8 Eyewear: From Idea, to Launch, to Growth (And Quitting the Job)

[Envision]

It's been a while since I read through this thread, but I thought there was someone that tried to copy @Vick idea and sell some Alibaba/China import sunglasses. From memory, it didn't go to well for them and they got banned pretty damned quick.

It's a shame that people copy/steal others ideas and completely rip them off. It ruins the forum for everyone as people will always be tempted to hold back. I know in my progress thread that I'd love to ask more questions, but in doing so, I'll give away my product and market (which have low barriers to entry) and risk copycats saturating the market with low priced, low imagination products.

This is true, I remember it was awhile back but the person essentially copied everything from the look to the website. However, you could tell how crappy it looked and yes they were banned.

 

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[Vick]

It's been a while since I read through this thread, but I thought there was someone that tried to copy @Vick idea and sell some Alibaba/China import sunglasses. From memory, it didn't go to well for them and they got banned pretty damned quick.

It's a shame that people copy/steal others ideas and completely rip them off. It ruins the forum for everyone as people will always be tempted to hold back. I know in my progress thread that I'd love to ask more questions, but in doing so, I'll give away my product and market (which have low barriers to entry) and risk copycats saturating the market with low priced, low imagination products.

Lol ya. He's still selling though. I don't really care anymore. He's doing his own thing. Even though he still copy stuff from my website but whatever. Some people just don't have style, there leaches. We're well beyond them. This year should be great for us. I have alot coming out this year. I even took out a huge bank loan for growth.

 

[Laughingman21]

This year should be great for us. I have alot coming out this year. I even took out a huge bank loan for growth.

This sounds exciting. Keep the thread updated as it's an inspiration for everyone trying to move into the fastlane.

 

[goldstein]

Wow, what a roller coaster that was!!

thank you so much for sharing your journey @Vick . I admire how mentally strong you are. The way you dealt with all the BS is simply remarkable. This thread is the very essence of entrepreneurship. Thank you for making your story available to us, I've learned a lot and I have a better comprehension of what it really takes to make it.

Cheers !

 

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[Sander]

Hey Vick!

Just heard about a new Danish company with an ambition to sell sunglasses (thought of 8's and you instantly) for $20 millions in the next couple of years. Their strategy is high end sunglasses with a discount price tag.

Just wanted to share it with you for a heads up / inspiration

MESSYWEEKEND SUNGLASSES - Anything but boring

 

[Vick]

Small update.

Sales are still low. FB ads are being a bitch. I'll figure it out though.

So we've finalized 4 new frames. 2 aviators and 2 wayfarer style. Should have them by summer. Frame names are.... VLUX. VAPOR. VORTEX. VEKTOR.

Working on 2 fresh sport frames. The V2 which will replace the V1 and the VIZOR frame. Which I think speaks for itself.

Also working on 2 ski/snowboard goggles.

Apparel is still early in concepts. Not sure how long that will take. Or how much I wanna put to it.

guess that's it business wise. As for personal "fun" stuff.

Thinking of trading the Porsche GT4 in for a 2017 R8 blue finish.

On the side I've been working on a personal goal for the past 2 years. Which is writing a screenplay. Was thinking of maybe starting a new thread on that progress. Not sure yet though. Anyway, been taking some masterclasses online at masterclass.Com as well as a ton of other research. Slowing making progress on plot. Been doing a lot of CG work again as well for that, character wise. Super fun. Anyway, maybe I'll talk more about that progress later.

Cheers for now my friends. I'll finish with a quote I love.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
- Bruce Lee

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

Really great to see that you're still pushing forward even in a slow period.

Would love to chat with you sometime, especially since we've both worked in the games industry and have similar stories. Keep it up.

 

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[PaulRobert]

Sales are still low. FB ads are being a bitch.

This is a recurring theme that I myself have experienced and dozen of other business/brand owners have as well, especially this past 1.5 months. I feel as if the FB advertising platform has reached a tipping point to where you need to spend at minimum 3x of your average monthly budget to see any kind of decent results. (Which I have not.) It has become much more difficult for the ones that own our OWN products due to the huge influx of these "kool-aid guru wannabe entrepreneurs" flooding FB with drop shipping mediocre products from the Ali sites.

