Sunglasses, Meet.
`Your New Best
`
`Friend
`
`Cablz inventor Ron Williams
`
`details the origins of his snag and
`
`sweat fr‘ee eyewear retainers
`
`p
`Hon (far right) and Holly Williams winning iCast‘s New Product Showcase
`BY NICK SANCHEZ
`
`excitement:
`
`“After
`
`the
`
`patents, manufacturing,
`and branding was all set
`up we took it to specialty
`retailers. Some of our first
`stores were here in the
`
`
`
`After winning the New Product
`Showcase at the iCast trade show
`
`the couple knew that the product
`would provide valuable retention
`for anyone doing physical activity.
`“We took it everywhere after that:
`OR, EORA—we wanted kayakers,
`mountain climbers, everybody. So
`we went to show after show after
`
`show,” Holly explains.
`According to the couple, males
`from 18 to 60 were their first tar-
`
`get audience. But now everyone
`wants them.
`As head of Customer Service
`
`and Operations, Holly says she's
`recently seen a wave of people re—
`questing plnk Cablz for their fe-
`male customers.
`
`"Women and girls don’t want to
`keep their glasses in a purse
`where they can get scratched,”
`Holly suggests. “And plus, I think
`for females, who typically have
`longer hair, their hair makes their
`
`pendently, allowing you to fold the
`glasses without cable kinking for
`easy storage," says Ron.
`A year later, in 2008, Ron and
`his wife Holly took the finalized
`Cablz model to market.
`
`Holly recounts the story with
`
`keting with the angling
`community,” says Holly.
`
`
`
`Pink-colored Cablz are helping the brand expand its female audience
`
`Next in the prototyping phase
`would come medical-grade sili-
`cone cable coating to keep from
`hair pulling, rubber grommets for
`cable/ eyewear connection, and
`
`
`
`Cablz in action!
`
`finally, the other ‘aha‘ moment: “I
`discovered that by putting a ball
`bearing on the inside of the grom-
`mets, the cable would spin inde—
`
`South—including God’s Country
`Outfitters. From there we got in-
`volved with buying groups like
`Sports inc. and hit our first trade
`shows in ’09.”
`
`“Now we’re shipping all over
`the United States, to Korea, Aus—
`tralia, all over the world," says
`Ron. ”To be honest with you, its all
`been really fun.
`It’s an organic
`growth process. I mean, I really
`made them originally for myself,"
`he laughs.
`
`MARKETS AND DEMOGRAPHICS
`
`“When you’re touching a tradi-
`tional sunglasses strap with fish
`juice on your hand it's gonna smell
`a lot faster than if your
`traditional cloth strap is
`just
`resting on your
`neck absorbing sweat,
`so we started our mar-
`
`“It turned out to be a
`
`market disrupting introduction
`
`to the eyewear category"
`
`Flon
`Like many inventions,
`Williams' creation was inspired by
`the deficiencies of an existing
`product. However,
`unlike
`the
`shortcomings of the un~sleeved
`blanket or motorless surfboard,
`the imperfection of the common
`eyewear strap nearly cost Ron his
`life—or, at least his fender.
`The story goes that he was
`leaving the parking deck of a hos-
`pital, something he does regularly
`as a medical equipment supplier,
`when the strap of his sunglasses
`snagged, knocked the glasses
`across his face, and nearly caused
`him to wreck. Frustrated, he threw
`the glasses across the cab where
`they landed on a spool of steel
`cable surgeons use to anchor
`complex fractures.
`Explaining this sequence of
`events to Outdoor USA, Ron re-
`calls, “That was the aha moment,
`so to speak, when l held up the
`steel cable and thought, ‘I wonder
`how this would do!”
`
`Sure enough, Ron would dis-
`cover that the cable’s resilience
`
`kept it suspended in mid-air and
`close to the back of the head,
`thereby reducing snagging poten-
`tial and also doing away with both
`the weight and sweat factors of
`traditional straps that rest on the
`
`Page 1
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`CABLZ, INC. EX 2072
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`W9:
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`neck hotter and sweatier so they
`have all the more incentive to
`
`have their eyewear retainer stay
`off their neck and untangled from
`their hair."
`
`Holly also says the Cablz audi-
`ence is also expanding into older
`demographics, as she’s had many
`orders from stores that sell read-
`
`ing glasses.
`Having started attending op-
`tometry trade-shows like Vision
`West, Cablz is also getting into op—
`tometry shops. “You know, you
`put $500 into a pair of prescrip-
`tion glasses and you want
`to
`make sure you don’t break ‘em,"
`Holly declares. “Plus,” she contin-
`ues, ”a lot of athletes rely on pre-
`
`adding a “zipz” feature to their
`line, allowing the cable to be
`synched snugly to the head. Thus.
