In every major city in the world, you will be able to conveniently locate a Sunglass Hut if you ever need to shade your eyes from the sun. A retailer of sunglasses and sunglass accessories, we even have five of our very own stores just here in Cape Town.

But where did it all begin, and how did such a simple idea come to dominate the sunglasses industry?

Well, the concept was born in 1971 when optometrist Sanford Ziff had a vision. He thought:

How about sunglasses?

You see, back then sunglasses weren’t really a thing, so Ziff and his wife, Helen, set up a free-standing kiosk in the middle of a mall in Miami, Florida and sold a variety of branded sunglasses which could only be found in department stores.

And so Sunglass Hut was born.

By 1987, the company had more than 550 boutiques around the world and $100 million in sales. That’s when Ziff and Helen sold 75% of the business for $35 million to an investment group.

Although Ziff, who passed away earlier this year at the ripe old age of 91, sold the remaining 25% of the company in 1991, he used his wealth to become one of South Florida’s premier philanthropists, with his name adorning numerous universities, homeless shelters, Jewish centre and art organisations.

The idea of starting a hut that sold sunglasses was sparked when Ziff was examining one of his patients, the mall’s owner:

Ziff proposed renting a small mom-and-pop space to sell sunglasses under the Sunglass Hut moniker. At the time, the dominant brand-name manufacturers — Ray-Ban, Serengeti — dealt primarily with department stores like Dadeland’s one-time anchors Burdines and Jordan Marsh, or sporting goods and optical stores.

“We made it a year-round product,” Ziff said in a 1997 Miami Herald profile. Ziff made sure employees at the kiosk were trained to convince potential customers that sunglasses were not just a health aid to block the sun’s damaging rays, like ultraviolet and infrared light, but that they were also a fashion statement.

During this time, the early 1970s was fraught with a recession, an energy crisis, Watergate and the war in Vietnam. Sunglasses as red carpet accessories were not yet common. Tom Cruise sporting Ray-Ban Wayfarers in “Risky Business” was 12 years away.

“I never thought we would do $10,000 worth of business when we started. When we sold we were doing $100 million,” Ziff said in retirement soon after Helene died in 1993.

Since its inception, there has been hardly any competition for the retailer which has around 2 800 stores worldwide.

Offering everything, from menswear to women’s and sunnies for the kids, no matter your reasoning, the kiosks conveniently dotted around the world provide only the best in eyewear – all thanks to one man with a vision.

[source: miamiherald]