Sol Republic, Inc. (stylized in

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

, often subtitled Soundtrack Of Life) was an American privately held audio manufacturer based in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Founded in 2011 by Scott Hix, Seth Combs, and Kevin Lee, it was sold to HoMedics in late 2015 or early 2016. (subscription required) Some of Sol Republic's best-selling products include unique over-ear headphones such as ''Tracks'', whose couplets are interchangeable with the included headband.

History

The company was founded in 2010 by Scott Hix, Seth Combs, and Kevin Lee. Lee had worked at Beats Audio, while Hix had been an executive with

InFocus InFocus Corporation is a privately owned American company based in the state of Oregon. Founded in 1986, the company develops, manufactures, and distributes Digital Light Processing, DLP and LCD Video projector, projectors and accessories as well ...

. Lee's father, Noel Lee, founded video and audio cable company

Monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

. The name is an acronym for "soundtrack of life". By December 2011, the company had 33 employees split between headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon, and

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. In July 2011, the company received $5.2 million in investment funding, followed by $22 million in July 2012. Sol Republic introduced its DECK portable speaker in August 2013 in partnership with

Motorola Mobility Motorola Mobility LLC, marketing as Motorola, is an American consumer electronics manufacturer primarily producing smartphones and other mobile devices running Android (operating system), Android. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese te ...

; the system was designed to work with the Motorola Moto X. At that time the company had grown to 85 employees. The company raised another $27 million in March 2014, by which time it was employing 100 people and had its products in 26,000 retail stores. The funding came from Riverwood Capital and Greenoaks Capital Management, and was expected to be used to expand into international markets as well as new product development. Sol Republic's main distribution channels at that time were through

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

RadioShack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...

, and

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

. In 2014, the President of Sol Republic, Scott Hix, gave up his duties to co-founder and CEO Kevin Lee. Hix still owns a major portion of the company and is still considered a co-founder. Hix's business partner Brad Gleeson also left the company in January 2014. On October 20, 2015, Sol Republic partnered with Indiegogo in an attempt to crowd fund their newest invention; the Relay Sport Wireless During December 2015, the official website was shut down temporarily for redesign of the entire structure. They were also purchased by HMDX audio, and had their headquarters relocated to the same location as HMDX. In this merger, many of the styles of Tracks were discontinued, including their college and musician styles, as well as some of their Bluetooth devices, such as the Deck speaker and Tracks Air headphones. They also switched from using custom made and sized boxes for shipping to using generic packaging.

Products

Sol Republic manufacturers a variety of audio products, such as headphones, portable speakers, and ear buds. To help in marketing the products, the company has partnered with musicians and DJs such as

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris (and sometimes under the stage name Love Regenerator), is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'' (2007 ...

Deadmau5 Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as deadmau5 (pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and disc jockey, DJ. His musical style mostly includes progressive house and electro house music, ...

and

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki ( , ; born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ and record producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. In 2024, Gold House recognized him as ...

. Artist Jesse Hernandez was hired by the company to design a line of headphones in 2015.

Headphones

*Tracks (All models are in Regular, HD, Master, Air (Discontinued), or Collegiate editions) *Shadow Wireless *Relays (Sport and Sport Wireless models) *Jax *Amps (discontinued) *Amps Air

Speakers

*Punk (discontinued) *Deck (discontinued) (Both Regular and Ultra models)

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , title = Entity Details , url = https://delecorp.delaware.gov/tin/controller , work = Division of Corporations , publisher = Delaware Secretary of State , accessdate = April 1, 2014 , url-status=dead , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110721035421/https://delecorp.delaware.gov/tin/controller , archivedate = July 21, 2011 {{cite news , last = Siemers , first = Erik , title = Sol Republic makes noise , url = http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2011/12/16/sol-republic-makes-noise.html?page=all , accessdate = April 1, 2014 , newspaper =

Portland Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...

, date = December 16, 2011 {{cite news , last = Rogoway , first = Mike , title = Sol Republic seeks share of crowded audio market by blending fashion, technology , url = http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/04/sol_republic_seeks_share_of_cr.html#incart_more_business , accessdate = April 28, 2014 , newspaper = The Oregonian , date = April 26, 2014 {{cite news , last = Siemers , first = Erik , title = Sol Republic raises $22M , url = http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2012/07/13/sol-republic-raises-22m.html?page=all , accessdate = April 1, 2014 , newspaper =

, date = July 13, 2012 {{cite news , last = Stevens , first = Suzanne , title = Soaring Sol Republic amps Moto X cool, debuts new speaker , url = http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/2013/08/soaring-sol-republic-amps-moto-x-cool.html , accessdate = April 1, 2014 , newspaper =

, date = August 1, 2013 {{cite news , last = Spencer , first = Malia , title = Wilsonville's Sol Republic lands $27M , url = http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/2014/03/wilsonvilles-sol-republic-lands-27m.html?page=all , accessdate = April 1, 2014 , newspaper =

, date = March 31, 2014 {{cite news , last = Rogoway , first = Mike , title = Sol Republic, audio technology startup with offices in Wilsonville, raises $27.5 million for new products, global expansion , url = http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/03/sol_republic_audio_technology.html , accessdate = April 1, 2014 , newspaper =

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

, date = March 31, 2014 {{cite news , last = Spencer , first = Malia , title = No longer president, Sol Republic co-founder Scott Hix looks to nurture other businesses. , url = http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/techflash/2015/06/no-longer-president-sol-republic-co-founder-scott.html , accessdate = December 8, 2015 , newspaper =

, date = June 24, 2015 {{cite news , last = Spencer , first = Malia , title = Sol Republic partners with Indiegogo to exclusively launch Relays Sport Wireless in-ear headphones. , url = http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sol-republic-partners-with-indiegogo-to-exclusively-launch-relays-sport-wireless-in-ear-headphones-300162727.html , accessdate = December 8, 2015 , newspaper =

PR Newswire PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, ...

, date = October 20, 2015 {{cite news , last = O'Brien , first = Ciara , title = The Soundtrack of Life for music lovers , url = http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/technology/the-soundtrack-of-life-for-music-lovers-1.1738874 , accessdate = April 2, 2014 , newspaper =

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

, date = March 27, 2014 {{cite news , title = Dia De los Muertos with Jesse "Urban Aztec" Hernandez , url = https://blog.solrepublic.com/2015/10/26/dia-de-los-muertos/ , work = Sol Republic , date = October 26, 2015

External links

Portland Business Journal.com: "Sol Republic's president on lessons he's learned from InFocus and Planar"
Headphones manufacturers Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Michigan American companies established in 2010 Electronics companies established in 2010 Manufacturing companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in California 2010 establishments in Oregon