How It All Began: The South Florida Connection
Jim Palmer and Greg Fadul became friends in their 20’s when they worked in South Florida at Motorola developing and implementing cutting edge wireless technologies. While they both worked for Motorola on separate projects, their true friendship developed more at the after-work parties that fueled the South Florida tech scene (but that's a story for another time).
Life took them down different career paths at various tech companies, but fate (or maybe just California sunshine) reunited them in San Diego. Both veterans of the corporate grind, they were bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and ready to start their own company. In late 2006, with a shoestring budget and a team of four, Grace Digital was launched as a connected home audio startup.
Then came June 2007. Apple changed the game with the first iPod and then the iPhone. Two years later, Samsung followed suit with the Galaxy. These sleek devices weren't just phones; they were music transformers. Greg and Jim and their team realized the way people consumed music was going to be forever altered. It was those two massive product launches that piqued their interest in developing a new generation of audio products.
ECOXGEAR: The Original Waterproof Audio Company
Hanging out on the San Diego beaches and hiking in the hills, made them realize that there was a need to be able to take your music along with you to harsh outdoor environments. This was the birth of ECOXGEAR, The Original Waterproof Audio company. Since then, Jim and Greg and their team have launched dozens of 100% waterproof, submersible, rugged, dustproof, and dirtproof audio solutions.
Shortly after they applied to the US patent office to protect their novel technologies and after years of working with the US Patent office, they were granted their fist of 12 patents, US9307307B2 for ‘Portable Wireless Waterproof Speakers’ solidifying them as the inventors of this category.
SOUNDEXTREME: Expanding the Adventure
Growing out of the portable audio space, in 2022,
SOUNDEXTREME by ECOXGEAR was born in Houston, TX.
SOUNDEXTREME utilizes the same dedication to providing rugged and waterproof audio solutions for the great outdoors with its expanded product line dedicated to the marine, golf cart, and powersports industries.
Today we have facilities and operations in Poway, CA, Houston, TX, West Palm Beach, FL and around the world with great team members dedicated to bringing you the most rugged waterproof products with the best customer service we can provide.
It’s been an incredible journey, and we want to thank all of our customers for supporting us each step of the way. We love to hear stories of your experience with our products. Send them in and let us hear from you.
Stay tuned for what’s to come next!
Thanks again,
Greg, Jim and the ECOXGEAR team
