Jan
Koss Headphones and What It Means to Invest in the Midwest
[responsivevoice_button voice=”UK English Female” buttontext=”Listen to Post”]
Today, the U.S. will inaugurate Donald J. Trump as the country’s 45th president. He has promised to make America great again, by returning badly-needed jobs to the Midwest. As native Milwaukeean, I remember what happens when companies that promised to never leave, close up and move (not even overseas; they just leave). Cosmopolitan mid-sized cities that once thrived decades ago, are always just another wave of political progress away from thriving, full-throttle. Though I live elsewhere, and travel everywhere, my heart is always with Milwaukee.
Recently, I invested in Koss. Above is an image of a billboard I used to see along the highway in my hometown of Milwaukee. It’s from 1989, and it’s a little corny. But it gives me all the nostalgia feels.
This is what Koss looks like now:
Koss, a Milwaukee-based headphone company is not a towering monolith. It’s kind of small and unassuming. But the company’s cultural impact is profound. They were the inventors of the first SP/3 stereophones. Legendary musicians like Frank Sinatra used Koss during recording sessions. Koss was featured in an episode on Mad Men. And my Mom used to pick up used Koss headphones at the thrift store.
Apple recently eliminated the headphone jack on it’s latest iPhone, and replaced them with wireless earphone buds, or wire earbuds with an adapter jack. Apple is a leader in the mobile listening device industry, so usually whatever they do, everyone else will follow. And at a time where streaming music sales are up, Beats by Dre — a boon for it’s owners Apple, and a company that can afford to adapt — I have deeper questions about what these shifts mean for a venerated company like Koss. Their current stock price seems to suggest that — unless they are in some Manhattan Project-like bunker, in on some secret wireless headphone technology — they are not in the same circles of tech giants. And this is a big problem. Not just for my personal investment, but for what some mean when they say we should invest in the Midwest.
”We can't afford to say we should invest in tech in the Midwest, and not be clear about what that looks like.
The tech boom of the Obama era gave young startups a lot of innovative opportunities. But those largely benefitted relatively comfortable U.S. regions (and people already more wealthy) of the Northeast (the region between metro areas Boston and Washington, D.C.) and the San Francisco/Bay Area/Silicon Valley. Individuals in tech, design, business, financial, political, and economic sectors and journalists who cover said sectors have failed companies like Koss. When journalists talk about reinvesting in the Rust Belt, they mention GM and the automotive industry, but that’s industry- and Detroit-specific. They miss modern music companies like Koss. When economists attempt to explain job losses in the Midwest, post-election disenfranchised voters, advances in tech, companies like Koss get left out of the conversation. And when companies are forgotten, cities like my beloved hometown of Milwaukee get forgotten too.
We can’t afford to say we should invest in tech in the Midwest, and not be clear about what that looks like. Addressing this is often the domain of The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, business-friendly mayors, governors, and now-President-Elect Trump. But those of us who are privileged enough to think we don’t have a dog in the fight cannot argue over the removal of a headphone jack as the source of a First World Problem. We have to think of the political and economic implications of when major shifts like the removal of a headphone jack happens, and companies like Koss don’t have a seat at the table.