#1246 Chase Fisher | The Man Behind Deion Sanders’ Sunglasses

Chase Fisher is the CEO & Founder of Blenders Eyewear. The company that is behind Deion Sanders’ brand new sunglasses. They experienced millions of dollars of sales after both Deion Sanders, The Rock, and many others started to talk about it on national television. Chase has been building this company for a decade, and it is a great message to many entrepreneurs that you’re just around the corner from the big break through. ======================= Auradine, a leader in web infrastructure solutions including blockchain, AI, and privacy, has unveiled the world's first 4nm Bitcoin mining systems, featuring breakthrough EnergyTune™ technology, setting new standards in performance and energy efficiency. The Teraflux™ product line from Auradine offers best-in-class performance, efficiency, and total cost of ownership (TCO), positioning it as the optimal choice for Bitcoin mining needs. With EnergyTune™, a patent-pending technology, Auradine's Teraflux™ systems enable rapid demand response and optimal energy usage, fostering a symbiotic relationship with electrical grids, and contributing to sustainable energy practices. Designed and manufactured in the US, Auradine's Teraflux™ product line not only ensures cutting-edge technology but also mitigates supply chain risks and provides increased supply chain resiliency. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.auradine.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information the Teraflux bitcoin mining systems. ======================= Get Better Crypto Data: Do you want faster, easier crypto data? Sign up for Velo Data, a new product that we have been working on to solve this problem: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠velowaitlist.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 250,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone? This is Anthony Pompliano. Many of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, which is my effort to find the most interesting people in the world and sit with them for hours while I ask questions in an effort to learn. So it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe to the show on your favorite audio platform, watch episodes on YouTube, and tell your friends and family about the podcast. My goal is to help millions learn from the world's most interesting people. So let's get into today's episode. Chase Fisher is the CEO and founder of Blender's Eyewear. Blender's Eyewear is the company that is behind Deion Sanders' brand new sunglass line. They've experienced millions of dollars of sales after both Deion Sanders, The Rock, and many others started to talk about it on national television

• 0:47Anthony Pompliano?

  and the Colorado State football coach said a bunch of really inflammatory comments. Chase has been building this company for over a decade though, and it is a classic overnight success. I really enjoyed this conversation with Chase, and I think it is a great message to tons of entrepreneurs out there that you are just around the corner from the big breakthrough. Here's my conversation with Chase Fisher.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 1:34Anthony Pompliano?

  This episode is brought to you by Aradine. They are a brand new startup led by a number of Silicon Valley legends who just raised $81 million to build the future of internet infrastructure. You're probably wondering what that means. Let me explain. There are numerous new disruptive technologies that are being adopted simultaneously, from blockchain to artificial intelligence to zero knowledge technologies. In order to ensure that these technologies thrive in this new world, we need new infrastructure, and that is where Aradine comes in. They just launched their first product line called Terraflux, which is a Bitcoin miner powered by the world's first 4-nanometer silicon Technology. These air-cooled, single-phase and dual-phase immersion cooling miners have unrivaled

• 2:16Anthony Pompliano?

  speed and efficiency. They have superior uptime, and they leverage a brand-new innovation called Energy Tune that allows miners to dynamically adjust the energy consumption and Bitcoin hash rate based on demand-response needs of the electrical grids. Auradine is an ambitious company, working on hard problems. I'm really impressed with them. And if you want to check out more, you can go to auradine.com. That's A-U-R-A-D-I-N-E.com. Go check them out at auradine.com today. Before we get into this episode, I also want to tell you about a brand-new product called Velo. Velo is faster, easier crypto data. Everyone in the industry is always looking for, what's the price? What's going on on the exchanges? Where are assets flowing or not

• 3:01Anthony Pompliano?

  flowing? How is things like open interest and derivatives actually playing out in the market? Well, that's where Velo comes in. It's faster and easier crypto data. You can go to velowaitlist.com today. Myself and a couple of friends, we invested in the business, we're advising the founder, and we think it's pretty cool. This one is something that keeps me informed on a daily basis, so you should check them out at velowaitlist.com. That's V-E-L-O waitlist.com. All right, guys. Bang, bang. I've got Chase here with me. Chase, I thought a great place to start is, obviously, you all seem to be taking the storm, taking the world by storm alongside Deion Sanders. He has gone into Colorado, taken a 1-11 team, turned it around. They're 3-0. He's on every

• 3:43Anthony Pompliano?

  single national television show, every single interview, and he's wearing your sunglasses. Talk a little bit as to how did the relationship with Deion get started?