It's time now to get more creative with new marketing channels that haven't been infested with the guru virus.

But awesome update Vik! Congrats on the upcoming line!

 

[Vick]

It's time now to get more creative with new marketing channels that haven't been infested with the guru virus.

Do you have suggestions?

 

[PaulRobert]

Do you have suggestions?

Not at this moment. Figuring out that part now.

 

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[ruzara5]

new marketing channels that haven't been infested with the guru virus.

This is a interesting challenge. I know there is a infinite ocean of marketing channels. A few are not completely 'guru infested' so far I do see some familiar faces in those channels related to the growing video market methods of presentation. Likely there will be more outlets in the near future. Step into those and you will be 'guru virus free' on the cusp. For awhile. Then get your scale on with the next one.

 

[B. Cole]

Have you established any kind of promotional relationships with other business to move each other’s products?

IE: An outdoor gear company willing to give a free or discounted pair of your glasses with a high dollar cooler purchase, or a less expensive product that would advertise to their customers to receive their product for free or at a discount when they purchase a pair of your eyewear, etc. It would be a creative venture for both parties to haggle out the details.

I have not tried this yet, as my product isn’t nearly far enough along for such promotion.

@PaulRobert @Vick

 

[Vick]

Have you established any kind of promotional relationships with other business to move each other’s products?

IE: An outdoor gear company willing to give a free or discounted pair of your glasses with a high dollar cooler purchase, or a less expensive product that would advertise to their customers to receive their product for free or at a discount when they purchase a pair of your eyewear, etc. It would be a creative venture for both parties to haggle out the details.

I have not tried this yet, as my product isn’t nearly far enough along for such promotion.

@PaulRobert @Vick

havent really looked into this that much. awhile back BattlBox BattlBox - Survival Gear and Tactical Gear Delivered Monthly - Subscri wanted to do something, but our products margins were too high for them. they initially wanted 10,000 units, so ya, that wouldve been sweet.

 

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[Vick]

Update.

Well, slowly getting out of my FB / IG advertising nightmare. Been sloggin in front of my com for months.

But I'm finally back up to where I used to be, and it's looking like my ads may even push well beyond that over the next few weeks/months. So hopefully that trend continues... Fingers crossed.

And with our 4 new frames releasing this summer things should be good.
As far as our 4 new frames, everything is finally finalized. Just waiting on financing. Everything should go into production within a week or so. I'll upload some pics soon of our new frames.

Apparel is still in the works, kinda allover the place with this, there's so much i can do. But in a few weeks or so I'll be releasing some (temp) apparel through Printful.com (also an app for shopify that integrates). To test a bit, before committing to higher end designs, which will require materials to be cut from scratch instead of just images on standard clothing. Good thing about Printful is there's no inventory, i get an order, they make it, they ship it. Bad thing is margins, but like I said, it's for testing purposes and to get an apparel line out quickly while I work on better stuff. Anyway, gonna test that.

Starting in a few days, on the 8th of May, we'll be doing a Giveaway contest, which will continue every month on the 8th. Planned out some giveaway contests on social. So we'll see how that does.

I have 3 concepts in the works for ski/snowboard googles, these will go into production hopefully around June, so that we have them by Winter.

-------------------

Now, other stuff.

Been juggling back and forth with the idea of actually starting a "company" hiring people, office space, etc.

But to be honest. I don't even know where to begin. Even though I've researched it, not sure who to hire first, what to do, I'm like void of anything on the subject. OR if it's a good idea at this point. Because the whole point of me creating something was to have more free time, I feel like if I pull the trigger on this I'm gonna be stuck in an office environment again everyday. OR maybe I'll like it, OR maybe I wont. But it's not like I can just shut it off when i start it.

I do feel however that if I had a team of talented people we could push well beyond 3-5 million... Maybe.

Decisions, decisions.

Anyone have suggestions on who to hire, positions, etc. Any info would be great. Maybe @MJ DeMarco or some other people can chime in with there thoughts.

