Get Older. Own It. See Stuff. A conversation with Caddis Founder Tim Parr

Remember that scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts tries to buy a new dress and no one will take her money? That’s how it feels to be a 50+ consumer.

Then there’s Caddis. CEO and Founder Tim Parr says it’s a mission disguised as an eyewear company: “Get Older. Own It. See Stuff.” And we totally believe it. Who else would have the cajónes to quote Miss Piggy, describe one of their eyeglass styles as a “dab of Harvey Wallbanger” (when was the last time you ordered one of those?) and embrace cranky online reviews in their advertising?

Listen to how Parr and his team are breaking all the rules in a completely awesome way.

Here’s Caddis

And here’s the nonprofit it helps support: Caddis donates a portion of gross revenue to music education programs via Music Farming. Learn more here.

Transcript:

Debra Hotaling: Hello and welcome to the Dareful Project. I'm Debra Hotaling. So you know that scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts has this handful of money and no one will take it so that she can buy a dress. That's how I feel as a consumer being over 50. Either I am completely invisible or they somehow think that the only thing I want to do is walk down a beach and wear a little soft knitted sweater. But then there's Caddis. Caddis says it's a mission disguised as an eyewear company, and that feels completely true to me. And joining us today is the CEO and Founder Tim Parr, who's going to talk to us about how they are breaking stuff and having way too much fun for a brand and how they got there. Tim, welcome.

Tim Parr: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Debra: So if you don't mind, I would like to start by reading the language that's on the back of the box. Amazing. So this is what it says, folks. It says this is for people who are not in the long process of giving up. It has everything to do with age, but nothing to do with your job, your gender, or whether you live in Orange County or Hazard County. It has to do with being who you are and owning it. Tim, where did that come from?

Tim: That was just a late night. The bottom of this box is all white, and I hate that and I want to put something on the bottom of that.

Debra: Come on. It's more than that though.

Tim: I know. That actually came before we were even on a mission. So prior to that being written, we were just, and we're just an eyewear company looking for money and we hadn't even shipped anything yet because we had no investors. We didn't have anything. So yeah, someone was talking just the night before about how fifties and new forties, sixties and new fifties I, I don't get it. And if this is going to be a lifestyle brand, you have to be authentic in order to be a lifestyle brand. And I don't understand this whole position on age and reading glasses. There's no better product about it to have a conversation about age than reading glasses. But at the time that I wrote that, it was a subconscious thing. And then I had someone read that to me who didn't like it, a potential investor, and she said, you can't do that.

Debra: Wait, talk to me more about that because that feels exactly true how those conversations would go.

Tim: And I asked her, well, why can't I do that? And they said, no one wants to believe that they're the age that they actually are. And everyone wants to think that they're 15 years younger. And that was the end of the meeting. And I had to pack up my things and walk down three, five flights of stairs to the sidewalk. And when I hit the sidewalk, that's when it hit me. Oh my God, we're actually in the age business. We're not in the eyewear business. We're in the age business. And that's when everything shifted.

Debra: And what was the thinking beyond that? Because I know from other entrepreneur friends, when you go back and you tell the origin story, it sounds like, of course that was obvious, but at the time you're like, I am all by myself here and every force is telling me that this is a ridiculous idea.

Tim: Well, we didn't have our why prior to that moment, and every brand needs a why. If you don't have a why, then you're just making stuff. And if you're just making stuff, I don't care. It's not enough to get me out of bed. So it was at that moment that it was, oh my God, now we have a why and it's David and Goliath. It's all these things that we need in order to have to be propelled forward.

Debra: And then what happened after that?

Tim: I was running down the street and I called up, I had at the time probably four co-founders and I was calling 'em each up. And I told them, this is a pivot almost of sorts. This whole idea that people are afraid of their age i...