• 3:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, so, I mean, look, college was always on our radar, right? It was always something that I wanted to be involved in. I just never really knew how to, I just never prioritized it, I guess.

• 4:03Speaker 02

  And so, about a year and a half ago, in 2022, before he was at Boulder, when he was at Jackson State, you know, my dad was hitting me up all the time. And he was like, Chase, check out what Deion's doing. You know, not from like a style perspective, like, style aside, it was more just like what he's doing to young men and how he's leading and, and his character and like how he's coming in and just changing the game in college football. And so, it's like every day I was waking up to something new about Deion from my dad. You know, have you checked out Deion yet? Have you checked out Deion yet? Like, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's changing the game in college sports? And I was like, all right, Dad, like, I got two big things on my plate right now. You know, I got Red Bull and I got retail and all these other things going on like I can't take on other.

• 4:44Speaker 02

  I can't take on another, you know, and he just was persistent, you know, um, not to a point where he was like trying to like distract me. He just saw an opportunity. And so that's when I started to kind of take notice of Dion and then I started to kind of look more into him and to see what he was doing and uh. I started to kind of catch, catch, catch a wind of it too. I was like, wow, this was a great opportunity. Not only is he, is he changing the game in college sports, but he loves sunglasses, you know, this dude loves sunglasses. So. Um, you know, I, I reached out and, you know, just thinking I was going to plant the seed for, for next season. Like, hey, let's just build a relationship. Let, let's, let's get something on the books for, for next season.

• 5:24Speaker 02

  And we just totally hit it off, man. Um, you know, we just meshed really well. His team is really awesome. They're young, they're excited, they got energy, all the things that we have at Blenders. And um, we sent him out some samples and his team sent me back videos of him, like literally like three minute videos, like going over the sunglasses, you know, and talking about the product and talking about like what he wants to do and talking about. You know, just like how much he loved it. And we were sitting there like watching these videos and we're like, holy shit, like. This dude is, this dude wants to work with us, you know, and um, he was looking for a deal that season, you know, and we just happened to be on his radar. So.

• 6:02Speaker 02

  Right place, right time. Um, and it was kind of guns blazing from that point forward. I mean, it was like, all right, let's go. And we had very little time, you know, keep this in mind. We had like, like three to four months. Um, and so we had to work around the clock to move us to the front of the line and uh, it was all gas, no brakes. It kept us in the cross finish line, but that's sort of how it started, you know?

• 6:21Anthony Pompliano?

  So the sunglasses are custom made for the partnership with Dion and he had a ton of input into uh, uh, kind of what he wanted.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, I mean, he is, he was very involved in the creative process. Um, you know, he thinks about these things, right? Like he's one of probably the very few coaches, if not the only coach that plans out his outfits, thinks about what he's going to wear, thinks about pre-game, thinks about during game, thinks about post-game. Like, he, he thinks about those things, you know, and we weren't able to get all, each one of those boxes checked for this collaboration, but we were able to get something that was like really bold, flashy, that kind of symbolized his style and something a little bit more stealth mode. And, um, we really wanted to embody that Colorado University spirit. So, um, yeah, I mean, yeah, he had a ton of input, man. I mean, he was down with the nitty gritty detail, the packaging, the price. I mean, the price was at 69 bucks, but he wanted them at 67 because that was the year he was born.

• 7:13Speaker 02

  And I quote, "I don't want, I don't want to be affiliated with the number 69." I mean, you gotta love that knack for detail, you know? So he was very involved.

• 7:22Anthony Pompliano?

  And how do you structure these deals? Like he gets some sort of upfront payment and then there's a share on the backend? You know, Deion's obviously a huge name. He struck deals, uh, that are millions of dollars when he's playing in the NFL and, and has continued to kind of, uh, be relevant and, and somebody that an entire generation of people kind of look up to and, and are enthralled by. Now he's having this resurgence. So he's got a ton of experience. You guys have a ton of experience in, in striking deals like this. Like, how does that deal come together and what does it look like?