 

[Vick]

Click Through Rates
Ad spend 744$ CAD... Revenue that day was $1560 USD $923 CAD not too shabby for ad spend, Keep in mind i"m doing this slowly,trying to slowly get back to where i was and better. Gunning for 6k a day while maintaining this ad spend %. I've been doing something differently lately with ads, seems to be working great.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Maybe @MJ DeMarco or some other people can chime in with there thoughts.

This is a personal decision.

Having employees initially allowed me to be OUT of the office more, and remain creative.

But the more I added, the more I had to manage.

When I realized that "more" wasn't going to make me "more happy", I decided to sell my company. (Where the company needed to go would have required a lot of more time and investment.)

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

The answer to this can help answer some questions and give you clarity.

Also on "who" to hire, I'd be looking to hire a mix of 1) Someone who can add time to my life and remove admin hassles so I can be creative and 2) Someone who can grow the company.

 

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[buildingbetter]

68 pages that definitely deserved gold! Thank you so much for sharing your journey. As others have said, you've given so much value to the people who've read it.

Re: hiring and being tied to an office. Hiring remote employees is always an option. I don't have experience of it from the hiring perspective but I have always worked remotely. Maybe others can chime in on their experiences of that from a hiring perspective. A virtual assistant might be a good first step, to manage the busy work that you don't need to be doing so you can concentrate on designs, etc.

 

[MitchC]

I don’t remember in the thread but do you have any experience hiring freelancers for projects on Upwork to start freeing up time? I understand there’s a big difference between that and building a team that shows up everyday and focuses on the business but it could be a good way to start and to learn about what to look for when hiring and what you need and where would be a good place to start with who you hire.

 

[biophase]

Update.

Well, slowly getting out of my FB / IG advertising nightmare. Been sloggin in front of my com for months.

But I'm finally back up to where I used to be, and it's looking like my ads may even push well beyond that over the next few weeks/months. So hopefully that trend continues... Fingers crossed.

And with our 4 new frames releasing this summer things should be good.
As far as our 4 new frames, everything is finally finalized. Just waiting on financing. Everything should go into production within a week or so. I'll upload some pics soon of our new frames.

Apparel is still in the works, kinda allover the place with this, there's so much i can do. But in a few weeks or so I'll be releasing some (temp) apparel through Printful.com (also an app for shopify that integrates). To test a bit, before committing to higher end designs, which will require materials to be cut from scratch instead of just images on standard clothing. Good thing about Printful is there's no inventory, i get an order, they make it, they ship it. Bad thing is margins, but like I said, it's for testing purposes and to get an apparel line out quickly while I work on better stuff. Anyway, gonna test that.

Starting in a few days, on the 8th of May, we'll be doing a Giveaway contest, which will continue every month on the 8th. Planned out some giveaway contests on social. So we'll see how that does.

I have 3 concepts in the works for ski/snowboard googles, these will go into production hopefully around June, so that we have them by Winter.

-------------------

Now, other stuff.

Been juggling back and forth with the idea of actually starting a "company" hiring people, office space, etc.

But to be honest. I don't even know where to begin. Even though I've researched it, not sure who to hire first, what to do, I'm like void of anything on the subject. OR if it's a good idea at this point. Because the whole point of me creating something was to have more free time, I feel like if I pull the trigger on this I'm gonna be stuck in an office environment again everyday. OR maybe I'll like it, OR maybe I wont. But it's not like I can just shut it off when i start it.

I do feel however that if I had a team of talented people we could push well beyond 3-5 million... Maybe.

Decisions, decisions.

Anyone have suggestions on who to hire, positions, etc. Any info would be great. Maybe @MJ DeMarco or some other people can chime in with there thoughts.

Vick, my personal opinion. Like you I was doing pretty well running a small business. This business and enabled me to buy things I’d like, like a Ferrari, an R8, etc...

And I was fine with that for many many years. What my business did not let me do was buy the mutliple $1.5 million vacation home that I want, or allow me to fly business class. These are things that I did not want 10 years ago but now that I am older and don’t like economy seats or small condos, I wish that I could afford business class seats.