`the retainer could fit under a hel-
`
`met, stay on while thrashing
`downriver or hanging off a glacier,
`and avoid getting hooked by
`branches during mountain and
`rock climbing. Holly also posits
`that zip functionality would open
`Cablz up to trail runners, who gen-
`erally avoid lanyards of any sort
`because they flop around.
`Perhaps as important as cable
`retainers were in the first place,
`the "zipz" concept is, however,
`just the latest item in a slew of de-
`velopments and customizations
`that Cablz has brought to market.
`
`Cablz Monoz were made with monofilament at the request of the fishing community
`
`scription sunglasses that they get
`done at an optometry shop."
`Cablz is also going into winter
`sports and sporting goods says
`Holly: “Think ski and snowboard.
`Think baseball."
`
`And finally, speaking to the de-
`velopments the Cablz brand has
`rolled out in just three years of op-
`eration, Holly reveals,
`“We’re
`looking now to go into more ex-
`treme sports like kayaking. moun-
`tain biking,
`ice climbing and
`mountaineering, sports that re-
`quire not only no-drop functional-
`ity, but fitted, no-move, stay-tight
`technology.”
`
`EVOLUTION AND EXPANSION
`
`Cablz is currently looking at
`
`In the beginning, Cablz came in
`one size and one color—silver
`steel cable with black rubber
`
`grommets. Nowadays, Cablz are
`available in silver or black surgi—
`cal grade cahle, or translucent,
`blue tinted monofilament (at the
`request of the angling community)
`with grommets in nearly any color
`a person could think of. Addition-
`ally, Cablz come in shorter lengths
`for kid-sized craniums as well as
`
`XL or XS grommet styles to fit
`everything from behemoth bifo—
`cais to wire-frames.
`
`Early on, they also offered Cablz
`“Flipz,” which Ron describes as a
`specific type of cable that allows
`bendable, up or down adjustment.
`They quickly realized that every-
`
`one wanted this
`
`functionality, so the
`“Flipz” name was
`phased out as they
`switched to using
`the adjustable cable
`for all Cablz.
`
`
`
`Less than a year old, Cablz Flotz enhance any watersport
`
`The couple also
`heard over and over, “do they
`float?," so this past summer they
`released a floatation device they
`dubbed Cablz “Flotz.” The $3 Flotz
`attach and detach to the back—
`
`most part of the cable without
`having to remove the grommets
`from the glasses.
`“Many of the options we now
`offer came from customer and
`
`store feedback," Holly indicates.
`“it’s amazing how many people
`call and write with new ideas! We
`
`really, really listen to the people,
`and I think that‘s one of the rea-
`
`sons they like us. We don’t think
`we know it all so we're always lis-
`tening—and that’s how you really
`learn!”
`
`ONWARD AND UPWARD
`
`Going forward, Ron and Holly
`continue to pick up distributors
`and build their base of specialty
`retailers—whom they‘re very pro-
`tective of.
`
`In speaking about the widening
`distribution of Cablz, Holly natu-
`rally segued from crediting spe-
`cialty retailers and buyerfeedback
`with the success of the company
`to her and Ron’s philosophy of
`firm pricing.Alluding to a partner-
`ship struck with a recent distribu—
`tor, Holly explained that, ”we
`specified our product could not go
`below $9.99. We protect our inde—
`pendent retailers. We are not
`going to let anyone undercut
`them; we will always appreciate
`our independents."
`Since Cablz has taken off, Ron
`also explained that he‘s had peo-
`ple solicit his feedback on their
`
`own invention ideas. From this,
`he's seen that the difference be-
`
`tween a person with ideas and a
`full-fledged inventor is not neces-
`sarily about the quality of the
`ideas both possess, but is instead
`about the amount of risk willing to
`be taken.
`
`“1 think everybody has ideas.
`But inventors are risk takers, the
`kind of people willing to move for-
`ward with their thoughts, even if
`other people tell them it’s not a
`good idea, or laugh or scoff," says
`Ron.
`
`Continuing, he states, “I be—
`lieved Cablz would be a useful
`
`product, and it turned out to be a
`market disrupting introduction to
`the eyewear category. No one’s
`going to go back to a traditional
`strap because its heavy, holds
`moisture and gets caught on
`things. But it's about the risk. on
`our part and on the part of those
`early investing retailers."
`Considering the future, Flon
`says that Cablz will be followed by
`other inventions also pertinent to
`the outdoors. At the front of the
`
`docket is a small stabilizing device
`that's already proven to negate
`heartbeat-caused micro motions
`
`for precision shooting with both
`rifles and cameras.
`
`Summing up his thoughts on
`invention, Ron reveals that he’s
`moving toward with confidence:
`”I’ve always invented things—
`Cablz was just the first to take off.
`I think this next one could too."
`Outdoor USA looks fonivard to
`
`covering all of Ron's bright innova-
`tions as they come to fruition.A
`
`Page 2
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`CABLZ, INC. EX 2072
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