• 7:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I can't share too much specifics on the exact, on the exact deal, but it's, it's a, it's a strong partnership. He's, he's unconditionally bought in and he's, he's committed, you know, and we're, we're committed to him. And, um, you know, I really see this as one of the most iconic relationships and Sunglasses was just born from this moment, you know? And, uh, you know, I think together we can honestly do more for Sunglasses than anyone in the last 50 years. And I think we both thought it was going to be big, but we both didn't know we would reach this, this status so quickly. Um, obviously with some help from the universe and some help from the Colorado State coach. But again, I mean, I think, I think with, with, with his personality, his leadership and, uh, you know, his influence and, and our capabilities on the Iowa side, like this is going to be a very, very unbelievable ride for all of us.

• 8:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Now, talk a little bit in terms of the Colorado State coach obviously says, hey, I take off my hat and my sunglasses when I talk to people. Dion, you know, just looking for fuel somewhere gets it. And then I saw a video go viral within 24, maybe 48 hours where he's handing out sunglasses to the entire team. Is that like, he's texting you guys, say, I need a pair for the whole team? Is that something that's pre-planned and just happens to line up? How does that come together?

• 8:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, so it's just so funny, like the timing of this, right? It was like, it's just all the dominoes felt the perfect time. But we were planning on releasing the partnership last week. That was our plan. So press release was going to go out, everything was going to go out by the end of the week. We were coming up on the 11th hour and then it just so happens on Thursday, the coach throws shade at Dion about, about his sunglasses and hat. And then I started getting blown up, blown up from people like, oh my God, did you just see what just happened? And then my dad's telling me, Chase, the coach just threw shade at him. Not only did he just threw shade at him, but he threw shade at how he was raised. Like this is about to go nuts. And, and from that point forward, it was like, holy shit. And then, um, you know, we were in chats with his team all day and they were like, Chase, like, tomorrow's, tomorrow's going to be a big day.

• 9:41Speaker 02

  Coach has got a big surprise for you guys. Insanity's coming like, it was just like, bam, you know what I mean? And sure enough, I wake up the next day and it was after that video goes viral, or after he sends out the shades to all the team, it just went nuts, you know? But he had, we, we, we were planning on the team, you know, wearing the shades out to the game this week. I mean, that was already planned, right? Like we had 150 shades that, those are the only ones that we had made that we sent to coach and he was able to get those out in time. Right after the coach has made that comment.

• 10:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. You guys didn't go to the coach, you didn't plant a seed, you didn't tell him to, to say it or anything?

• 10:19Speaker 02

  No, that's all conspiracy theory. It's funny, it's like, oh, was the other coach in on it? Like, is he going to get a piece of the action? I'm like, the only, the only thing that coach is going to get is he's, he's going to get free sunglasses for life. I'm going to personally bring him some myself.

• 10:31Anthony Pompliano?

  That's amazing. Now, the public numbers, I think that there was just over a million dollars that were sold kind of in the first 24 hours. There was a number, uh, four or $5 million that was thrown out after. What is the last number that you guys have published or kind of shared with folks?

• 10:44Speaker 02

  We haven't even reconciled all that we've done just yet. I mean, it's a moving target, but honestly, I think at this point, we can fill up an entire NFL stadium with new customers. You know, I think it's that it's that large right now. I think this could be one of the most successful pre-order launches in sunglass history at the pace that it's going. So it's been astronomical. I mean, I think we were selling like a pair a second when Dion was on the pregame show last week. So it was unbelievable. And then when The Rock put him on, it was just like, you know, we just conquered the world at that point. Unbelievable, of course. But yeah, it's been it's been unbelievable, man. It really has.

• 11:23Anthony Pompliano?

  And so when The Rock goes on, I think that was the other big moment that everyone paid attention to. And there were sunglasses that were just around and Dion very quickly, you know, recognized, hey, take your sunglasses off, put these ones on. How much of this is planned versus just Dion's being Dion?

• 11:40Speaker 02

  A lot of this is just him being himself, you know? And I think that's why this is this, I think that's why he's successful, man. Like, he's just like unapologetically himself, you know? He's not worried about offending anyone. He's just he's just to show them in. He loves what he does. He's passionate, passionate about the game. He's an entertainer at the same time. People are rooting for him. Like, a lot of these things are just kind of off the cusp, you know? I mean, we set up product for the whole team. They were going to get them in the right hands. But in terms of The Rock showing up, like putting him on, like, all this was just, it just unfolded so naturally, you know? It's like, you can't really pay for this type of like product seeding or like publicity. It's almost not for sale. It just, I think the way it unfolded was so successful because it was so natural, you know?