I also want to create a business that stands the test of time. Versus before I was just creating a business to fund my lifestyle.

Your wants will change over time, and when they do you will be ready to take the next step. Maybe you weren’t ready to do that right now because you see doing so as increased time spent versus growing your business and opening up a lot more opportunities in your future.

 

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[Greg R]

Click Through Rates
Ad spend 744$ CAD... Revenue that day was $1560 USD $923 CAD not too shabby for ad spend, Keep in mind i"m doing this slowly,trying to slowly get back to where i was and better. Gunning for 6k a day while maintaining this ad spend %. I've been doing something differently lately with ads, seems to be working great.

View attachment 19310

What have you been doing differently with your ads?

 

[MitchC]

May I ask what your audience sizes are and your daily budget based on audience size you would recommend? Seeing that screenshot made me think wow just like my ad account but bigger budgets, I should start to scale

 

[advancedyn]

ya im gonna drive over a few. see if they live

Supercar burnouts with the glasses getting spit out from beneath the tires.

 

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[Vick]

Supercar burnouts with the glasses getting spit out from beneath the tires.

lol ya, dont think they'd survive that

 

[Vick]

What have you been doing differently with your ads?

May I ask what your audience sizes are and your daily budget based on audience size you would recommend? Seeing that screenshot made me think wow just like my ad account but bigger budgets, I should start to scale

Maybe I'll do a video, there's alot. typing it would be a nightmare. lol

I do however do alot more IG now, through IG, not FB manager. I found re-targeting social media interaction pays off as well, even more so then website visits.

 

[advancedyn]

Maybe you can develop an additional product at a lower price point and sell it as a tripwire through fb ads. Something for $20-30. Then video retargeting with your main product. Cant think of a fitting "cheaper" product though...

Just the 8 logo'd bag/case/cleaning cloth (or all three) for people who can't afford the sunglasses but want to "front." These are people who obviously WANT the glasses. They will continue to subconsciously see the logo and perhaps become a full-blown sale at some point. Plus it gets the brand out there for others to see more too.

 

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[advancedyn]

No there were issues with China. Had to can it with that company.

So, you ended up needing to move your molds afterall? How did that process go?

 

[buildingbetter]

So, you ended up needing to move your molds afterall? How did that process go?

I think the aviator style were originally being made without custom molds.

It'd be good to hear an update on your supplier though, Vick. I know early on it looked like you might have to find a new supplier. Did you end up sticking with them? If you did, any issues since?

 

[advancedyn]

Whoa! I FINALLY powered through this entire thread! Congratulations on your awesome success. Thank you opening up your entire life here to us. I too am glad you didn't take the thread down. You are an absolutely HUGE inspiration. I have a ton of bookmarks from this thread. lol. I've had an idea in my head for a couple of years now but had stopped working on it after being told by a local IP attorney it was going to cost six figures to get it off the ground. That just wasn't an option for me. In speaking with @Eskil last week, he told me that wasn't accurate at all. Reading through your thread here just solidified that for me. I'm back on track with it now at Mach 8 and intend to use a ton of stuff I learned here to make it something that will enable me to move out to the Scottsdale area too! You are awesome Mark! Here's to your continued massive growth! Cheers!

Grant

 

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[Vick]

I think the aviator style were originally being made without custom molds.

It'd be good to hear an update on your supplier though, Vick. I know early on it looked like you might have to find a new supplier. Did you end up sticking with them? If you did, any issues since?

I'm still with the same supplier for V.1 and VX. For the new models I have a different supplier. It's good to have multiple suppliers.

I haven't really had any issues, other then lens problems here and there. For the most part there very good and reliable. I'll be doing the VIZOR frame and new V2 with them this year.

I also have a 3rd supplier lined up for ski/snow googles.

 

[Eskil]

after being told by a local IP attorney it was going to cost six figures to get it off the ground. That just wasn't an option for me. In speaking with @Eskil last week, he told me that wasn't accurate at all.

Lol, yeah I have learned to always ask around and never take one person's opinion as fact.