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, pushing off that thought for some 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 a fun time at a nightclub, but what he did not know was a small accessory purchase at his local Target would send him on a path to teaming up with NFL Hall of Famer and Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion “Primetime” Sanders with his Blenders sunglasses brand that broke the internet in 2023.
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The purchase? A $5 pair of “beater shades” Fisher told FOX Business Digital over Zoom.
“I wanted to wear some 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 out to the club. I kid you not, everybody was coming up to me and asking about my shades saying, ‘Where’d you get them?’ and asking to try them on. There was like all this buzz around my sunglasses, and I was like, ‘Damn, these are only $5 that I bought from Target.’”
As his shades were passed around the club, Fisher started to think. At the time, he was a surfing coach, and it was not exactly where he saw his surfing career going when he was a sponsored surfer as a kid.
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However, as he spent most of his time on the beach teaching people how to surf, he started to notice a large price discrepancy for sunglasses. To be more specific, the $5 shades compared to the $200-plus Ray Bans and Oakleys that he was seeing across the white sands.
“I was a pretty broke college student coming out of school, didn’t have much money, couldn’t really afford anything cool,” Fisher said. “So, I saw an opportunity to create a brand that was in that mid-tier price point that still had the same cool factor as your higher brands that sacrifice style or quality. San Diego being one of the sunniest places in the world, it was like, ‘Well, if it’s not going to work here, it’s not going to work anywhere.’”
So, what does every young entrepreneur do to begin a business?
“I knocked on my roommate’s door, and I was like, ‘Hey, dude, can I borrow $2,000?'” Fisher said, smiling.
Fisher said after going through a few different avenues, no one was willing to help him, but his roommate ended up agreeing to $2,000 with the stipulation that he paid him back in one year at 25% interest.
Fisher got to work, selling just one style of Blenders out of his backpack in San Diego, whether it was on the beach, in nightclubs, at pool parties, calling up all his San Diego State connections or wherever else he could find clientele.
“I paid him back in six months,” Fisher said.
However, any entrepreneur knows it is not that easy to find a new market and automatically start finding success with your product. Trials and tribulations are expected, and that came 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 up in the air like, ‘What am I doing? This is ridiculous, this is never going to work. I’m making a fool out of myself here,'” he said candidly. “That’s what every entrepreneur goes through.
“Luckily, I have a lot of experience overcoming adversity as a kid. I was held back [in school], I was in special education classes and was told I was dumb from day one. I had to keep fighting. …I have those days today where it’s so hard.”
However, there was one moment, well before teaming up with Sanders ahead of his opening season in Boulder in 2023, when Fisher knew he had to make Blenders work.
“I had this experience about six months in,” he began. “Things were pretty tough, so I had to get a second job. So, I got a job at GNC because surf lessons are pretty seasonal. I walked into GNC and the GM said, ‘Chase, your shirt’s wrinkled, your shoes aren’t shined. Go home, iron your shirt and shine your shoes. And when you get back, you have sell two vitamin packs because every new employee is required to sell two vitamin packs on their first shift.’
“He handed me my papers and I walked out. I called my business partner and I go, ‘I don’t give a s— what this takes, but we are making this work no matter what. Because I don’t ever want those seven minutes again that I just had.’ That was the fire starter for me. That’s what kicked me into gear to have a zero-options mentality. ‘This is going to work no matter what.’”
Blenders ended up taking off, as Fisher says “small wins” were coming from left and right. As the years went by, he teamed up with Red Bull Racing, and the company was in the midst of building a $1 million retail store in Santa Monica. Things were going very well, but it was Fisher’s father who continued to pester his son with an idea.
“‘Chase, you gotta look at what Deion Sanders is doing. You gotta check him out. What he’s doing for college football and for leadership is groundbreaking. He’s gonna be big, you better get on his radar,'” Fisher recalled his father telling him.
At the time, Fisher admitted it was really annoying because he did not want another “big whale” to deal with, but at the same time, there was nothing wrong with sending out a feeler and introducing himself.
So, that was the game plan, but Sanders knows very well: sometimes those game plans need to adjust.
“It just so happens that, coincidentally, Deion was in market for a sunglasses deal at that same time, and Blenders was on his radar,” Fisher explained. “But he wanted it done [in 2023] – not next year. So, we went Gung Ho. We hit it off with his team – his team was great. He’s got a young team, we just fully vibed and had the idea of creating something special and unique. Deion wanted it done at the start of the season, so it was guns blazing to get this thing done at the finish line.
“What ended up being the wrong time at the time we felt like we were going to do it ended up being ‘Primetime’ with how perfect timing it was.”
Thus, an exclusive collection with Sanders was born, and thanks to his social media following as well as many having the Buffaloes on their radar with “Coach Prime” arriving in Boulder, the opening game against TCU sent Blenders to the moon in terms of engagement.
There was Sanders, stalking around on the sideline as he watched his team beat the Horned Frogs, a team that reached the national championship game the season prior, wearing his Blenders shades. The reactions on social media were perfect for Blenders, and Fisher still gets chills thinking about it today.
“At that time, we just really didn’t understand how big this could be,” Fisher said. “We knew there was a big opportunity, but we really didn’t know how big. We had some dominoes fall our way, Deion’s had some big wins and just the timing of it was incredible. It was one of those things where we were truly riding a wave.”
Blenders had prepped 16,000 units with the pre-orders for the exclusive collection with Sanders, but they ended up needing 75,000 units after pre-orders came through. There was a logistical nightmare that needed to be solved, but Fisher and his Blenders team worked it out so everyone got their shades as quickly as possible.
Fisher says Sanders is “very, very hands on” with this partnership, as he is very detailed in reviewing the products before signing off on them, which includes work done on “Prime II” as the Buffaloes are in the midst of Coach Prime’s second season in Boulder.
However, the reach Blenders has gotten from teaming up with Sanders led Fisher to think outside the box about how else his brand can engage with the fan base in Boulder and elsewhere. For one, the “Peggy Sleeve” was a first-of-its-kind NIL initiative where Blenders would send $1 of every sleeve 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 like breaking boundaries, being disruptive. Deion’s all about that as well, so we pitched the idea to Deion. ‘Hey, what do you think about us signing Peggy as the first-ever fan to get an NIL deal? Let’s make sure a sleeve, she gets a dollar.’ He loved it. We pitched it to Peggy and her team, and it’s just special that she’s 99 going on 100 in November, and she’s getting all this notoriety, and she’s seeing all these things happening. It’s very, very meaningful. There’s so much heart behind it.”
Most recently, Fisher, the same man who had no clue what he was going to do with his life after living on San Diego State’s campus, is giving back with the “Be The A1pha” limited-edition sunglasses, where all profits will be contributed 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 truly bring the Blenders story full circle, Emery, the DJ Fisher saw that night in 2011, is a good friend and someone who sports his shades as he travels the world playing his tunes.
From a pair of $5 beaters to a $90 million valuation as of 2020, it is safe to say Fisher made Blenders work no matter what. Now, with all the hype behind him, he is ready to ride this wave to new heights in as many sectors as he can.
“In terms of the future, we’re going to continue dominating this collegiate sports space as well as breaking into the lifestyle space, specifically back into music. So, expect to see Blenders on the mainstage and field in 2025.”
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