James Swanwick is the co-founder of Swanwick Sleep, a business that has sold hundreds of units of what used to be big, bright, ugly, orange-lensed safety glasses.
He got the idea for the product in 2014, when his friend arrived at dinner wearing the orange-lensed safety glasses. According to James, “I thought he was playing a joke on me. We weren’t in a five-star restaurant, but people were dressed nicely and his look was out of place. Eventually, I had to ask, ‘What’s up with the safety glasses?'”
His friend explained that the lenses were made to block out artificial blue light. Devices like cell phones emit this blue light that affects the level of melatonin the human body produces, a chemical that helps us sleep at night. Essentially, he said, blue light tricks your body into thinking its daytime.
That’s when the idea hit home. James himself suffered from long-term sleeping issues at the time, so he went home and pulled out a pair of yellow-tinted ski goggles. Although they looked ridiculous, he wore them an hour before bed for the next week, and the effects on his sleep were amazing.
He teamed up with his brother and reached out to several Chinese manufacturers until they got the right design for the glasses.
And within 12-months, this interesting product became the cornerstone of a million-dollar business.
Read the full article at Entrepreneur.com
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