- March 28, 2024
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A Manatee County-based high-end headphones company, once recognized for fast growth and a well-publicized move to shift production back to the U.S. from China, is a defendant in two lawsuits.
The plaintiff in one case is Curtis Jackson — better known as rapper and actor 50 cent. In a suit filed in Manatee County in April, Jackson contends Sleek Audio never repaid a $285,000 promissory note. The suit seeks enforcement of a March 17 arbitration decision, which Jackson's lawyers say is for the $285,000, plus another $61,000 in interest. Sleek Audio's attorneys, in court fillings, have argued against the repayment.
Jackson and Sleek Audio announced a brand licensing partnership in early 2011 regarding a line of wireless over-the-ear headphones. Sleek Audio terminated the agreement in May 2011, according to a company statement.
The other the plaintiff suing Sleek Audio is 600 Palmetto, L.C. LLC, the landlord of Sleek Audio's former headquarters. That company, in court papers filed July 19, alleges Sleek Audio owes it $164,153 in unpaid rent stretching back to January 2011.
Sleek Audio CEO Mark Krywko declined to comment on either lawsuit. In a Sept. 10 interview with the Business Review, Krywko did confirm Sleek Audio left its Palmetto space. The firm is now based out of Ear Tech, a Bradenton-based hearing aid firm Krywko founded in the 1980s.
“The business is surviving,” Krywko tells Coffee Talk. “We're still here.”
Sleek Audio sells a patented line of high-end “in-ear” earphones that won a “Best of What's New” award from Popular Science magazine in 2008. Prices range from $250 to more than $700. At one point Sleek Audio had nearly 20 employees and was praised locally — and in USA Today and on Fox News — when it moved its production line from China back to the States. Krywko cited lack of control in exiting China.
The company, in 2009, also projected sales would triple over the next year or so. The space it moved into in Palmetto was 8,000 square feet — four times bigger than its old space.