• 12:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Now, what's a story with Dion? There's got to be a moment where he said something, he did something where you kind of just were like, like, that is Dion? Anything in your conversations and striking the deal? You talked about the price point going from $69 to $67. Anything else there that you think kind of reveals who he is as a person behind closed doors?

• 12:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know. I think there's two, there's two moments that show up, man. I mean,

• 12:48Speaker 02

  you know, when he sent us those videos of us, or when he sent those videos of him reviewing the product, he was like, Blenders, let's go. Like, I heard it in his voice. Like, I just heard the roar in his voice and like, That enthusiasm and energy behind how he said those words was all we needed to be like, this guy's bought in, like he wants this deal, he wants to move like, and he's like, I'm gonna work for it, you know, I'm gonna work for it. And so that really like fired up our team to like go faster and go harder. And then honestly, the other point was like, when I just met him over the weekend, you know, I, I, I flew into Boulder last weekend. And I walked into his office and this was on game day. I mean, this is, this is on fight night. You don't meet Floyd Mayweather on fight night, like, you know, like,

• 13:32Speaker 02

  walking into his office and, you know, I'm like, coach, we did it. And we gave it like, we each hugged each other and he's like, Chase, thank you for believing in me. And I'm like, no, thank you for believing in me, you know, and it just like, it just shows his values, man. It just shows that he's such a down to earth, like, he's got great morals. I mean, th- this guy is a gift from God, truly. So I think those are two moments that really stand out.

• 13:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, that's great. Now, one of the things that's interesting is I think a bunch of people are, uh, outside of maybe the hardcore kind of sunglass audience, or maybe even like active sports is like Blenders. Oh, what is this startup doing? How did they get this thing with Deion? But you all have been at this now for ten, eleven years, right? It's kind of the classic overnight success that took a decade. Talk a little bit about the journey of the business and, and kind of what it took to get here.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  Man, yeah. So I started this back in two thousand twelve, man. And, um, I started from nothing, you know? I mean, I borrowed two thousand dollars from my roommate. I was pushing people in the waves, giving surpluses at the time. And, uh, you know, I mean, humble beginnings, right? I started out of a fucking backpack. Like I was selling shit out of a backpack, one by one, one pair, one style, one person at a time, on the boardwalk, at surf contests, at music festivals, at pool parties, like, Blenders was built on the, on the sand, you know? I mean, truly. And, you know, I took no funding, you know, it was totally self-funded, built this thing straight from just grit, hustle, just like working hard. And this was kind of pre-social media craze of Instagram and all these TikToks and things like that. And, um, you know, so it was a lot of brand building, you know?

• 15:06Speaker 02

  And I think the early days really taught me a lot of, a lot of the lessons that I needed to learn, you know, to kind of just You're on the journey and it's been the most difficult, wildest self-discovery journey you can ever go on is building your own business. Right? It's like, there's like three things in life that I like to think that that you can learn a lot about yourself is one, step in a boxing ring. Two, take, take a nice bath and three, start a fucking business, you know? You're gonna learn a lot about yourself, you know? And so for me, it's been just, you know, head down, wanted to quit many times. Um, you know, like I said, I bootstrapped this thing from nothing and in 2020, we, I sold 70% of it to, to one of the second largest in the world, Sapporo, um, for a $90 million valuation. And, you know, now with this Dion thing, it's just these like,

• 15:51Speaker 02

  these big like top of wave, you know, moments that you work so hard for and endure for so long that, you know, come and you're like, damn, it just brings you back to the roots of like how far you've come, you know, but and like how humbled you are. But yeah, by, by no means was Blenders an overnight success at all. I mean, the goal with this was always to be global and the goal with this was always to be seen. And I feel like we were just seen on a global level, you know, after 11 years, but it took 11 years to get here.

• 16:20Anthony Pompliano?

  Now, how do you think about the business moving forward? Kind of the pre Dion era and then maybe the post Dion era, what, what changes and what stays the same?

