PAX East 2011 Zombie EarGear Q&A

PAX East was a downright great time, as I saw a lot of games, tons of lines and all sorts of gear to enhance your gaming. As you walk among the displays you have to move your head quickly to see everything because the crowd was that packed. While I made my path down one aisle a giant sign with "zombie" on it got my attention and turns out it was part of the name Zombies EarGear. These are some one of a kind earbuds as each one is custom fit for you and gives you some damn good sound quality.

I got the chance to try out some of the earbuds and I have to say I was impressed with the sound I got, even without the mold on them yet. The earbuds fit nicely in the ear and the samples with the molds on them were really light too. I was also able to check out what the process is of making the mold and liked the simplicity of it. If you are in the market for some new earbuds I would say take a look at these and if are needing some earbuds to help keep zombie noises these do the job.

Rusty Reardon, the Senior Vice President at Zombie EarGear, was awesome enough to answer a few questions about the line.

Omnicomic: Zombies are everywhere these days. What inspiration lead you to use them as branding for earbuds?

Rusty Reardon: Jerry, one of team Zombie, has a young boy who is in the gaming culture and so got the inspiration from hanging out with his son. As you said, Zombies are everywhere and we loved Woody Harrelson as a Zombie Killer.


Omnicomic: Compared to other high end headphones what sets Zombie EarGear apart?

Reardon: There are a handful of custom molded earbuds/headphones companies out there that have great sound and are custom fitted to your ear. We have all that but what we have that all others don't have is affordability to people like you and me. Look for yourself and most custom companies earbuds start at about $450 and go way up. Through working with companies and manufacturing our own cables and molds, we hit the retail market at $139.00. We have no competition bar none.


Omnicomic: Ordering the headphones primarily occurs through your website. How do you accomplish getting the particular moulds done for customers?

Rearon: When you order them, we will send you a Zombie Tube with a two part silicone material with detailed instructions on how to kneed them together until they are one color, divide them in half and press the silicone into each ear and in 3 minutes they will harden. You pull them out and place them in the White Zombie return tube that is prepaid and addressed. 2 to 4 weeks we will return them as a high end custom earbud with awesome sound.


Omnicomic: How durable are the moulds that go over the earbuds? Is there any sort of warranty behind them?

Reardon: Our Zombie OneBite is a mold that we put a balanced armature inside so there is no earbud with a mold over it. We do have what's called Customz Plus. This is a high quality earbud that we fasten a custom mold on the end of the bud. Both products are very durable but just down run over them in your car or drop them into the garbage disposal. We give a 30 day warranty on fit and material and a one year warranty on material and workmanship.


Omnicomic: What kind of customizations are available for ordering?

Reardon: We customize a mold onto a bluetooth unit about the size of a quarter.


Omnicomic: I saw that you offer a headset that works with the PS3. Any word on when one for XBox 360 will be available?

Reardon: I'll have to get back to you on this one.


Omnicomic: Is there any other gear in the pipeline?

Reardon: We are going to offer a wireless bluetooth with a custom molded earbud with a new technology called Picocast. It will transmit with high fidelity and not on an FM signal like all Bluetooth units. Mercedes Benz is going to offer this technology in their autos that will let up to 4 people listen wirelessly while driving. So, instead of putting a headphone over your ears, we'll have a units that will have custom molded earbuds specifically for your ears...


Omnicomic: Will you be at any other shows this year?

Reardon: We are going to be at all of the big shows. PAX West and Comic Con in New York are the next two big ones.

Zombie EarGear