How Jonathan Grado Helps Shape the World of Grado Headphones
To see more of Jonathan’s work in and outside Grado Labs, check out @jongrado and @gradolabs on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.
Growing up, Jonathan Grado (@jongrado) kept his dad’s profession to himself. “It kind of became this thing where I didn’t tell anyone about it,” says the 24-year-old New York native.
So what was the big family secret? Audio equipment. Launched by Joseph Grado (Jonathan’s uncle) out of his home in 1953, the goal of Grado Labs was to create high-quality phonograph cartridges. Two years later, Joseph moved the company into the family’s fruit store, on Seventh Avenue in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, where they’ve remained ever since.
Grado’s only major shift over the last 60-plus years has been the introduction of headphones, in 1991 — the same year Jonathan was born. By then, his father — also named John — had taken over the business. Most of the building was used to make Grado’s products. On the top floor was an apartment, where Jonathan and his younger brother grew up. Yet despite the proximity to the business, he wasn’t all that interested in the company until he got to college.
“I needed something to put on my résumé for this mandatory portfolio review at school,” says Jonathan, who studied graphic design. He ended up asking his dad if he could just say he was in charge of Grado Labs’ social media efforts. His response: “Well, you can, but only if you do it.”
Challenge accepted. Jonathan got to work on the company’s digital front, a job that entails handling all of the company’s online efforts. An added bonus was being able to marry the family business with his interest in photography. Any time you see a perfectly modeled Grado headphone, you have Jonathan to thank.
“My mom and my brother are really good at art, and then my dad can build headphones, and he’s more in like the electrical engineer creating side,” he says. “Me, I can barely draw a stick figure, let alone a square, so I picked up a camera.”
Six decades in, and the company is still plugging away, using the same techniques and many of the same machines. An even more impressive feat: Grado rarely releases new headphone lines, and has never advertised.
“We came out with a new line of headphones in the summer of 2014. When Christmas came, we were nine weeks back-ordered, which is like the busiest we’ve ever been,” says Jonathan. “Fortunately, we’re still that busy. We’ve just gotten more efficient.”
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