Longtime audio leader Bose announced on Wednesday that it will purchase Skullcandy, the lifestyle brand best known for its bass‑heavy headphones. The deal will keep Skullcandy operating as a separate entity within Bose’s Premium Consumer Audio division, and the company will remain headquartered in Park City, Utah.
The acquisition follows a year‑long partnership in which Bose has supplied audio expertise to Skullcandy through its Sound by Bose licensing program. Under that arrangement, Skullcandy handles the industrial design while Bose contributes the acoustic engineering. The collaboration began with the Method 360 ANC earbuds released in 2025 and continued with the Crusher 1080 ANC headphones launched in July.
When WIRED spoke with Skullcandy CEO Brian Garofalow in July about the partnership, he praised the 23‑year‑old firm’s talent for building community and culture, especially among board‑sport enthusiasts—a nod to the fact that the brand’s first product was conceived on a ski chairlift. He also conceded that the company was not “the greatest at the engineering part of innovation with products.”
This is not Bose’s first foray into audio‑brand acquisitions, though it may be the most mainstream. In 2024 the company bought the McIntosh Group, the parent of luxury audio makers McIntosh Laboratory and Sonus Faber. According to Bose chief executive Lila Snyder, the appeal of Skullcandy lies in its community ties. “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?” she told 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.”
Snyder added that Bose has no intention of moving Skullcandy from Park City, describing the Utah town as 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 said. The brand’s relatively low price point also broadens Bose’s reach, allowing the larger company to compete at both the premium and more affordable ends of the market.
From a reviewer’s perspective, the pairing may seem odd. Bose pioneered active noise cancellation in headphones and continues that legacy with products such as the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). Skullcandy, by contrast, has often been the subject of jokes about its sound quality, with a reputation for bass‑heavy, loud‑looking designs. Recent collaborations, however, are shifting that perception. WIRED gave the Method 360 ANC earbuds an 8 out of 10, noting solid sound quality and effective ANC for the price. Snyder says those earbuds and the recent Crusher collaboration are only the beginning. “It’s the beginning of what we think we can do together,” she said.
The next steps for Skullcandy remain to be seen, but many are watching to find out whether Bose’s acoustic expertise can deliver the lasting upgrade the lifestyle brand has been chasing.