Jimmy Iovine, Co-Founder of Beats by Dre Couldn't Be Happier with NFL Ban

A week ago we brought you news of the NFL’s exclusive partnership with Bose that resulted in the banning of what has grown to become the staple of the professional athlete’s arena-entrance apparel. Though the league’s prohibited use of the Beats by Dre headphones has costed a few athletes a few dollars (49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick fined $10,000) for ignoring the ban, it looks like the real loser here is Bose. When asked for his thoughts on players continuing to use the headphones with tape over the logo, Beats co-founder and former chief of Interscope Records says he couldn’t be any happier. Telling Business Insider

“It’s like, I can’t believe I’m this lucky,” he said, laughing. “I feel like sending them the tape.”

“What happened there, you have a tech company that’s culturally inept,” Iovine said. “There’s no one at the company that said, ‘If you ban these guys, you’re going to look bad to the young people, and they’re going to look like superheroes even though they’re just pure capitalists — well they’re not pure capitalists, but they’re real capitalists and [they] sold that company to Apple — but you’re going to make them look like the underdog.”

Banning the product is only going to up the “cool” factor for the Beats company (recently purchased by Apple), as we saw in the mid ‘80s when the NBA banned Michael Jordan from rocking his first ever signature Nike shoes. Both Beats Music and Apple have gained major success with their ability to fuse culture and technology. So as a word to the wise for Bose: to succeed in this business you just cannot afford to remain “culturally inept.”

Words by Jonathan Viray