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

[Vick]

Selling the R8.

I've had quite the awakening over the past few months. And spent many hours pondering at night where my life is headed.

Sometimes the things we think we want most in life, turn out to be false. But the only way you know for sure is to experience it.

This is for me personally, so take it as you will. But I've come to realize that Luxurious crap, is hollow.

I've decided to pursue a new goal in life. A simple life.

That is all.

 

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[MTF]

I love that you decided to keep it real and state it publicly.

How are you going to change your life to simplify it?

Also, just curious: what car are you going to buy now? Something cheaper that doesn't stand out much?

 

[#nowhere]

You've my honest respect for this insight. Followed you secretly here in your thread. With big interest.

After your last update I tried to find the origin of: "you accumulate posessions until they posess you"... or something in this direction.

What I found (does also fit ):

 

[TedM]

Great decision. Keep a diary of everything you are going through/thinking of now. It's hugely important stuff - for you, as lessons to your kids, and to share at some point.

 

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[Longinus]

Vick, thanks for sharing all of this. I read this entire thread and sometimes I felt the same tension as when watching an action movie where the good guy is about to die, but you know he will survive because he's a hero.

You're a hero.

I came up with some ideas the last week:

- Since your design is based on the R8, wouldn't it be nice to make models with the exact color of some supercars? Like that poison green of of Lamborghini or some Ferrari red? In other words: to let the glasses match with the supercars? Most people don't own one, but it's a nice feature.

- Couple of weeks ago, I went on a little motorboat wearing sunglasses. The water got on my glasses and after it dried up, there was salt on the glasses which sucked because you need clear water (which I didn't had on that boat) to remove the salt. I thought this is probably an issue for guys who are on boats all the time? Didn't look if it existed or not, but maybe a future idea for you.

Thanks for this amazing thread.

 

[Fox]

@Vick

For your social media links sent it to open in another tab (target="_blank").

At the moment people leave the site altogether (after you worked so hard to get them there) and can easily get distracted with notifications on their social media account. For any outside link always try have it open in a new tab.



Good stuff with the R8. While toys aren't bad they aren't everything either. There is a lot to do in the world, people to help and other things to create. Its good to have the perspective I what you thought you wanted to truly know whats important. I wish you all the best.

 

[Jake]

Can the R8 be turned into a business asset though? I get where you're coming from but I'm thinking when selling a luxury product the appearance of luxury can be an asset. The name is also fitting..an RX8 doesn't quite do it. I just googled hemi 8 and I wanted to vomit. I thought it was an engine and not that ridiculous thing.

I guess you can easily enough get photo shoots done with R8's - the license plate is epic though.

Hope you continue to kickass and the new models go over well. Best of luck in your journey. Your venture and openness has definitely assisted me in my pursuit. Thanks for that.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Selling the R8.

I've had quite the awakening over the past few months. And spent many hours pondering at night where my life is headed.

Sometimes the things we think we want most in life, turn out to be false. But the only way you know for sure is to experience it.

This is for me personally, so take it as you will. But I've come to realize that Luxurious crap, is hollow.

I've decided to pursue a new goal in life. A simple life.

That is all.

What was the moment of realization? An incident? A conversation? Just curious!

 

[RHL]

What was the moment of realization? An incident? A conversation? Just curious!

Would be great to hear, for sure.

 

[Vick]

What was the moment of realization? An incident? A conversation? Just curious!

Been feeling like this for awhile. Probably about 2 months after I purchased it I started thinking differently more so. How these fancy possessions didn't really satisfy my life happiness in any way. If they did. It was only temporary.
Also started thinking back to when I was happy. And that was when me and the wife were living in small place before I started working at Ubisoft. We didn't have much. But we were really happy with what we had. Other then me working at the time life was good.
So ya, hard to explain. But one thing is for sure. Expensive crap doesn't fill the void. At least not for me. In fact it can make life much more complicated.
My dream before all the expensive crap was just to have a small place on the beach in the caribbean somewhere. Something simple. Nothing fancy.
Maybe my next chapter in the search for balance in my life lies there. Who knows. But like I said above. I need to find out, to know for sure.

 

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[TKDTyler]

Been feeling like this for awhile. Probably about 2 months after I purchased it I started thinking differently more so. How these fancy possessions didn't really satisfy my life happiness in any way. If they did. It was only temporary.
Also started thinking back to when I was happy. And that was when me and the wife were living in small place before I started working at Ubisoft. We didn't have much. But we were really happy with what we had. Other then me working at the time life was good.
So ya, hard to explain. But one thing is for sure. Expensive crap doesn't fill the void. At least not for me. In fact it can make life much more complicated.
My dream before all the expensive crap was just to have a small place on the beach in the caribbean somewhere. Something simple. Nothing fancy.
Maybe my next chapter in the search for balance in my life lies there. Who knows. But like I said above. I need to find out, to know for sure.