• 16:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I think, gosh, a lot has, a lot has changed. I mean, I feel like 72 hours ago, we were a totally different business, you know? Um, I think the biggest thing right now is just like the opportunity that this can bring for the future. You know, I think we see the future in front of us right now. I mean, standing at the Colorado State, at, at the, at the CU game over the weekend, I'm sitting there in the stadium of, of 50,000 people. I'm like, this is the future of Blenders, you know, like the opportunity to, to really break into the college market. Um, and to become the face of college sports is something that I'm really interested in, you know? And now with Dion, I think there's an opportunity to, you know, build out a, an unbelievable iconic relationship and collection that is, that could symbolize and, or at least,

• 17:10Speaker 02

  you know, give credit to like the Nike S Jordan, you know, I, I do believe with Prime, we could build the most iconic relationship in sunglasses together. And, uh, before I didn't, I didn't understand what that could look like, you know? And, and now I kind of see like, wow, like what we just achieved was awesome. But it goes far beyond just viral moments. You know, I think there's transformational change for Blenders on the horizon. There's transformational change for what he's doing on the football field. And there's gonna be, there's gonna be a lot of success that we can both have together, you know? And so for me, I'm just kinda like trying to take in all the emotions right now and I'm trying to just breathe it all in. But my vision for Blenders was, was big. Now it's fucking gigantic, you know? Um, so I'm really, really excited.

• 17:55Anthony Pompliano?

  How big can it get?

• 17:58Speaker 02

  It could get huge, man. I really do. Uh, I don't know how big it can get from like, uh, I mean, I, it's, it's, it's global. It could, it could be global. Absolutely. I mean, Prime could be, could be a whole other entity, you know, underneath, you know, power of Blenders and this could, this could radically change the trajectory of the company as we know it. Um, and it came at a time that was, you know, it came at a really hard time, you know, like this Prime thing didn't just fall into our lap, you know? I mean, I took on so much, so much risk at this, at this point in time of making this decision, you know? I mean, we just signed a multi-year deal, you know, with Red Bull. We were opening up our third store in Santa Monica, the most prominent real estate in the country. That cost over a million

• 18:41Speaker 02

  dollars to build. We were missing monthly targets. Um, and to take on another partnership at this time just felt like completely irresponsible, no matter how, how, how big it could have been. And, uh, I, you know, I had to remind myself that like, we got here because we took risk. We took bigger risks. And that's what our business is. It's risk. You know, I gotta consistently take big swings. And this was another big swing, um, that I wanted to take. And I think now that we've taken it and we've seen what we can do, Blenders can become a, a, it could become the next millennial style Oakley, without a doubt, you know? And, and that's my goal. I, I, I wanna take down Oakley. Like, that's, that's my goal. And everyone's like, Chase, Oakley's this, this, this. I don't care. I wanna take down

• 19:23Speaker 02

  Oakley, you know? Um, that's all I'm looking at. And I think Blenders really has the opportunity to, to become a household name like Oakley, you know?

• 19:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Now, our last question for you is, uh, all of this happens, what's your dad say? Does he hit you with the, "I told you so"?

• 19:39Speaker 02

  He's like, Chase, is pops getting a raise for, uh, Christmas?

• 19:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, pops is getting ready for Christmas, no problem.

• 19:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, but like my dad started a business back in the 90s, you know, he trademarked, "Show me the money." And he kind of relates this as like, this is, this is the "show me the money" opportunity for me that like he had back in the 90s. And um, he's just been so, such a supporter over the years and same with my mom, just kind of watching and like being, being like a mentor. And um, so he's just, he's just enjoying the ride too, you know, he's taking it, taking it all in. But uh, he's, he's, he's pretty, he's like, I didn't think it would be this big. I knew it would be big, but not, not this big.

• 20:18Anthony Pompliano?

  That's awesome. Uh, where can people go get the sunglasses if they want them?

• 20:22Speaker 02

  Check them out online, blendershour.com. They're all available for pre-order. Um, they're, they're, they're moving at light speed. And uh, yeah, that's, that's pretty much it for now. But um, you can check, check me out on Instagram at Chase Fisher. And um, yeah, if there's anything I can do to help support you or anything else, like I'm all here, man. I'm all here for it.

• 20:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing this. Congratulations on all the success. It's amazing to see someone who, you know, kind of heads down for a decade, built a business. And now all of a sudden, as you kind of pop your head up and, and a lot of people learn about you and the company, uh, they get to see it on the national stage. And it's gotta be pretty damn cool to see Deion Sanders and The Rock wearing the sunglasses that you literally started selling on the beach at surf competitions. So.

• 21:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, man, humbly. Thank you, man. Appreciate it.