop?

‘There's a lot of ambition and we're investing a lot,’ says Bodewes, ‘in products, engineers, and people from the design perspective, so that team is growing. There's a lot of cool projects in the pipeline. From the style side, we're going to continue doing cool releases, limited editions, and accessories that make [the range] more like earwear.’

Whatever emerges next, we’re all ears.

loopearplugs.com