Bose buys Skullcandy, the headphone brand born on a Park City chairlift

PARK CITY, Utah — Skullcandy, the headphone brand founded on a Park City chairlift in 2003, has been acquired by Bose Corporation, the companies announced Wednesday. The brand will remain based in Park City and operate as a separate brand inside Bose’s Premium Consumer Audio business.

Bose CEO Lila Snyder called Skullcandy “an established, thriving brand.” Bose said Skullcandy’s roots in boardsports, music, gaming and fitness give it a way to reach consumers where Bose has less presence. Skullcandy joins McIntosh and Sonus faber in Bose’s portfolio of brands.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Park City Roots

“Skullcandy was born on a chairlift in Park City, Utah, over 20 years ago, and we’ve always believed great music should be part of the experiences people love,” Skullcandy CEO Brian Garofalow said in a statement. “Joining Bose gives us the opportunity to make those experiences even better.”

Kalin Stewart, Skullcandy’s director of integrated marketing, told TownLift the company will continue operating out of Park City and keep the local community ties that define the brand.

The deal caps a multiyear partnership that already put Sound by Bose technology in Skullcandy earbuds and headphones. In July 2025, as Skullcandy prepared to move its headquarters from the 49,300-square-foot building on Landmark Drive to the Backcountry.com building in Kimball Junction, Garofalow told TownLift the company was in its strongest financial position ever and pointed to the Bose collaboration as a growth driver. Summit County bought the former Skullcandy building for $17.5 million in 2024 and is converting it into a civic hub.

Skullcandy kept roughly 110 employees through the move. Garofalow said then the company had never fully occupied the old building and that the relocation was about cost, not leaving town. “We were literally born on a chairlift at the Canyons,” he said.

Founder Rick Alden, a veteran of the snowboard industry moved his family from Colorado to Park City in 2001. Riding lifts, he kept having to pull off his headphones and dig out his phone to answer calls. The fix became Skullcandy’s first product, the LINK, which tied a phone and music player to one set of headphones and debuted at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show. Alden stepped down as CEO in March 2011, months before the company’s IPO, and remained on the board as a major shareholder.

Bose said it plans to invest in Skullcandy with access to its technology, global distribution and commercial relationships while letting the brand keep its own identity.