Shure, trading as Shure Incorporated, is an American multinational audio equipment manufacturer, established in 1925 and headquartered in Niles, Illinois. (See the artist artist entry for management, production, and technical credits.) It's widely recognized as the global leader in the production of microphones, monitoring systems, mixers, DSP audio processors, and other professional-grade equipment for stage performing, backline management, recording, and broadcasting, with the largest share of the North American market (surpassing Sennheiser, Yamaha Corporation, and Audio-Technica). As a record label, Shure primarily released test and demonstration LPs, such as the "Audio Obstacle Course" series, designed to assist with a correct setup and measurements of a phonograph cartridge. Occasionally, Shure commissioned classical LPs from well-known labels, like Westminster, to showcase the "Hi Fi Phono Cartridges" model line. In the early 2000s, Shure launched Needlz.com promo website, dedicated to the club scene and electronic music, which served as the primary marketing channel for the new "DJ Record Needlz" range. During this period, the company catered to a niche community, with promo releases like deep house/drum'n'bass 12" white-labels and 4749182 VHS documentary.
The "Shure Radio Company" was established in April 1925 by a 23-year-old aspiring entrepreneur and Chicago native, Sidney Natkin "S.N." Shure (1902—1995), to sell transistor radio kits. (In the early days of the broadcast industry, before AM radios became a commodity, it was a more demanding hobby, targeting DIY enthusiasts rather than end-consumers, who already had the necessary tools and skills to assemble AM receivers with a package of loose components and schematics provided by the manufacturer.) The business grew rapidly and had over 75 employees by 1928, when Sidney's younger brother, Samuel Joseph Shure (1904—1964), joined the firm, now incorporated as "Shure Brothers Company." By tragic coincidence, the company's first two years were tremendously challenging; on top of the infamous October 1929 stock market crash, which triggered the Great Depression, the Shure brothers faced a rapid, almost instant market takeover by affordable, mass-produced AM radios. Within months, their core product, "radio kits," lost any value and appeal for customers, forcing Shure Bros to cut most of the staff and downsize to distributing microphones. In 1930, Samuel J. Shure gave up and left the struggling business. (The official company name, however, remained as "Shure Brothers, Inc." for many decades.)
Meanwhile, Sidney N. Shure recognized the vast potential of the microphone market and focused all resources on R&D, striving to evolve from a mere reseller to a manufacturer as soon as possible. He hired a recent University Of Cincinnati graduate, talented engineer Ralph Glover, who spearheaded the development of Shure's first original microphone. (The exact identity of Glover hasn't been documented; possibly it was Ralph Packard Glover, Jr. (1907—1964) from Maine.) In 1932, the company announced "Model 33N Two-Button Carbon Microphone," becoming only the fourth US manufacturer after Western Electric, Radio Corporation Of America, and Electro-Voice. Between 1932 and 1939, Shure premiered the first condenser and crystal microphones, as well as a patented suspension mount system. During World War II, Shure Brothers earned the US Department of War contract as the official microphone supplier for the military troops. Shure began selling replacement styluses for turntables circa 1933, and subsequently, it became the firm's second most lucrative market. By the mid-1940s, Shure was the largest North American supplier of phonograph cartridges, serving as an OEM contractor for virtually every popular brand in the US, including Philco, RCA, Magnavox, Admiral, Emerson, and Motorola.
In May 1946, the current corporate entity, Shure Incorporated, was established. In 1981, James Hartley Kogen (1927—2004), Executive VC of Operations, was promoted and became the President and General Manager. In 1995, after 93-year-old Sidney Shure died, his widow, Rose Langer Shure (1920—2016), became the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Between May 1996 and July 2016, Santo Anthony "Sandy" Lamantia (b. 1947) served as the President and CEO, succeeded by Christine M. "Chris" Schyvinck (b. 1967).
Legacy & impact
Mostly focused on non-consumer professional audio today, "Shure" was a household name in North America between the late 1950s and mid-1980s, with an impeccable reputation of the best domestic Hi-Fi brand, particularly for phonograph cartridges — on the scale of Altec Lansing (1927–1995), JBL (est. 1946), Klipsch (est. 1946), McIntosh (est. 1949), Acoustic Research (1954–1996), and Dynaco (1955–1980). The "M44-7" cartridge even gained a cameo in the 1979 action thriller The Warriors, directed by Walter Hill and co-written with David Shaber. (As the film gained a cult following in recent years, this "needle drop" montage, by itself, is now celebrated by cinephiles among the best music-related movie scenes of the era, with other filmmakers paying their homage, as recently and unexpectedly as in Phil Lord/Christopher Miller's 2023 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse superhero Marvel animated film.)
In the professional community, the company's founder, engineer and inventor Sidney N. Shure (1902—1995), is hailed as a visionary pioneer and one of the most impactful figures in the development of microphone technology, of the same stature and historical significance as Les Paul (1915—2009) to guitars, Laurens Hammond (1895—1973) and Harold Rhodes (1910—2000) to electric organs, or Robert Moog (1934—2005) and Donald Buchla (1937—2016) to synthesizers and digital signal processing. In 1939, Shure released the iconic "Model 55SH Unidyne" — arguably, one of the first instantly recognizable microphones in history. (In 2014, a ":studio-microphone:" 🎙️ Unicode emoji, U+1F399, was explicitly described in the technical proposal as a "vintage, silver microphone, like the Shure Unidyne 55.") The "Shure SM" series, which began with SM57 (1965) and SM58 (1966) multipurpose microphones, subsequently became the de facto "industry standard" for live vocal performance. Two models (virtually identical except for different grilles) are still in production today as the best-selling microphones worldwide, renowned for durability and versatile sound characteristics. Every US president since Lyndon B. Johnson (1908—1973) has been using a custom "SM57 Presidential Pair" setup for their speeches. Despite its plain and utilitarian design, the microphone became a "culture icon," with images of great musicians, from Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield to Patti Smith and Robert Lockwood Jr. singing into Shure's SM58 on stage recognized as milestones in rock'n'roll visual history, like Rickenbacker's "fry-pans" associated with The Beatles and Fender's renowned "Stratocaster," the weapon of choice for Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, to name just a few.