I find it fascinating that while we all know and have heard countless times that money and materialism will not make a person fulfilled, we do not fully comprehend the meaning internally until some event happens. Just like with understanding that family is most important where often times it takes the loss of a loved one to from knowing to understanding., it takes having everything to understand its meaningless.

With that said, what kind of advice would you give to those that strive for materialistic things? Would you work towards changing their mindset, or allow them to understand it the same way you did?

 

[FreeMan]

@Vick - Finally read your entire thread from start to finish over the last few weeks. It's an amazing 'hero's journey' you have documented and shared with everyone here over the past few years.

I echo other commenters as your story being the Fastlane blueprint - creating a unique proprietary product (having control) in a well established market with incredible execution and persistence (someone was already doing it but you did it better).

My dream before all the expensive crap was just to have a small place on the beach in the caribbean somewhere. Something simple. Nothing fancy.

Glad to hear you have found out what doesn't make you happy and on the path to find what does.

I understand you are not your market, but do you think your newfound perspective will have any impact on how you run or view your business given you are mainly serving the luxury market?

 

[MitchC]

@Vick - Finally read your entire thread from start to finish over the last few weeks. It's an amazing 'hero's journey' you have documented and shared with everyone here over the past few years.

I echo other commenters as your story being the Fastlane blueprint - creating a unique proprietary product (having control) in a well established market with incredible execution and persistence (someone was already doing it but you did it better).



Glad to hear you have found out what doesn't make you happy and on the path to find what does.

I understand you are not your market, but do you think your newfound perspective will have any impact on how you run or view your business given you are mainly serving the luxury market?

Just going to leave this here in regard to your question, it was posted in a thread somewhere here https://medium.com/@martinzagorsek/luxury-minimalism-and-meaning-a276ed82c4b2#.d1q12e7oh

 

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[Vick]

I find it fascinating that while we all know and have heard countless times that money and materialism will not make a person fulfilled, we do not fully comprehend the meaning internally until some event happens. Just like with understanding that family is most important where often times it takes the loss of a loved one to from knowing to understanding., it takes having everything to understand its meaningless.

With that said, what kind of advice would you give to those that strive for materialistic things? Would you work towards changing their mindset, or allow them to understand it the same way you did?

I probably wouldn't have gotten this far this fast I'd I didn't love cars so much, and desired one so badly. It was a goal. Goals are important.
I would say learn for yourself like did.

 

[Vick]

@Vick - Finally read your entire thread from start to finish over the last few weeks. It's an amazing 'hero's journey' you have documented and shared with everyone here over the past few years.

I echo other commenters as your story being the Fastlane blueprint - creating a unique proprietary product (having control) in a well established market with incredible execution and persistence (someone was already doing it but you did it better).



Glad to hear you have found out what doesn't make you happy and on the path to find what does.

I understand you are not your market, but do you think your newfound perspective will have any impact on how you run or view your business given you are mainly serving the luxury market?

No I don't think so. In fact the opposite is turning out to be true.
I work more now. I'm designing all the time. Have 4 models planned for release next year now. Instead of 2.
I find myself working better amd harder on my company. Rather then thinking about driving my car around for hours on end. Or buying crap online. Etc.
My mind is more focused on the success of my company and brand.
Just another chapter in my journey.
The climax will hopefully be me selling the company one day.
I did have another venture I wanted to pursue. But I think at this point now. It's best to put all my cash flow where it's needed.

 

[Mr.Chaos]

So I'm tailgating and I see a fellow falcons fan wearing your shades he's actually into manufacturing really was cool seeing them in the wild and he loves them.. make a good product and your customers will advertise it for you!!!

 

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[Vick]

So I'm tailgating and I see a fellow falcons fan wearing your shades he's actually into manufacturing really was cool seeing them in the wild and he loves them.. make a good product and your customers will advertise it for you!!!

That's awesome!!!
Love seeing stuff like this. Thanks for sharing!

See what I mean. It's stuff like this that give me more satisfaction then any possession.

 

[sWALK90]

Nice! but yea im also feeling the same with the whole vehicle thing its cool but gets boring after a while

 

[LateStarter]

Congrats on the epiphany @Vick! Glad to see I'm not alone on the simplification plan. That has always been my end goal; to create a lifestyle of freedom more so than wealth. People and experiences matter much more than 'things' to me. Not judging others mind you, just my personal views.

I'm not where you are yet on the business side, but I already several other things in place to help get me to this ultimate end goal. I encourage you to keep digging and analyzing what you and the family want out of life. Just like the R8, island life might sound tempting now but is that just another stop on the journey or the true destination? Either is ok, but knowing it's value to you will help to avoid future disappointments.

