Blenders CEO Compares Deion Sanders to Michael Jordan amid Sunglasses Pre-Order Sales
The exclusive sunglasses collaboration between Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders and Blenders Eyewear has turned into quite the fruitful partnership.
Per CEO Chase Fisher to Pete Nakos of On3, roughly 65,000 to 70,000 sunglasses (and counting) have already been pre-ordered before their release on Sept. 20. He also confirmed the $1.2 million sales figure from Friday alone that Sanders previously mentioned:
Things have gone so well that Fisher compared Sanders' impact to Michael Jordan's with Nike.
"I've never known what it felt like to go viral, and now I know I do," Fisher said. "I think this is one of the greatest right place, right time branding moments in social media history. So, it's thrown us all for a complete loop. No one ever could have predicted it would be this big. … This is going to be a huge opportunity and a big partnership for Prime and Blenders for many years to come. This is Nike and Jordan, in my opinion.
"We found our Jordan."
The "Prime 21" shades are selling for $67 apiece, so if Fisher's estimate is accurate, then pre-sales had brought in at least $4,355,000 by the time he spoke with On3.
Sanders' Buffaloes are the talk of college football. The Pro Football Hall of Famer came to Boulder with plenty of hype from Jackson State, and he's delivered so far.
Colorado has tripled its win total (three so far) from last season and currently holds down the No. 19 spot in the Associated Press poll.
The Buffaloes stayed undefeated after beating Colorado State 43-35 in double overtime on Saturday. In the lead-in to the game, CSU's head coach, Jay Norvell, called out Sanders for his signature sunglasses-and-hoodie garb.
That put sunglasses in the college football spotlight. Sanders also took that ball and ran with it as far as he could, notably using it as motivational fuel for his team and even handing shades out to the ESPN First Take crew.
The sunglasses theme has since passed as Colorado now looks to knock off No. 10 Oregon in Eugene on Saturday. However, business is definitely booming for Blenders, which is clearly benefitting from Sanders and his scorching-hot team.
