The Last Word
Weekend Warrior at Work
By Marcy Bruch

Bill MacGillivray has always been passionate about sports. "I ski, I mountain bike, I play golf and racquetball. And I do it all with bad eyes," he jokes. It was his personal experiences that prompted the master optician and owner of North Portland Optical in Portland Ore., to investigate developing prescription eyewear with lens tints that would enhance vision for sport-specific activities.

"I researched how various lenses increase contrast and cut glare, then I created a three-ring binder divided into chapters for each sporting activity that had samples of the lenses most suitable for that particular sport. For instance, a brown-tinted lens is good for highlighting the green of a golf course to better see the ball, and rose or vermillion-tinted lenses with flash mirror coating help skiers see moguls better," he says. "My customers really liked the extra customization I offered for their prescription sunwear."

"When Oakley first developed its prescription sunwear program, they came to me to tap into my expertise. That's why I was one of the first dispensers in the country to carry their prescription program," he recalls.

Fast-forward 11 years later: 25 percent of North Portland Optical's total sales come from sports sunwear and MacGillivray also has three All About Eyes sport sunwear specialty shops in Spokane, Wash., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Tigard, Ore., as well as a Website, www.visiblespectrum.net, set to launch this month.

MacGillivray dedicates an area to sports sunwear at North Portland Optical. "My dispensary is 2,000 square feet, and one-third of the space is dedicated to sports sunwear. You have to make the commitment in both inventory and real estate," he says.

He also trains his dispensers to recommend a second pair of sunwear to every customer who walks through the door for prescription eyewear. "But they can't sell the product if they're not educated about what it offers. The reason I've been so successful selling sports sunwear is because I'm an active athlete myself--I know about the nuances of a particular sport and how sunwear can alleviate obstacles that get in the way of peak performance," he says.

All customers at North Portland Optical fill out a lifestyle questionnaire, so the staff can recognize weekend warriors like MacGillivray himself and find out what kind of sports activities patients engage in before a second pair of sunglasses is recommended. "We keep the questionnaires on file, so even if they don't buy the sports sunwear the first time they come in, we have a record of what we recommended and they usually buy it when they come back," he says.

MacGillivray works with about 10 sports sunwear vendors ranging from the mainstream to the obscure, and at any given time, there's about 500 sports sunwear frames on display. "You can't sell it if you don't show it. Our average ticket price for prescription sunwear is $295, and non-prescription sunwear averages about $108," he says.

What's MacGillivray's advise on grabbing a bigger piece of the sports sunwear pie? "Do your homework. Find out what kind of sports activities are popular in your area. Once you find out what sporting activity is big in your area, research it, even participate in it. Find your niche. And once you find your niche, you're simply giving the customers what they want, so selling becomes easy."