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The Stylish Headphone Company That's Turning Heads Frends has transformed a way to listen to music into a must-have women's fashion accessory.

By Jennifer Wang

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Marc Royce
Keir Dillon of Frends

It has happened before. In 2003 Skullcandy introduced colorful, stylish headphones to a dull, monochrome market and topped $80 million in revenue within five years. Many imitators entered the fray, creating a roaring industry for headphones that Futuresource Consulting valued at $6 billion in 2012. Now, Keir Dillon and his six-person team at Frends are on a mission to seize a large swath of the market with premium headphones for women that are treated more like designer handbags than the "shrink-it-and-pink-it" products that had plagued the category to that point.

The Disruptors: 2013

Disrupter: Keir Dillon
Company: Frends
Big idea: Headphones as must-have women's fashion accessories

Frends' bestselling $149 Layla headphones, for instance, sport specially engineered audio drivers that allow for a thinner silhouette. Wrapped in soft leather, they're designed to prevent the dreaded hair-snagging of traditional models and are accented with hand-polished, antiqued metals. Instead of a plastic clamshell, Frends products are packaged in textured, cream-color boxes with magnetic closures and come with protective carrying pouches that resemble clutch purses.