Show HN: I made earrings that work like earphones | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I made earrings that work like earphones

tiktok.com

29 pointsAurum19724 comments

I had shared this update here a few months ago, and received great feedback. Since then we had some positive news: the BBC reviewed our earrings online. The requests for our earrings are pouring in. We launched on TikTok last month, and hit 10K followers in under 3 weeks. Organically. We know we have a product that customers are eager to get.

And yet... we have discovered that it's true what they say: hardware is hard. More than that: it's expensive.

> hardware is hard. More than that: it's expensive.

Then you need to rethink your business segment / model - pivot into the fashion industry. There's a huge international market of mid-to-high net worth individuals who don't mind shelling out a huge amount for something "fashionable". The markup in retail fashion segments are insane. But people are willing to pay that "extra" because they believe they are also paying for something "artistic" too.

Apple understands this and that is why they have hired many from the fashion industry:

- Fashionably Apple: Who is Angela Ahrendts - and why is Apple hiring fashion execs? - https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets/news/apple/123992-fashio...

- Apple hires Paul Deneve of French fashion house YSL [u] - https://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/02/apple-rumored-to-...

The whole "luxury-watch" segment (dominated by swiss watches) is another example of successfully making more by marketing something as a fashion accessory, than a tech product.

(If you are interested in consulting someone knowledgeable in this field, I know somebody who has 10+ years of experience in fashion retail and used to run and manage many popular western retail brands in the whole of middle-east. Please provide your contact details and I can refer them to you.)

Thanks! We will definitely keep your offer in mind. Our issue, though, is not the market. There is a lot of demand! And we just got nominated for a design excellence award by the Accessories Council.

You have created something very neat and useful and I am not surprised there is a demand (though I would be interested to see if it sustains itself when you reveal your pricing, and whether you can be profitable with it). Congrats on the recognition (the award) - it seems well deserved. I hope the product and business are a big success.

It looks very interesting, but I personally wouldn't buy such earphones as I never saw it as a problem. However, numbers talk by themselves so I wish you good luck in that!

Thanks. We think users will have a collection of earphones: different ones for different occasions: one for the gym, one for a work lunch, one for an evening party…

Do they only come in the shape and size im seeing in all the pictures?

The audio module is swappable between earrings. Our plan is to add new styles on an ongoing basis!

Can someone please share a non tiktok link to the product? Cannot access tiktok in India.

Here you go

https://peripherii.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRBrEvgrweI

Sorry, I’d forgotten about that! But the community obliged!

Just watched the movie on your website: Don’t you have too many use cases? I can sense that maybe not everybody wants to fumble on their earrings with for example dirty hands while cooking or ordering an uber by speaking to their ear…

I’ve been a fan of smart watches and kickstarters but some tried to cover every segment and every use cases that lead them to fail. Maybe worth determining where you have a real fit: Fashion, sports, everyday usage, or simply people that want to leave the phone at home…

What do you think?

> Don’t you have too many use cases?

I didn't feel that at all (ofcourse, I watched this youtube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRBrEvgrweI - to learn about the product, as TikTok is blocked in my country) - they are not showing anything people already don't do with their bluetooth ear-pieces. And it makes sense to show case many use cases because people will be attracted to the product only if the use case they desire is possible with this device. Moreover, advertisement are also meant to educate the user, especially when the technology is new / unique / different. (The medium of advertisement also matters - since TikTok videos are known for their brevity, it would make sense to release many videos on TikTok highlighting different use cases).

That was our thought process as well. Many users don’t even realize the capabilities of smart assistants!

Well, different users will want different use cases. We tried to show the range.

I agree about trying to cram too many features into a product. That doesn’t work. What we are trying to do is show how to use an available feature -smart assistants - in different ways.

Next upgrade: a mic and accelerometer so I can talk with Jane.

I thought it already had a mic?

It does!

It does have a mic. We are conflicted about the accelerometer for our next iteration.

I had these in my imagination 40 years ago.

Any hardware entrepreneurs here?

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