Sound of the Brave- Boombotix a local SF company!

A brand new product we are amped to have at the store is Boombotix wireless (very little and light) speakers. These portable speakers are full range stereo-  and are light enough to actually take on backpacking adventures, and tough enough to survive da beach. Our good friend Dave Keagy is the sales director at Boombotix so we asked him some questions about this SF company.

Dave is 2nd to the right standing with the entire Boombotix crew.

Please tell us Lief’s story from bike messenger-artist to engineer of tiny rad speakers!

Aqua collab with Boombotix, featuring the mural art buddy PNUT painted for our shop.

Dave- Boombotix was founded by a Bay Area native, Lief Storer who after college was working here in SF, he wasn't a bike messenger, but he did bike to work with headphones. One day on his commute he almost got hit by a car because he could not hear it. Realizing there were no good portable speakers, he took matters in to his own hands.
 
What was the process of the Bombotix’s development- from Lief making one to fulfill a personal need to manufacturing and becoming a company.

Dave- The first speaker Lief made was taking apart a wake talkie, and using the components to make a speaker.  He was pretty in to the imported Japanese vinyl toys so he took his new components and mounted them in to a toy skull. As he biked around SF with his little skull speaker, he'd have people ask how they could buy one, there the proverbial light went on, and the brand was born. Several years, borrowed dollars, rounds of crowdfunding and Silicon Valley venture capital, Boombotix is on its way.  

What was the timeline compared to other competitors developing similar product and how does boombotix differentiate itself both technology and design wise  from the competitors?
 
Dave- Even though Boombotix was one of the first brands in the space, Lief and his crew were young and resources some years were pretty slim.  Some bigger brands were able to capitalize a little faster.  But the brand has been plunging along and really getting some good momentum.  Most brands in this space are either from CE (consumer electronics) or from lifestyle. Both of these seem to look at this category see this as a commodity play or an afterthought. A lot of blue tooth speakers are either cheap and sound bad- or they cost a lot.   
 
For this brand, this is all we do, so there is a lot more care and thought put into it.  We have strived to be unique and authentic.  In the bike world, Boombotix is a known brand. At the end of the day our stuff sounds better for a better value. I've done the "Pepsi Challenge" with a lot of our competitors.  There is no better sounding speaker that is as portable as the REX at that price. None. And now, with the PRO, which has some unique features like being fully submersible, a 2 gig flash drive to store music on the actual speaker and insane acoustics.  
 
Tell us about some of the recent collaborations with artists and designers and how this is going to help evolve the brand.
 
Dave- Right after I started, RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan took notice of our brand.  We were able to do a release of speakers that had 8 new Wu-Tang songs on it before the album dropped. We have a Grateful Dead speaker out, that has done super well.  RZA and Shavo from System of the Down recorded an album which we can only be found on one of our speakers.  Coming up with some projects on the way too . . . . oh, and RZA, he is part of the brand too. It's been crazy having meetings or doing dinner with RZA, it's pretty unreal.

Anything else you would like to discuss?

Dave- Just that we are a small company here in SF, we all live here in SF and most of the team grew-up in the area, we got roots here!

Come in the shop and we'll be happy to show you how the BoombotREX speakers work and please visit Boombotix HERE.

 

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