Brilliant ideas often come from places that offer space for exploration, are home to people with mindsets rooted in perseverance and self-sufficiency, and have the resources to allow the bold exploration of ideas.
SolaceShield–a company founded by Michigan entrepreneur Rachel Raak–is the perfect example of this ideal.
While SolaceShield is already being discovered around the world, the idea hatched in Marquette as an accessory designed to protect hearing aids and eliminate the feedback and high-pitched ringing that occurs when wearing a winter hat with hearing aids.
Feedback? Unless you wear hearing aids, it’s likely something you’ve never considered. But it’s something people with hearing aids deal with regularly. As someone who has Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHAs), Rachel knew all too well the distracting, high-pitched squealing sound that occurs when a hat rests on hearing aids.
Want a better idea of what it’s like? Click here to hear what the squealing and feedback sounds like to Rachel when she wears a hat without a SolaceShield. Pretty irritating, right?
Before SolaceShield, both solutions Rachel found — to not wear a winter hat, or cut holes in your hat — were unacceptable.
“It’s been frustrating going into a doctor’s office with my audiologists and saying, ‘Hey, how can I wear a hat?’ and they say, ‘Oh, you don’t,’” Rachel shares.
In a place like Marquette, with cold, long winters, and as an avid outdoor recreation fan, Rachel wouldn’t settle for that. She took it upon herself to come up with a solution to enjoy what she loves–being outside in any season, and being able to connect with others and hear them while she does.
SolaceShield, simple in its design, represents innovation and better quality of life for its users.
The product is a dome-shaped hearing aid accessory that’s placed under a winter hat and over a hearing aid, creating a barrier between where the hat rests and the hearing aid. It eliminates feedback from hearing aids, protects hearing aids during the cold, and opens the doors to participating in activities–and life–at any temperature.
Once she was ready to bring SolaceShield to life, Rachel turned to Innovate Marquette SmartZone. From product ideation to design to manufacturing the products sold worldwide today, Innovate Marquette helped Rachel turn SolaceShield from an idea to a real product that’s gaining traction globally.
After going viral on social media multiple times, Rachel discovered just how many people experienced the same problems she had, including those who have other types of hearing aids than BAHAs. It introduced her to a new community and opportunities to refine SolaceShield even further.
She explained, “I got so many DMs and so many comments from people telling me their stories, that I was able to connect with them. […] I’ve always wanted that. It made me feel like I had a community to belong to.”
She’s learned a lot from others on how her product can be best suited for individuals with different types of hearing aids, and people of all ages. She plans to create different sizes to help others take advantage of what SolaceShield has to offer.
With SolaceShield, Rachel managed to transform a problem that impeded her connections to others and the activities she loved into a solution that introduced her to a new community and new opportunities. No matter how harsh Marquette winters may be, we can find solace knowing that from the cold, fresh ideas have the space to come to life.