Bose Is Buying Skullcandy. It’s Not as Weird as It Sounds
Bose Is Buying Skullcandy. It’s Not as Weird as It Sounds
Longtime audio giant Bose announced on Wednesday that it’s acquiring Skullcandy, the lifestyle brand known for its bass-heavy headphones. Skullcandy will remain a separate company within Bose’s Premium Consumer Audio business and will still be based in Park City, Utah.
老牌音频巨头 Bose 周三宣布收购以重低音耳机闻名的生活方式品牌 Skullcandy。Skullcandy 将作为 Bose 高端消费音频业务旗下的独立公司继续运营，并保留其位于犹他州帕克城的总部。
The acquisition isn’t out of left field. Bose has lent its audio expertise to Skullcandy over the past year under its Sound by Bose licensing program. Skullcandy designs the headphones and then works with Bose on the audio front. The relationship began with the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds in 2025 and more recently, with the Crusher 1080 ANC headphones in July.
此次收购并非毫无预兆。过去一年里，Bose 通过其“Sound by Bose”授权项目为 Skullcandy 提供了音频技术支持。Skullcandy 负责耳机设计，随后在音频方面与 Bose 展开合作。双方的合作始于 2025 年推出的 Skullcandy Method 360 ANC 耳机，近期还包括 7 月发布的 Crusher 1080 ANC 耳机。
When WIRED spoke with Skullcandy CEO Brian Garofalow in July about the partnership, Garofalow highlighted the 23-year-old company’s ability to build community and culture, specifically around the board sports community (the first Skullcandy product was designed on a ski chairlift). But he admitted the company wasn’t “the greatest at the engineering part of innovation with products.”
当《连线》杂志（WIRED）在 7 月就此次合作采访 Skullcandy 首席执行官 Brian Garofalow 时，他强调了这家拥有 23 年历史的公司在建立社区和文化方面的能力，特别是在极限运动社区（首款 Skullcandy 产品是在滑雪缆车上构思出来的）。但他承认，公司在“产品创新的工程部分并非最强”。
This is hardly Bose’s first audio acquisition (though it may be the most mainstream). Bose acquired McIntosh Group, owners of luxury audio brands McIntosh Laboratory and Sonus Faber, back in 2024. But Bose seems to be after Skullcandy’s connection to its community.
这并非 Bose 首次进行音频领域的收购（尽管这可能是最主流的一次）。Bose 曾在 2024 年收购了拥有豪华音频品牌 McIntosh Laboratory 和 Sonus Faber 的 McIntosh 集团。但 Bose 此举似乎更看重 Skullcandy 与其社区之间的联系。
“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?” Bose CEO Lila Snyder tells 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.”
“这个品牌代表什么？它对消费者有意义吗？它是否与我们原本无法触及的消费者群体相关？”Bose 首席执行官 Lila Snyder 对《连线》表示，“如果你看看 McIntosh、Sonus Faber 和 Skullcandy，它们都符合这一范畴。Skullcandy 让我们能够接触到我们认为 Bose 品牌目前在很大程度上缺失的客户群。”
That’s why Bose has no plans to relocate Skullcandy from Park City, Utah, which Snyder says is 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 says. Skullcandy products are also affordable, especially compared to other Bose products and Bose-owned brands, which lets Bose compete at both ends of the market.
这就是为什么 Bose 没有计划将 Skullcandy 从犹他州帕克城迁出，Snyder 称那里是极限运动文化的中心。“我们希望确保我们处于这一文化的核心，就像他们一直以来所做的那样，”她说。Skullcandy 的产品价格也较为亲民，尤其是与 Bose 的其他产品及旗下品牌相比，这使得 Bose 能够在市场的两端同时展开竞争。
As WIRED’s headphone reviewer, I find Bose and Skullcandy an odd pairing. In consumer audio, Bose pioneered active noise-cancelation (ANC) in headphones, and maintains that legacy with ANC-leading products like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). Skullcandy, on the other hand, has often been viewed as the butt of the joke when it comes to audio quality. It has had a reputation for middling sound, bass-over-everything headphones, and a loud, bold aesthetic.
作为《连线》的耳机评测员，我觉得 Bose 和 Skullcandy 的组合有些奇怪。在消费音频领域，Bose 是耳机主动降噪（ANC）技术的先驱，并凭借 Bose QuietComfort Ultra 耳机（第二代）和 Bose QuietComfort Ultra 耳塞（第二代）等领先的降噪产品延续了这一传统。另一方面，Skullcandy 在音频质量方面常被视为笑柄。它一直以音质平平、重低音至上以及张扬大胆的美学风格而闻名。
Recent collaborations have started to change those perceptions—WIRED rated the Method 360 ANC earbuds an 8/10, noting good sound quality and ANC for the money. Snyder says those buds and the recent Crusher collab are just the tip of the iceberg. “It’s the beginning of what we think we can do together,” she says.
近期的合作已经开始改变这些看法——《连线》给 Method 360 ANC 耳机打出了 8/10 的评分，称其在性价比方面提供了良好的音质和降噪效果。Snyder 表示，这些耳机和最近的 Crusher 合作只是冰山一角。“这只是我们认为双方能够共同实现的目标的开始，”她说。
I’m very curious about what comes next from Skullcandy, headphones or otherwise. Either way, we’ll see if Bose’s acoustic muscle can give the lifestyle brand the permanent glow-up it’s been chasing.
我非常好奇 Skullcandy 接下来会推出什么产品，无论是耳机还是其他。无论如何，我们将拭目以待 Bose 的声学实力能否为这个生活方式品牌带来它一直追求的持久蜕变。