

Blenders joined Instagram while the platform was still young, and while brands in their category - sunglasses - weren’t overly present. He said timing plays a big role in a startup’s success on social platforms. The brand has 360,000 followers on Instagram.
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He attributes part of Blenders’ success to their creative ad campaigns (enticing users to sign up for email ads by offering high-stakes rewards, like free trips to Hawaii), and their early use of social media marketing. Miro Copic, a marketing and branding lecturer at San Diego State University, said the styles are fun, but not overly audacious either - appealing to a mass-market audience. There are purple polarized lenses with tortoiseshell frames, unicorn pink gradients and sky-blue aviators.Ī post shared by Blenders Eyewear® on at 2:20pm PDT Blenders, which employs 30 people in San Diego, has an in-house team of designers who are constantly coming out with new lines. But it’s likely the styles that get customers hooked. The frames feel sturdy without being overly heavy, and the lenses - often polarized - are clear. They’re not cheap, but they’re not prohibitively expensive either. So he designed his own sunglasses and named them “Blenders,” riffing off the street name he lived on in the core of Pacific Beach: Hornblend Street.īlenders sunglasses sell for about $40 to $60, depending on the style. “If you wanted to get a pair of shades back then, you basically had two options: spend $100 on a brand, or buy a $5 pair on the boardwalk that you didn’t even like that much,” Fisher said.

“They were literally prying them off my face.”įisher said the moment made him realize there was demand for colorful, beachy sunglasses that were more fashionable (and sturdier) than the Target variety. “People kept coming up to me saying, these are crazy! Let me try them on,’” Fisher said. He went to Target and bought a pair of cheap, neon green sunglasses to wear that night. One night in 2011, he was headed to see a DJ at San Diego’s FLUXX nightclub and decided to go shopping first for some new clothes. Everywhere he looked, he saw the same sunglasses: Oakleys and Ray-Bans, two brands that carry hefty price tags. During college, he spent a lot of time at the beach as a surf coach. While it would seem the market was not in need of yet another sunglass brand, Fisher perceived a gaping hole in the market. What’s the big deal with these sunglasses? Also, whether expensive or not, a few brands design their sunglasses in one location and then mass produce them in countries like China, which helps lower the overhead for creating and selling shades.A post shared by Blenders Eyewear® on at 5:34pm PDT For example, options from brands like Persol are handmade in Italy and use various lens types that help to block UV rays while giving off a glowing/colorful finish and have earned a reputation for being both high-end and fashionable. Options on the costly end of the scale, like Ray-Ban and some designer frames, hail from places like Italy and China and use relatively accessible materials. And, as a contacts-to-glasses convert, who really wants to wear contacts after all?Īnother critical detail regarding sunglasses prices and whether they're cheap or expensive are the materials, production methods, and location.

That way you get to see even when you're being protected by the sun. If you do wear prescription glasses, though, I'd argue a pricier pair is more worth your money. Truthfully, I wore cheap sunglasses exclusively back when I wore contacts because I could wear any, with my vision being reliant on small circular films inside my eye instead of the frames on my face. The sunglasses listed below are rarely above $60 bucks, making them fairly easy to replace and forget. But then, grab a new pair, and summer on. As such, it's OK to lament the minor loss. If your sunglasses go missing, it's still money out of your pocket. And if they disappear into shuffled sand, at least you’re only out around half (sometimes a little more) a hundred bucks. As warmer weather settles in and days in the sun become more abundant, we’ve rounded up inexpensive eyewear - all under $60 (or just above) - that exude style while still keeping your retinas safe from the scorching sun.
