People are getting more aware of the need for good ear protection, but foam plugs just don’t solve the problem of how to listen to music properly but safely.

We met the Thunderplugs team at NAMM and were struck not only by the clever design, but also by the neat packaging which is super compact and includes an aluminium case. The earplugs can even be put in bubblegum style vending machines.

Imagine getting tinnitus at just 15. Well that’s the story of Quinten Huigen from Amsterdam. He began playing music, performing and going to loud gigs when he was young, and damaged his ears as a result. He got together with Koen Brouwer and started a company called Safe Ears and they now make Thunderplugs.

We tried them out at some pretty loud gigs from bands playing in London, including garage punk duo Slaves, anarchic rockers Fat White Family, and fuzz-laden noise rockers dressmaker. The bands sounded brilliant and our ears didn’t ring afterwards!

Thunderplugs are designed to fit well in your ears, and have a shorter filter than many other kinds of earplug. This means the filter doesn’t stick out as much, which makes them comfortable, and less likely to get caught in something.

There’s a small finger tag in each silicon earplug which also makes them easy to get in an out. The attention to detail and innovation was acknowledged by the judges who chose Thunderplugs as winners of the Student Entrepreneur Award 2013 in The Netherlands and who gave them a financial award for use in overseas development.

Dance music and live music are huge in Holland so, they started there, and they are now available all over the world from music shops and online. In the UK they are distributed by John Hornby Skewes.

Thunderplugs are patented and tested against and certified by both ANSI S3.19-1974 American standards and European EN-352-2 standards.

We have three pairs to win in this easy to enter competition. Enter before 6pm on 6th August.

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED