Made in the Shades.

DESIGN FOR CLIP-ON SUNGLASSES ATTRACTS BUSINESS, WINS AWARD

When he was a salesman for an eyeglass frame wholesaler, Gary Martin Zelman kept nagging his boss to add more clip-on sunglasses to the line. His boss wasn't interested.

"Finally he got fed up with me," Zelman recalled. "He said, 'When you own your own company, you can do all the clip-ons you want."'

So that's what he did.

With a $15,000 investment from his father-in-law and co-partner, Roland Messih, Zelman formed Revolution Eyewear. The company originated as a supplier of frames marketed in combination with clip-on accessories, but soon Zelman improved on the idea, developing a new clip-on design.

The idea catapulted the company to $8 million in sales and helped Revolution win the 1999 Bank of America Small Business Award in the category of innovation.

Clip-ons, a second frame that attaches to the eyeglass so that clear prescription glasses can double as sunglasses, have been around since the 1950s. But no one had thought to package the frame with the clip-on until Zelman began marketing his eyewear.

"If somebody was genuinely interested in a clip-on, the extra price point wouldn't be a big sticking factor," said John Macaray, chief executive of Southland Opticians in Studio City. "But because Revolution made it a standard feature and integrated the clip-on into the price of the frame and made it available to everyone, they created their market."

When Zelman first set off on his own in 1993, he scoured eyeglass stores for the best-selling frames and had them reproduced by a supplier in Hong Kong. He combined the frames with the clip-ons and a carrying case, at a price that was about the same as the cost of an original designer frame.

For the first year, the two partners didn't take a salary. Sales totaled $450,000 as Zelman tried to convince retail chains to carry his products. "There wasn't the furor over clip-ons that there is now," Zelman said. "What made us a little more novel was the fact that we were low-priced."

Clip-ons had been designed with a bar that ran across the brow line, a feature many considered unattractive. Zelman developed and patented a design that eliminated the brow-bar, so the clip-ons fastened to the eyeglass frame with little hooks.

By 1995, sales had climbed to $2 million, thanks mostly to the new clip-on design and the company's policy of pricing its eyewear well below the cost of the original designer frames.

"The benefit is providing more for less," said Macaray. "A guy comes in expecting to pay $200 for a pair of glasses, and you show him a pair of eyeglasses that come with a clip-on shade (for the same price), you're a hero. You saved him some money."

In 1997, Zelman improved upon his clip-on design again by using magnets to affix the sunglasses. For some types of clip-ons, the wearer has to remove the glasses and fit the hooks onto the frame. But magnetic clip-ons slip right onto the frame, making it easier for drivers, for example, to put on their sunglasses without removing their glasses.

It was the magnetic clip-on that helped Revolution win the Bank of America Small Business Award.

"This is such a great example of an innovative thinker who had a great idea and couldn't find what he was thinking of in the marketplace and went out and created it," said Lisa Margolin-Feher, a bank spokeswoman. "This is the type of company that we're looking for in our small-business award program."

Since it began operations in 1993, Revolution has built a customer base of over 10,000 clients nationwide. Most are mom-and-pop optical stores, although the company has recently added such chains as Sterling Optical and Pearl Vision Centers.

"You never give up," Zellman said. "You get a lot of doors slammed in your face, but you never give up."