Caddis Eye Appliances manufactures timeless reading glasses and sunglasses. They use high quality materials and design frames that are stylish and durable. We reached out to Tim Parr, founder, to learn more about the person behind the mission disguised as readers.
Tell me more about yourself, what did you do before founding Caddis, and how did you get started making eyewear?
I was a touring bluegrass musician before starting Caddis, and I got into making eyewear because I needed eyewear. After doing a bunch of homework, I was able to source the first round of glasses and get the ideas in motion. Like most things, nothing is really that hard to figure out, you just need to put the time into getting to know how things get made and sold.I read that you worked on ideas for a while prior to the company getting started. Tell us more about that process.
Yeah, I think I worked on this idea for 4 years or so before going live with product. After one year of going solo, I recruited 4 people to join me as co-founders, and they were really what got us over the finish line and up and running. This was not my first startup, so the level of my “never going to do that again” checklist was long and detailed. I wanted to make sure that we had what we needed in place before flipping the switch.
Who designs the eyewear at Caddis?
I design the eyewear, and I have a rockstar product manager who makes it actually come to life. If it wasn’t for him, it would be really difficult to do what I do. Also, I wear a lot of hats at Caddis, so he follows through where I simply don’t have the time.
What influenced the design of your eyewear?
Timeless ideas. We don’t follow trends that are happening in eyewear. We don’t pay attention to Pantone color of the year. Companies that have to operate that way are all in the same game, so it degrades into who can run the fastest or have the largest marketing budgets, so we don’t play at all.
There are a lot of familiar faces in your marketing photos and videos, who are some of the most well known users of Caddis eyewear?
I’m not name dropping, but if people follow our Instagram account, they’ll see. It’s a good tribe of like minded individuals…humbling for sure.
I read you are a touring musician, tell us more about that.
Yeah, I was before I started the company. I tried to do them both at the same time and that didn’t work out. In fact it was a terrible idea. So I had to leave the road and hunker down on getting this business off the ground. I played guitar and Dobro, and it was a good time, but there was a moment when it just clicked that I needed to focus on this one thing.
What’s on the horizon? Do you have plans to shake up another industry?
We can only shake one at a time. There’s still so much work to be done in eyewear that we haven’t even touched upon. This year we’re launching sunglasses, and we’re also diving deeper into RX for people who need a prescription option. Each one of those feels like a separate business, so there’s a lot ahead.
