by Jon Echternacht

The key to becoming a successful entrepreneur is finding a niche market.

An area man and his Minnesota partner have successfully done that and in the process have saved the eyes of an unknown number of combat soldiers.

Kevin Larson, 34, North Hudson, and Grant Lambert, 37, are co-owners of Sunray Optical on Selby Avenue in St. Paul. The business specializes in making impact-resistant prescription safety goggles for Army and Marine combat soldiers.

The operation started in Larson’s North Hudson basement in 1999 and involved selling sunglasses over the Internet. It then moved to Lambert’s basement in Minneapolis and grew by leaps and bounds last January when U.S. Military forces made an initial order of 4,000 pairs of impact-resistant, high-prescription sunglasses for their combat units.

Larson said it was word-of-mouth advertising that kicked things off. “We made prescription eyewear for one soldier. Other soldiers asked, ‘Where do we get them,’ and they found us on the Internet.” “People used to use phone books to find businesses. More and more they are using the Internet,” said Lambert.

“We do the full range of prescriptions,” said Larson. “The military couldn’t get that done elsewhere in a timely fashion.”

Lambert said that in some cases they got contracts not because they were the lowest price, but because other companies couldn’t deliver.

Larson, an optical lab man since 1987 and the former manager of Pearle Vision in Hudson, said his company has made prescriptions ranging from minus 3 to minus 15 when most other manufacturers can’t produce above minus 3.

“Minus 15 has been our top range so far, but we can make any prescription,” Lambert said.

Larson said that with his experience in the lab, he knew what he wanted in a machine to make the high-prescription lenses, but it wasn’t available. “We had to tweak existing machines,” he said.

Needless to say, the boost in orders from the military moved the business partners out of the basement and into the sunlight, so to speak.

Since July of 2003, they have operated out of an office in the Blair Arcade, where they have a retail store and lab. So far they have produced 10,000 pairs of polycarbonate, high-impact prescription lenses for the military and are “still counting,” said Larson.

They also offer a wide range of civilian sunglasses and prescription eyewear in their store.

The company employs eight people in the office and the lab. “About a year ago we didn’t have any,” said Larson.

A Twin Cities TV station reported recently that Sunray topped $2 million in sales. But the real reward for Larson and Lambert comes in the form of gratitude from the ground soldiers fighting the war.

They received an e-mail from a wounded Iraq veteran that said, “My face received shrapnel to the left side from a rocket-propelled grenade blast. My eyes were untouched because I was wearing my Wiley XSG-1 goggles. I plan on buying another pair. Please let your employees know that your product is wonderful and saved this Army soldier’s eyesight.”

The motorcycle crowd was the first group of customers for Sunray’s high-impact sunglasses, said Lambert. He added that the company is currently working on a series of high-fashion, designer-name sunglasses for a future market.

Background
Larson lived in a number of towns in northern Minnesota growing up and graduated from Elk River High School in 1989. He moved to Hudson in 1998. He and his wife, Kari, have a 3-year-old son, Dylan.

Lambert grew up in Fridley, Minn., and graduated from Columbia Heights High School in 1985. He earned a degree in graphic arts from St. Cloud State University in 1990. He and his wife, Heather, live in South Minneapolis.

Larson joked that the two became friends when Lambert was going to St. Cloud State and he was hanging out on campus for the parties.