Chase Fisher Reflects on Scaling Blenders Eyewear into a Global Sunglasses Brand
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Chase Fisher, 36, is the founder of San Diego-based Blenders Eyewear, an eyewear retailer that sells glasses typically ranging from $49 to $89.
After launching in 2012, Blenders Eyewear — whose name comes from a street sign in Pacific Beach — took roughly three years before it hit $1 million in sales. The consumer-focused company has seen tremendous growth, after being in business for 12-plus years, with “millions of followers” across its social media platforms.
Chase Fisher, a San Diego State Alumni, bootstrapped Blenders Eyewear for seven years to a successful acquisition in 2019. He’s been working to further scale the brand, with a lofty goal to become the next “Oakley Sunglasses” within its respective niche.
“Blenders could become a $250 million-dollar-business,” said Chase Fisher, CEO of Blenders Eyewear. “Nike has done it with shoes, but no one has done it with sunglasses. With our strategic partnerships with athletes and Deion Sanders — I think we can get there some day.”
For Business of San Diego, Chase and I spoke over the phone to discuss Blender’s founding story, the power of strategic partnerships, and the tactics he used to build one of America’s fastest growing consumer brands.
High Level Overview
- Founded in 2012, Blenders Eyewear is a San Diego-based consumer company that sells sunglasses at retail shops and online.
- It has served “hundreds of thousands” around the globe, with A-list celebrities wearing Blender’s products including Snoop Dogg and Meghan Markle.
- Blenders was acquired in a multi-million deal by the Safilo Group in 2019 and remains under the leadership of its founder Chase Fisher.
- Fisher quit his job as a surf instructor in 2012, with the big idea was to sell sunglasses at a price point that was affordable and higher quality then existing brands on the market.
Founding Story
Starting with a Facebook group and $2,000, he began selling products to people on the beach, at pool parties, music festivals, and even college career fairs.
Fisher, who was 22-years-old at this time, teamed up with a creative designer and co-founder Blake Jensen to create a sunglass product that was vibrant, polarized, and had a “designer feel” to them.
The duo launched an Indiegogo campaign and raised over $7,000 from more than 150 investors. Following that fundraise, Blenders’ sales grew slowly:
2012: $8,000 in revenue
2013: Six-figures in revenue
2015: $1 million in revenue (Blenders launched its “snow goggles” product)
“At that time, it was the most money I’d ever seen. It was like I had a million dollars. It really felt like I hit the jackpot,” said Fisher. “We used the money to manufacture more sunglasses with different color schemes.”
Scaling in the Early Days
Fisher leveraged the power of social media advertising from the very beginning, according to Fishers.
He used Instagram to communicate with existing and future customers as well as convinced influencers to promote the product to their audience.
Notable influencers that contributed to Blender’s popularity included Morgan Page, Cedric Gervais, Snoop Dogg, Lakey Peterson, and Meghan Markle, to name a few.
“At the time, San Diego had a massive music scene and I capitalized on it. Early on, we were able to convince popular DJ’s to wear and help promote the product during their sets,” said Fisher.
He attributed Blenders’ early success to remaining scrappy and entrepreneurial.
“Since day one, we’ve always been very scrappy — we had that mentality of start small, stay small,” said Fisher. “As we’ve gotten bigger, it’s become more of a challenge, but we still try to operate the company like it’s day 1.”
Expanding with Retail
Blenders opened its first retail store in its hometown of San Diego in 2018.
The goal was to cater towards a millennials audience who are looking to connect with brands in a more one-on-one, experiential way.
“The store came from organic roots, just like everything else. Consumers want smaller, intimate interactions, and with sunglasses being a really experiential product, people are able to come in and talk to us, try them on,” said Fisher.
Fast forward years later, Blenders was able to morph into a global company through various distribution channels.
To date, has more than 500 retail partners across the country — the biggest among them Zumiez, Tilly’s and Sheels. The company avoids relying on third party online sellers like Amazon and eBay for e-commerce growth.
One of Blenders’ biggest computers is Warby Parker. The New York-based sunglasses retail giant brought in $70 million in annual revenues last year.
Strategic Partnership with Deion Sanders
University of Colorado’s head coach Deion Sanders promoted Blenders during one of the most-watched college football games on national television last year.
Blenders sold upwards of 70,000 glasses from that collection alone, at the time it had only planned to sell 16,000 pairs. That partnership pulled in $4.5 million in pre-orders, shortly after going live, according to FOS.
I asked Fisher how that partnership with Sanders came about?
“My dad has been following Coach Prime well before he was hired at Colorado — he’s a big sports guy,” said Fisher. “And he was like, ‘Chase, you got to look at what Deion Sanders is doing in college football — he’s changing the game.’”
“It just so happened, that coach Prime was in the market for a sunglass deal at that time and Blenders was on his radar,” said Fisher, adding that the rest was history.
Building a Consumer Brand in San Diego
The Pacific Beach-beach continues to scale — and Fisher strives to keep the brand authentic and true to its San Diego roots.
While the entrepreneurial ecosystem doesn’t not hold to the same standards as the San Francisco or New York startup scene, Fisher believes the local active community provides Blenders an unfair advantage.
“San Diego is very authentic,” said Fisher. “The ambition runs wild in the city, and it has a very active, vibrant lifestyle fostered by the people that live here.”
“We have our own little island out here,” said Fisher. “I’m mentoring a lot of new students from San Diego State University (SDSU), who are reaching out after hearing my story, and it’s inspiring their own journey.”
Huge thank you to Cody Barbo, Co-Founder and CEO at Trust & Will for connecting me to the legend Chase Fisher, to get the inside scoop on Blenders Eyewear (who are both San Diego State Alumni and influential leaders in San Diego’s startup scene).
