There’s a certain magic to pressing play on a cassette. That quiet mechanical click. The hum of the spools spinning. The warm, slightly imperfect sound that follows, alive with texture, with history. In a world of spotless streaming, that crackle feels almost rebellious.
That spirit of analogue rebellion sits at the heart of We Are Rewind, the French audio design house quietly reimagining the humble cassette player for a new generation. And this month, they’ve outdone themselves: the brand has teamed up with the estate of Elvis Presley for its most striking release yet, the We Are Rewind x Elvis Presley Limited Edition Box Set, limited to just 1,957 units worldwide, in tribute to the year Elvis’ Christmas Album first hit shelves.
It’s an object that feels more like a time capsule than a gadget, a matte-black WE-001 player with gold detailing, packed alongside a freshly remastered cassette edition of Elvis’ Christmas Album and presented in a collector’s box stamped with the King’s silhouette in gold foil. It’s designed to look like something Elvis himself might have carried in 1968 and to sound like something he’d actually use today.
“It’s not nostalgia — it’s tactility”
Romain Boudruche on making the past sound better
When Romain Boudruche and his co-founders launched We Are Rewind, they didn’t expect to start a movement.
“At first, it was just a passion project,” he tells me from Paris. “We missed that physical connection to music. You hold a cassette, you flip it, you listen to a full album — there’s an intentionality to it. That’s what we wanted back.”
The brand’s first product, the WE-001, quickly became a cult hit, an all-aluminium, rechargeable, Bluetooth-enabled cassette player that looked like a Walkman but behaved like a 21st-century audio tool.
“We didn’t want to make a toy,” Boudruche says. “It had to be solid, reliable, high-quality. The kind of thing you’d actually use, not just put on a shelf.”
That commitment to craft extended to the smallest details. “The aluminium casing, for example, caused us so many problems,” he laughs.
“It’s beautiful, but it blocks the Bluetooth signal. So, we had to rethink everything: the antenna, the layout, and the structure, to make it work. It was very French, very complicated,” he jokes, “but also very rewarding.”
The gamble paid off. What began as a Kickstarter project in 2019 became one of the most talked-about examples of retro design done right. And surprisingly, it wasn’t just nostalgic Gen Xers or vinyl collectors buying them.
“Half our customers are under 30,” says Boudruche. “They’ve grown up on Spotify. They’ve never had to wait for a song before. So when they discover cassettes, it feels exciting, like they’re reclaiming something real.”
Pop culture helped, too. “Guardians of the Galaxy definitely started the cassette revival,” Boudruche admits. “People saw that film and thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool again.’ Then artists like Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift started releasing their albums on tape, and suddenly, it wasn’t just a retro novelty. It became part of how music is experienced again.”
Taking Care of Business
That brings us to Elvis. For Boudruche, the collaboration with the Presley estate wasn’t just about branding; it was about emotion.
“Elvis is a symbol of timelessness,” he says. “He represents a golden age of performance, of design, of sound. We wanted this edition to feel like something that could have existed in his era, but with today’s precision. So we looked at the ‘68 Comeback Special, that red ‘ELVIS’ light sign, and thought, yes, that’s our inspiration.”
The result is a blend of tribute and innovation: a Bluetooth 5.1-enabled player with 12-hour playback, recording functionality, and a hand-tuned motor for smoother analogue playback. It’s sleek, substantial, and unmistakably stylish like a piece of industrial art that happens to play Blue Christmas.
“We’re always balancing modern convenience with that analogue soul,” Boudruche says. “You can connect wireless headphones if you want, but you can also plug in a pair of old-school cans and get lost in the sound. It’s that choice that people love.”
As for what’s next, Boudruche hints at more collaborations and a bigger ecosystem. “We’re working on a boombox, something portable but powerful, and we’re talking with a few artists for limited editions,” he says, eyes twinkling. “Let’s just say… there’s a lot more music history to rewind.”
The King lives on
The We Are Rewind x Elvis Presley Box Set isn’t just a product; it’s a small act of preservation. It celebrates the moment music first became modern when art, design, and attitude collided to create something timeless. And like the man himself, it refuses to fade quietly into history.
With only 1,957 units available worldwide, at €179 / $199. It’s both a collector’s piece and a love letter to a bygone era, an invitation to slow down, press play, and let the reels turn once more.
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