Exciting news is opening a new chapter for SolaceShield. Founder Rachel Raak has been selected as a finalist in the CDID Innovation Pitch Competition at Children’s Specialized Hospital, part of RWJBarnabas Health.
She has been invited to the organization’s headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she will present SolaceShield to its advisory boards and leadership team. With CDID focused on advancing innovative solutions that improve the lives of children with specialized health care needs, the opportunity could help Rachel bring SolaceShield to even more people who need it.
Although SolaceShield is now being discovered by customers around the world, the idea first took shape in Marquette. Rachel created the accessory to protect hearing aids and eliminate the feedback and high-pitched ringing that can happen when someone wears a winter hat over them.
Unless you wear hearing aids, feedback may be something you have never considered. For Rachel, who has Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHAs), the distracting squeal caused by a hat resting against her hearing aids was an all-too-familiar part of winter.
Want a better idea of what that sounds like? Click here to hear the feedback Rachel experiences when she wears a hat without SolaceShield. Pretty irritating, right?
Before SolaceShield, the solutions Rachel encountered were simple but unacceptable: do not wear a winter hat, or cut holes into one.
“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, where winters are long, cold, and meant to be enjoyed, Rachel was not willing to accept that answer. As an avid outdoor recreation fan, she wanted to stay warm while still being able to hear, connect with others, and participate fully in the activities she loves.
So, she created her own solution.
Simple in its design, SolaceShield represents innovation and a better quality of life for its users.
The dome-shaped accessory is placed beneath a winter hat and over a hearing aid, creating a barrier between the two. It prevents the hat from resting directly against the hearing aid, eliminating feedback while also protecting the device from the cold. Most importantly, it opens the door to participating in outdoor activities, conversations, and everyday life at any temperature.
When Rachel was ready to transform SolaceShield from an idea into a physical product, she turned to Innovate Marquette SmartZone. From early product ideation and design to manufacturing the SolaceShield products now being sold around the world, Innovate Marquette helped Rachel move her idea forward.
Then, SolaceShield went viral on social media more than once.
The response showed Rachel just how many people experienced the same challenges she had faced, including people who use hearing aids other than BAHAs. Comments and direct messages introduced her to a wider community while giving her valuable insight into how SolaceShield could continue to improve.
“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 explains.
Those conversations have helped Rachel understand how SolaceShield can better serve people with different types of hearing aids and users of all ages. As the company grows, she plans to develop additional sizes so more people can experience the comfort, protection, and freedom the product offers.
With SolaceShield, Rachel transformed a problem that once limited her connections and the activities she loved into a solution that introduced her to an entirely new community. Now, as she prepares to present her idea to the leadership and advisory boards of Children’s Specialized Hospital, that solution has the potential to reach even further.
No matter how harsh Marquette winters may be, we can find solace knowing that fresh ideas have the space to take shape here, and that an idea born from one person’s experience can grow into something that improves life for many others.