 

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[Jake]

Huh

Just found out that one of our retailers is pushing our stuff on amazon.com

Vick,
Just a bit of food for thought. I've noticed that when I push ads to my site my amazon sales also go up quite a bit (usually more so than the actual sales to my site - if FB traffic anyway)

It's a spillage effect. The retailer may be capitalizing on your ad spend. You may be fine with this and you seem content with the relationship but I'd just like to put it out there incase you haven't considered this.

I noticed the same years ago when I had a book on clickbank and the same book on amazon. Sales were fairly slow on amazon until a few large affiliates got ahold of it on clickbank. They started pushing a ton of traffic to my website and at the same time my amazon sales went up around 10x. You get spillage onto Amazon as it's a platform that people are comfortable with. They have their credit card setup there, prime accounts, free shipping, details already inserted etc, etc. People will naturally check to see if they can purchase the same item on amazon when they see and item they're interested in.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Vick,
Just a bit of food for thought. I've noticed that when I push ads to my site my amazon sales also go up quite a bit (usually more so than the actual sales to my site - if FB traffic anyway)

It's a spillage effect. The retailer may be capitalizing on your ad spend. You may be fine with this and you seem content with the relationship but I'd just like to put it out there incase you haven't considered this.

I noticed the same years ago when I had a book on clickbank and the same book on amazon. Sales were fairly slow on amazon until a few large affiliates got ahold of it on clickbank. They started pushing a ton of traffic to my website and at the same time my amazon sales went up around 10x. You get spillage onto Amazon as it's a platform that people are comfortable with. They have their credit card setup there, prime accounts, free shipping, details already inserted etc, etc. People will naturally check to see if they can purchase the same item on amazon when they see and item they're interested in.

This is my experience as well.

 

[Vick]

Vick,
Just a bit of food for thought. I've noticed that when I push ads to my site my amazon sales also go up quite a bit (usually more so than the actual sales to my site - if FB traffic anyway)

It's a spillage effect. The retailer may be capitalizing on your ad spend. You may be fine with this and you seem content with the relationship but I'd just like to put it out there incase you haven't considered this.

I noticed the same years ago when I had a book on clickbank and the same book on amazon. Sales were fairly slow on amazon until a few large affiliates got ahold of it on clickbank. They started pushing a ton of traffic to my website and at the same time my amazon sales went up around 10x. You get spillage onto Amazon as it's a platform that people are comfortable with. They have their credit card setup there, prime accounts, free shipping, details already inserted etc, etc. People will naturally check to see if they can purchase the same item on amazon when they see and item they're interested in.

Yes it's an issue we've been juggling. We may have to ban this retailer from amazon.

 

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[Kinematic]

@Vick, I joined the INSIDERS just a few days ago and your thread alone is worth the purchase.

Your whole journey is a true inspiration! You've overcome problem after problem. I'll be referring back to this thread for times when I'm doubting myself or need an extra boost. Ill be following your journey from now on!

I'm looking forward to making my own progress thread. I still need to find my niche, ironic how the fact that I can pursue anything keeps me from doing anything.

 

[Vick]

If anyone's interested. This is what I do.
Video of VIATOR concept creation process, from start to finish.
Inspiration is from a Audemars Piguet watch.
Video is obviously sped up, had to cut a lot, hard to compress 10 hours of work into 11 minutes, so ya, the length of 2 songs.
Make sure HD is on. Hope you like.

LINK: if the vid doesnt work
vimeo.com/186221788

Songs:
Ramses B - Digi Drop
Daft Punk - Around The World

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Songs:
Ramses B - Digi Drop
Daft Punk - Around The World

Can we please get a direct link because the INSIDERS forum is closed ... it cannot embed the video.

 

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[MTF]

It's working fine for me here, but here's the link for you, MJ: vimeo.com/186221788 (needed to delete "http://" because otherwise it automatically embeds it)

 

[Wisith]

Very cool vid, Vick.

I love that you used AP as the base. I see a strong correlation between car enthusiasts and time piece collectors.

How long did it take you to learn how to get proficient at designing?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[iizu]

That was the coolest video I've seen in a while. Pretty efficient work with Maya, it seems to be very suitable for this kind of job. Also your way of basing the design to the human head-model just seems so clever to me. It is probably industry standard, but still so cool..

Is this new frame made from the flexible material also?

Keep going strong!

 

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[Vick]

Can we please get a direct link because the INSIDERS forum is closed ... it cannot embed the video.

Sure, here's the link
vimeo.com/186221788

 

[Vick]

Very cool vid, Vick.

I love that you used AP as the base. I see a strong correlation between car enthusiasts and time piece collectors.

How long did it take you to learn how to get proficient at designing?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks
I've been doing this stuff for about 15 years now. But I've always been designing, since I was a kid.