How Blenders founder Chase Fisher’s $5 “beater” sunglasses led to Deion Sanders breaking the internet

The age-old question, “What should I do with my life?” was on Chase Fisher’s mind after he graduated from San Diego State University.

Like many others, though, dismissing that thought for a bit of post-college fun was what he chose on April 28, 2011, when he decided to go see one of his favorite DJs in sunny San Diego: Gareth Emery.

Fisher was looking to have fun at a nightclub, but what he didn’t know was that a small accessory purchase at his local Target would send him on the path to teaming up with NFL Hall of Famer and Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion “Primetime” Sanders with his Blenders sunglasses brand breaking the internet in 2023.

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The purchase? A $5 pair of “sunglasses” Fisher told FOX Business Digital over Zoom.

“I wanted to wear sunglasses to the club,” Fisher said. “So, I went to Target and the first thing I saw was a pair of $5 neon green sunglasses, and I wore them to the club. I’m not kidding, everyone was coming up to me and asking me about my sunglasses sun saying: ‘Where did you get them?’ and I asked to try them. There was all this buzz around my sunglasses, and I thought, ‘Damn, these are only $5 I bought at Target.'”

As his sunglasses were passed around the club, Fisher began to think. He was a surf coach at the time, and it wasn’t exactly where he saw his surf career going when he was a sponsored surfer as a kid.

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However, because he spent most of his time at the beach teaching people to surf, he began to notice a large price discrepancy for sunglasses. To be more specific, the $5 shades versus the $200 and up ones Ray Ban and Oakley who was seeing through the white sands.

“I was a pretty broke college student coming out of school, didn’t have a lot of money, couldn’t afford anything cool,” Fisher said. “So, I saw an opportunity to create a brand that sat in a mid-price range and still had the same cool factor as higher-end brands that sacrifice style or quality. San Diego being one of the sunniest places in the world, it was like, ‘Well, if it doesn’t work here, it won’t work anywhere.'”

So, what does every young entrepreneur do to start a business?

“I knocked on my roommate’s door and thought, ‘Hey, man, can I borrow $2,000?’” Fisher said, smiling.

Fisher said that after going through several avenues, no one was willing to help him, but his roommate ended up accepting $2,000 with the stipulation that he would pay it back in a year with 25 percent interest.

Fisher went to work, selling only one style of blenders out of his backpack in San Diego, whether it was on the beach, at nightclubs, at pool parties, calling all his San Diego State contacts or wherever he could find clientele.

“I paid it off in six months,” Fisher said.

However, any entrepreneur knows that it is not that easy to find a new market and automatically start having success with your product. Trials and tribulations are expected, which have come for Fisher throughout the process of building Blenders from the ground up.

“I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to quit, how many times I threw my hands in the air and said, ‘What am I doing? This is ridiculous, this will never work. I’m making a fool of myself here,'” he said candidly. “This is what every entrepreneur goes through.

“Luckily, I have a lot of experience overcoming adversity as a child. I was held back [in school]I was in special education classes and was told I was stupid from day one. I had to keep fighting. …Nowadays I have those days where it’s so hard.”

However, there was a time, well before teaming with Sanders ahead of his season opener in Boulder in 2023, when Fisher knew he had to make Blenders work.

“I had this experience about six months later,” he began. “Things were pretty rough, so I had to get a second job. So, I got a job at GNC because the surf lessons are pretty seasonal. I walked into GNC and the GM said, ‘Chase, your shirt is wrinkled , your shoes are’ “I didn’t shine. Go home, iron your shirt and shine your shoes. And when you come back, you have to sell two packets of vitamins because every new employee is required to sell two packets of vitamins during the first shift.’

“He handed me my papers and I left. I called my business partner and said, ‘I don’t give a fuck what it takes, but we’re making this work no matter what. Because I’m not going to want those seven minutes I just had again. That was the impetus for me to have a no-options mentality.

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Blenders ended up taking off, as Fisher says the “small victories” came from the left and the right. As the years went by, he collaborated with Red Bull Racingand the company was building a $1 million retail store in Santa Monica. Things were going very well, but it was Fisher’s father who kept pestering his son with an idea.

