NoiseGuard has become a recognised leader in the production of custom-designed hearing products for recreation, industry, and sporting use and while the last eight months or so have been tough for the young business, owner Johnny Themistoklis remains optimistic on what the new ‘normal’ will bring.
While the development of the NoiseGuard product came through Themistoklis’ own love for recreational motorcycle riding, the business now supplies 85 percent of the major motorsport competitors and teams in Australia and has an expanding international client base.
NoiseGuard has major outlets in Sydney and Melbourne and Themistoklis was originally provided advice that his business was considered a critical service and that he would be free to travel between his two offices.
As COVID-19 conditions worsened and lockdown restrictions increased, Themistoklis found himself stuck in Melbourne and operating his business from behind closed doors for several weeks.
“I guess the first part of COVID was very scary for everyone because no one knew what was coming next,” said Themistoklis.
“The other part of our business is on-site hearing tests at factories and industrial facilities and all that went away.
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“We also had to close our shop front and we could not do any of our big shows, including MotoGP at Phillip Island which is our biggest of the year.
“But I am an optimist and believe that all that business that was put on hold will now come back to us as things get back to being a little more ‘normal’.”
NoiseGuard specialises in the highest quality custom moulded hearing protection and custom moulded audio headsets for racing, industry, communications, and recreational applications.
The company is a hearing health/conservation service provider which offers a range of hearing conservation services including industrial onsite hearing tests, industrial noise surveys, and noise mapping/risk reporting.
“The best solution to permanent hearing loss (due to noise damage) is prevention,” said Themistoklis
“Our knowledge and expertise in the field, as well as collaboration with professional athletes, has led to the development of the most sought after custom product’s on the Australian market.”
Themistoklis, the director of Noise Guard, started out as an industrial audiometrist in 1999 at his father’s well known audiology clinic, Hearlink.
As a motorbike enthusiast, during Johnny’s time at Hearlink he noticed a gap in the market in terms of quality custom hearing protection.
Motorcycles and racing cars can easily exceed levels of well over 100 dB(A). At these levels, the risk of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is significantly increased.
Hearing protection offers a way for enthusiasts and professionals alike to operate at these noise levels whilst keeping their hearing health in check.
In 2003 Johnny began developing his custom hearing protection products, which were marketed as NoiseGuard under the Hearlink brand and in February, 2017 the company NoiseGuard was established.
“The current range is the result of 10-15 years of perfecting and our priority is to deliver a quality product and service that is recognised and trusted through multiple industries in Australia,” said Themistoklis.
The process for purchasing NoiseGuard products has been made as simple as getting impressions of your ears from your nearest distributor, selecting your colour, filling out your order form and sending it with your impressions to the Sydney or Melbourne base.
Once you have paid your deposit the finished product will arrive in two to five weeks.
NoiseGuard products start with simple noise protection plugs for $80 and head north to $535 for the top of the range sets used by the majority of the Supercars field.
“We actually received our first order with Walkinshaw Racing and then our reputation just grew through word of mouth to where we now look after up to 85 percent of the Supercar drivers and crews,” said Themistoklis.
“We also have a great relationship with Toby Price, who is obviously a great ambassador for our product when you consider the conditions he is battling in events like Dakar.
“We also have many competitors in cars and bikes from grassroots racing through to international formulas.”
Networkcafe.com.au was established in an effort to create a network for small- to medium-sized businesses associated with the motorsport or automotive industries that could be negatively affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NoiseGuard was an early member of Networkcafe.com.au and was actually the recipient of the network’s most recent monthly draw which was rewarded with $A5000 worth of advertising on Speedcafe.com.
“We were grateful to Speedcafe.com management for creating Networkcafe.com.au for the industry, but to win the $5000 advertising package was a tremendous bonus,” said Themistoklis.
“Obviously we have a large customer base which is also Speedcafe.com readers.
“To have the opportunity for a small business like ours to be on the homepage of one of the world’s biggest motorsport news sites was pretty cool and great for our brand.”
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