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. 

Gradually the distant ringing worsened as the music he played got louder.

“I wanted to protect my ears, but then I wouldn’t have earplugs on me,” said Billeaud. “I would lose them, they wouldn’t be in my backpack, and then I’d run out.” 

Stik Buds is what he called the old earplug case, duct tape and a piece of velcro he created to attach his plugs to his drumsticks.

The case prevented him from losing his earplugs, something he wished he had years before. Billeaud can’t change the past. Instead, he aims to change the future.  

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. 

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 hurt 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.

Before his diagnosis, he had never heard of Tinnitus or Hyperacusis, let alone the risks associated with exposure to loud music. The case attached to his sticks offered a new opportunity. A chance to prevent the pain he experiences daily from happening to others. 

Without drumming, Jack now had the chance to shift all his focus onto 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. Billeaud’s only way to know if they worked was to have friends and musicians test them. 

With each test, Billeaud 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.