“‘Chase, you’ve got to watch what Deion Sanders is doing. You’ve got to watch him. What he’s doing for college football and for leadership is revolutionary. He’s going to be great, you better get on his radar,'” Fisher recalled his father telling him.

Fisher admitted at the time that it was really annoying because he didn’t want to deal with another “big whale,” but at the same time there was nothing wrong with sending a feeler and introducing himself.

So, that was the game plan, but Sanders knows this very well: Sometimes game plans need to be changed.

“It just so happens that, coincidentally, Deion was in the market for a sunglasses deal at the same time, and Blenders was on his radar,” Fisher explained. “But he wanted it done [in 2023] – not next year. Then we went to Gung Ho. We got along well with his team: his team was fantastic. He has a young team, we fully agreed and had the idea of ​​creating something special and unique. Deion wanted to get this done early in the season, so there was work to do to get this thing done at the finish line.

“What ultimately turned out to be the wrong time when we thought we were going to do it, turned out to be ‘Primetime’ with perfect timing.”

Thus an exclusive collection featuring Sanders was born, and thanks to his social media following and the fact that many have the Buffaloes on their radar with “Coach Prime” coming to Boulder, the opening game against TCU sent the Blenders on the moon in terms of commitment. .

There was Sanders, hanging out courtside as he watched his team beat the Horned Frogs, a team that had reached the national championship game the season before, wearing his Blenders sunglasses. The reactions on social media were perfect for Blenders, and Fisher still gets chills thinking about it today.

“At the time, we didn’t really understand how big it could be,” Fisher said. “We knew there was a great opportunity, but we didn’t really know how big. We had some dominoes in our way, Deion had some big wins and the timing was incredible. It was one of those things where we were really riding high. a wave.”

Blenders had prepared 16,000 units with pre-orders for the exclusive collection with Sanders, but they ended up needing 75,000 units after pre-orders arrived. There was a logistical nightmare to solve, but Fisher and his team at Blenders solved the problem so that everyone received their glasses as quickly as possible.

Fisher says Sanders is “very, very involved” with this partnership, as he is very detailed in reviewing products before approving them, including the work done on “Prime II” as the Buffaloes are in the midst of Coach Prime’s second season in Boulder.

However, the reach Blenders gained by partnering with Sanders led Fisher to think outside the box about how else his brand could engage with the fan base in Boulder and elsewhere. For one, “Peggy Sleeve” was a first-of-its-kind NIL initiative where Blenders sent $1 for every cover sold to 99-year-old Buffaloes superfan Peggy Coppom, making her the first fan to receive an NIL deal.

“I love being first to market. Blenders loves being first. We love breaking boundaries, being disruptive. Deion is all about that too, so we pitched the idea to Deion. ‘Hey, what do you think about us signing Peggy first – have you ever wanted a NIL contract? Let’s make sure she gets a dollar.’ She loved it. We pitched it to Peggy and her team, and it’s really special that she’s turning 99 in November, and she’s getting all this notoriety, and she’s seeing all these things happen. It’s very, very heartfelt behind. “

Most recently, Fisher, the same man who had no idea what he would do with his life after living on the San Diego State campus, is giving back his limited edition “Be The A1pha” sunglasses, which will be donated all profits to the school’s NIL partner, Aztec Link, in support of the football program. Fisher has already helped raise $75,000 for the basketball program as well.

Oh, and to really bring the Blenders story full circle, Emery, the DJ Fisher seen that night in 2011, is a good friend and someone who sports his sunglasses as he travels the world playing his music.

From a pair of $5 hitters to a $90 million valuation as of 2020, it’s safe to say Fisher has made the Blenders work no matter what. Now, with all the hype behind him, he’s ready to ride this wave to new heights in as many industries as possible.

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“In terms of the future, we will continue to dominate this collegiate sports space and break into the lifestyle space, particularly music. So, expect to see Blenders on the main stage and on the field in 2025.”

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