Standing behind a clear jar filled to the brim with earplugs is Jack Billeaud.
Just minutes before he’s supposed to pick up his drumsticks, sets of college-aged concertgoers rush past, weaving their way through D3 Arts, a Denver concert venue. Their eyes meet his before lowering to the jar: “Free.” Not a familiar word, but every college student’s favorite.
Hands reach for the jar. Not a second thought is given as the set of plugs slip into their ears, muffling the world around them.
By the end of the night, the jar is empty. The corners of Billeaud’s lips curve upwards, a glint of pride now in his eyes. He’s made a difference tonight.
The 22-year-old marketing student at DU has donated over 10,000 pairs of earplugs in the last year. This is just the start.
Soon, Billeaud’s invention “Stik Buds,” an earplug carrying case brought into existence to prevent losing a musician’s hearing protection, will be on the market.
It started as a faint ringing.
After playing for his high school’s jazz band, he craved one thing — silence. That’s when he noticed the noise.
“Being in that environment, without earplugs, that led to my tinnitus starting,” Billeaud said.
When he entered college the music he played only got louder. He knew the importance of ear protection but would constantly find himself without plugs.
“I would lose them, they wouldn’t be in my backpack, and then I’d run out,” said Billeaud.
That’s when he created what he called his “Stik Buds.” Made from an old earplug case, duct tape and a piece of velcro. The creation attached his plugs to his drumsticks, making them easily accessible when he needed them most.
His Tinnitus had only worsened with time, leaving him to wonder if things would be different had his invention been created sooner.
Instead of dwelling on the past, he saw the case fastened to his sticks as an opportunity, a chance to prevent the hearing damage he experiences from happening to others.
In the fall of 2022, Billeaud presented his idea in DU’s Entrepreneurship Week Pitch Competition. He won the competition, taking home a grant and kickstarting a movement to educate people on hearing damage and make earplugs more accessible.
“The competition was all I needed to get to the point I’ve gotten to now,” Billeaud said.
Winning was a step forward; the next challenge was finding the time to create and further develop his product.
In the spring of 2023, Billeaud was a part of the DU band Thneed. They liked to play loud, experiencing each layer of noise at maximum volume. After rehearsal, Billeaud noticed the ringing was now accompanied by a new sensation — pain.
Rarely are people exposed to sounds loud enough to create pain. The roar of a jet engine, the pop of a firework or the piercing sound of a fire truck siren aren’t sounds you hear daily. On the off chance you do, the ache is fleeting.
It wasn’t until June of 2023 that Billeaud discovered the sensation he felt that day was Hyperacusis, a rare disorder that makes everyday noise extremely painful.
“I was in absolute shambles, I felt like I couldn’t do anything,” Billeaud said. “The sound of a running faucet, a professor’s voice, my girlfriend laughing a little too loud. Everything hurts so bad.”
It wasn’t just physical pain he felt, but emotional pain caused by losing the things he loved most. Billeaud had to leave Thneed, stop recording an album and couldn’t drum for the next year. The worst part was, it was preventable.
Without music as an outlet, Billeaud committed himself fully to the development of Stik Buds.
He started in the DU woodshop developing hundreds of prototype cases by hand. He soon realized he couldn’t do it all within the shop. Adam Schwartz, a mechanical engineer at the Colorado School of Mines, helped Billeaud in 3D printing his prototypes.
The case is designed so any musician or concertgoer can easily access and keep track of their earplugs. Billeud’s only way to know if they worked, was to have friends and musicians test them.
With each test, Billeud learned something new. Constantly going back to the drawing board, adjusting and retesting has led him to where he is today.
“The shape, the color, even the way it opens and closes,” Billeaud said. “Every single thing I’ve learned has gone into this.”
After years of work, the finish line has come into sight for Billeaud.
“It makes me really happy to see how close it is,” Billeaud said. “Like I could have a shot at keeping a lot of people from doing what I did to my ears, which is all I want.”
Billeaud hopes to start factory production within the next couple of months and market his product by this spring.
In the meantime, he aims to donate 100,000 more earplugs by collecting donations through his Instagram. His fight against hearing damage has just begun, but it’s a battle he’s committed to for the long haul.
