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Longtime audio giant Bose announced on Wednesday that it's acquiring Skullcandy, the lifestyle brand known for its bass-heavy headphones. Skullcandy will remain a separate company within Bose's Premium Consumer Audio business and will still be based in Park City, Utah.
The acquisition isn't out of left field. Bose has lent its audio expertise to Skullcandy over the past year under its Sound by Bose licensing program. Skullcandy designs the headphones and then works with Bose on the audio front. The relationship began with the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds in 2025 and more recently, with the Crusher 1080 ANC headphones in July.
When WIRED spoke with Skullcandy CEO Brian Garofalow in July about the partnership, Garofalow highlighted the 23-year-old company's ability to build community and culture, specifically around the board sports community (the first Skullcandy product was designed on a ski chairlift). But he admitted the company wasn't “the greatest at the engineering part of innovation with products.”
This is hardly Bose's first audio acquisition (though it may be the most mainstream). Bose acquired McIntosh Group, owners of luxury audio brands McIntosh Laboratory and Sonus Faber, back in 2024. But Bose seems to be after Skullcandy's connection to its community.
“What does the brand stand for? Does it have meaning for consumers? Is it relevant to a group of consumers that, frankly, we otherwise aren’t reaching?" Bose CEO Lila Snyder tells WIRED. "If you think about McIntosh, Sonus Faber, and Skullcandy, they all fit into that realm. Skullcandy gives us access to a customer base that we think we’re largely missing with the Bose brand.”
That's why Bose has no plans to relocate Skullcandy from Park City, Utah, which Snyder says is the epicenter of board sports culture. “We want to make sure we’re right at the heart of it, as they always have been,” she says. Skullcandy products are also affordable, especially compared to other Bose products and Bose-owned brands, which lets Bose compete at both ends of the market.
As WIRED's headphone reviewer, I find Bose and Skullcandy an odd pairing. In consumer audio, Bose pioneered active noise-cancelation (ANC) in headphones, and maintains that legacy with ANC-leading products like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). Skullcandy, on the other hand, has often been viewed as the butt of the joke when it comes to audio quality. It has had a reputation for middling sound, bass-over-everything headphones, and a loud, bold aesthetic.
Recent collaborations have started to change those perceptions—WIRED rated the Method 360 ANC earbuds an 8/10, noting good sound quality and ANC for the money. Snyder says those buds and the recent Crusher collab are just the tip of the iceberg. “It’s the beginning of what we think we can do together,” she says.
I’m very curious about what comes next from Skullcandy, headphones or otherwise. Either way, we’ll see if Bose's acoustic muscle can give the lifestyle brand the permanent glow-up it’s been chasing.