An East Stroudsburg startup should have its first product on the market by June.
Fader Plugs LLC has selected Starkey Hearing Technologies of Minnesota as the manufacturer of the Fader Plug, an ear plug that can be adjusted to allow different levels of sound to get through without having to take it out of the ear.
Autumn Dieter, spokeswoman for Fader, said it is essentially an adjustable, mechanical ear plug.
“You can control how much you hear without that feeling of being echo-y and muffley,” she said.
The product was conceptualized by Blaise Delfino in 2015 while still in graduate school at East Stroudsburg University.
Delfino is the son of the owners of Audiology Services in the Lehigh Valley and was looking to develop a product that would help with hearing protection.
Dieter said the adjustable Fader Plugs can be used in many circumstances from people going to a loud concert, to a worker on a loud manufacturing assembly line that needs hearing protection, but still needs to hear coworkers.
Another use for the ear plugs is for children and individuals on the autism spectrum or with central auditory processing issues
“Controlling the auditory process reduces stimuli and helps them,” she said.
Dieter said the Fader Plugs will initially be sold out of his family’s audiology offices and online. They will be available in standard sizes and customizable for those who use ear plugs often.
