MAE (Music Accessories Earplugs) designs trendy jewelry for earplugs to make their use more accessible and attractive. By doing so, they want to encourage more people to wear earplugs during music events and thus prevent hearing damage. Their focus is on young people aged 16 to 35 who often go to festivals, concerts and entertainment venues.

During the Liberation Festival in Utrecht, MAE tested, among other things, the attractiveness and effectiveness of their prototypes. The test results showed that 89% of young people between 16 and 30 years old already wear earplugs. Moreover, 57% of the respondents indicated that they often forget or lose their earplugs. As many as 36% would wear earplugs more often if they looked nicer. The average willingness to pay for jewelry with earplugs was around 25 euros. Social norms and aesthetics play an important role in wearing earplugs.

Based on these results, MAE continues to develop and test their jewelry designs. They will focus on improving the design to ensure that people do not lose the earplugs. In addition, they will identify the cost and material cost of producing jewelry and hold a pre-sale to research which materials and designs are most popular among the target audience. This will allow MAE to determine the best jewelry to start with.