Owner: Brett Hunt; Website: asportsoptical.com; Established Time: 1993; Opening Year Featured Location: 2017; Employees: 5 full-time employees; Area: 4,200 square feet; Top brands: OVVO, TacticalRx, Kala, Rudy Project, Cazal; Facebook: facebook.com/SportsOptical; INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/sports_optical_official; construction cost: $80,000; architect and design company: Bret Hunter + Sons

As a person who often participated in sports when he was growing up, Bret Hunter learned very early that for athletes, the glasses they wear daily are usually not cut. After completing his military service and using his GI Bill to go to glasses school, he made it his mission to solve this problem.

In 1993, he opened Sports Optical north of downtown Denver, not only hoping to sell glasses to male and female athletes, but also hoping to provide them with products that are better than existing ones. In the late 1990s, Hunter developed his unique direct lens technology, which enabled Sports Optical not only to provide prescription wrap-around sports glasses, but also to ensure that Rx was effective until the wearer's peripheral vision. "When we started, there was no such thing as curved prescription sports glasses," said optician and social media manager Emily Kincaid-Smith. "We developed the formula required to put the prescription into the curved sports lens without the distortion caused by the use of traditional optical wisdom." Business innovation: At the beginning of last year, when Sports Optical was forced to shut down the glasses due to the pandemic, The team used time to come up with what might be regarded as its highest achievement: Borderless prescription protective sports lenses. (Especially the complete prescription for the Oakley radar EV path.) According to Kincaid-Smith, this is what people have been doing for more than 20 years. The question being asked.

Sports Optical also provides its own series of safety grade frames under the TacticalRx brand. Almost everyone in the Sports Optical team has some direct experience with hand-made lenses, and because the technology enables them to make stronger prescriptions, they can meet difficult requirements. The presence of Dr. Andrew Benson, an in-house optometrist, makes this approach a one-stop shop.

Kincaid-Smith said that Sports Optical’s audience is biased towards middle-aged shooting enthusiasts, soldiers and women, and blue-collar workers, but over the years, it has placed patients of all ages, from children to people in their eighties. In the glasses. "Our target audience is anyone who needs to see when participating in activities they need or like to do."

When the special needs of skiers, skiers, shooters, law enforcement officers and shop staff are not met, Sports Optical's frame products provide unusual and unique products. Under the banner of "Funky Frames", it offers (in-store and online) a series of frames from some of the most innovative and creative brands in the eyewear industry. Between their sports, safety and designer products, Sports Optical offers a wide range of choices. Kincaid-Smith shouted "Rudy Project Rydon Stealth, TacticalRx SOB, TacticalRx Little Bear, any OVVO frame and NW77th frame. We use high-quality polycarbonate lenses for our high-wrap frames, and CR-39 lenses for us Everyday frames."

The focus may be on sports, but don’t expect landing posters of famous athletes here: the interior of Sports Optical reflects many of the owner’s passions, including his love for steampunk: wood and metal rotating fans and two metal toy biplanes suspended in On the ceiling, gear-inlaid metal skulls and gear-shaped mirrors dot the shop. At the corner of the showroom, it was the hood of a wrecked racing car. Hunter was fortunate to walk away from the track after overturning the car a few years ago. Hunter’s main goal in designing this store is to "get rid of...the hospital feel of an old-fashioned optical shop, and integrate his passion for cars, shooting and cycling into his passion for optical shops," Kincaid- Smith said.

Bret Hunter, owner of Sports Optical, has won three SCCA national championships as a driver.

Also distinctive is the colorful murals, which add vitality to the company's external walls. Sports Optical has been collaborating with mural artist Lindsey Kuhn for four years, and he "has been in this art form since 1985-36 years. He has a keen insight into bright colors and clear lines," Kincaid-Smith said .

The steampunk atmosphere extends to social media where the practice is active and highly engaged; their YouTube channel is particularly impressive, with regular videos showing new products and new uses for lenses, and tips on how different glasses fit different face shapes Posts-even YouTube users filmed their safety glasses to show how durable they are.

This approach is particularly proud of its average Google score of 4.9 from more than 130 different reviews and counts. "Our customer service aims to find the best choice for our customers, not to drive sales excessively," she said. "We attach great importance to the quality and effectiveness of our work."

1. Duty phone. Sports Optical has become the preferred safety glasses supplier for the CIA, FBI, National Guard and CSI, as well as other military, law enforcement and official agencies.

2. Frontline. At the beginning of the first COVID-19 outbreak, Sports Optical partnered with the Shamir lens brand to provide first responders with PPE glasses.

3. Private label. Sports Optical's sister company TacticalRx-founded by Bret Hunter-produces its own sports and shooting/safety frame series.

4. Need speed. The owner, Bret Hunter, drives a sports car. He also participated in snow bike races in X-Games and won three SCCA national championships in rallying events. He even repaired vehicles "in good faith"-including his employees.

5. Family affairs. Sports Optical is family owned and operated. The rest of the staff are friends of the owner, who used to ride bicycles with his two sons.

The Sports Optical team is a handy one: Alex Hunter-Bret's second child-plays Frisbee golf, wearing a weird animal-themed shirt and his Cazals. Website expert Andrew Barker is a former professional cyclist (also champion of the Tour de France); Davis Barker is a fan of D&D, plays bass in a metal band and is learning Practice the secret dressing technique. Emily Kincaid-Smith has 35 tattoos and 15 piercings. He has a soft spot for the old cemetery; Bret's eldest child Ian Hunter is a laboratory manager who blows glass and is good at video games.

This Ontario practice shows that you can create a boutique environment without losing your humanity

After covering some of the more distant corners of the business press, Heath has recently focused more on reporting the efforts of independent eye care professionals in response to the rapidly changing industry landscape. Contact him via [email protection]

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