DearBuds SE wearable ear humidifier

DearBuds is an ear humidifier. It tries to solve the problem of ears being more prone to infections nowadays since many people use earbuds for long hours daily.

To me, the best solution is to try to reduce the use of earbuds. Go for on-ear or over-ear headphones instead and try to reduce the duration of using the earbuds.

DearBuds wants to solve this by removing the moisture. So after you use earbuds that results in humidity building up in your ear canals, you stick DearBuds on to reduce the humidity.

Personally, I prefer not to have my ears stuffed again after having to use earbuds for hours.

Kickstarter:

In 2021, we launched the campaign for our CES award-winning product, DearBuds, on Kickstarter.
But due to semiconductor supply chain issues, we had to cancel our campaign. Now that we’ve resolved the issue, we’re back with DearBuds SE – the DearBuds single edition with new and improved app features!

Linkface cancelled their first DearBuds campaign, claiming supply chain issues. It’s interesting that they then ran another campaign, this time with a single edition.

Instead of two DearBuds, they sell one. This means the pricing is lower and potentially more attractive to consumers – the price range of USD 25 to USD 45 is the sweet spot for Kickstarter products. At the same time, they also lower the production and shipping costs. Such a move would give them a higher margin.

There’s nothing wrong with this move at all, mind you. It is just an interesting point for us, since we make and market products as well. They identified how to provide a lower price point to access a larger potential market, while still giving users a choice to purchase a pair if they prefer to dehumidify both ears faster.

Win-win for them and their customers.

Background check

Linkface Co, Ltd from South Korea is running the DearBuds campaign. Their first campaign was run on an account under Kyung Soo Lim, most likely their CEO Jack Lim, and had Korea as the project’s location.

The account for this campaign uses the name James Fisher, and the project’s location has been changed to New York. However, we were unable to find a company related to Linkface in the US.

There has been no trademarks registered for the brand DearBuds. Perhaps they forgot about that. While it is common for scam campaigns to avoid registering a trademark, as that costs money and leaves a traceable paper-trail, we doubt this is a scam campaign.

After all, Linkface has been very public about how their CEO Jack Lim and CTO Chris Kang were both from Samsung Electronics, and that the company and projects are both incubated by Samsung.

Is it worth it?

Linkface tries to tackle a very real problem through an innovative use of dehumidifiers in DearBuds. It uses existing product supply chain solutions in terms of earbud batteries, earbuds shaped to provide better comfort and sealing, and earbud charging cases to create DearBuds.

Perhaps it could be something built into future earbuds to reduce the likelihood of earbuds increasing ear canal humidity and potentially causing ear infections.