Meet Kaleb Abbott of SunSnap Kids in Stapleton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaleb Abbott.

Kaleb, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am a practicing optometrist who has always been passionate about eye health. After optometry school, I moved to Denver, commonly referred to as the “Mile High City”. As Denverites know, the sun is more intense at higher elevations. This UV exposure is compounded by Denver having over 300 days of sunshine per year. I quickly noticed that my adult patients wore sunglasses year-around, but that my kid patients rarely wore sunglasses. Listening to their stories, I realized, of course, parents want their kids’ eyes to be protected, but they believe kid sunglasses will just get lost. Being an optometrist, I was troubled by the eye health risks of young eyes being exposed to high levels of UV light. UV light exposure can cause premature cataracts, retinal damage, corneal sunburns, eye growths, and even eye cancer.

I began brainstorming and collaborating with several Texas A&M University entrepreneurs with Startup Aggieland and StartupGrind BCS. These discussions led to the concept of kid slap bracelet sunglasses, which could be snapped onto wrists, backpacks, bike handlebars, strollers, car seats — pretty much anything! From there, I reached out to an industrial designer and an engineer in Silicon Valley and the three of us began the process of market research, prototyping, designing, and manufacturing what became known as Snappies. Our goal was to create the perfect kid sunglasses that parents could trust wouldn’t get lost easily and that would protect these young and developing eyes from harmful UV light.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m not sure any entrepreneur could honestly answer “yes” to that question. As with any startup, there were definitely some hiccups along the way. Funny enough, many of our struggles were not from the actual product design and manufacturing (our designer, Natalie Rowan, is outstanding!), but from our customized sunglasses boxes. Right when we were set for our product launch, our first batch of customized sunglasses boxes arrived completely defective and unusable. That left us scrambling to get boxes as orders were starting to roll in.

SunSnap Kids – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
SunSnap Kids is a kid sunglasses company founded to solve the problem of kids losing their sunglasses. Our solution to this problem was to design innovative and playful kid sunglasses which utilize slap bracelets that can be snapped on objects when not being used. The snapping feature also helps the sunglasses stay firmly snapped to the child’s head, even during sports or active play. Our sunglasses are set apart from all other kid sunglasses in that our kid sunglasses are not just adult sunglasses made smaller. Snappies are fun, playful, easy to use, and difficult to lose. Although many kids resist wearing sunglasses, the playful nature of Snappies encourages kids to wear them and have fun while doing so. As entrepreneurs, the goal is to find a common problem and solve it. SunSnap Kids is proud to have created a product that helps solve the universal problem of kids losing sunglasses and subsequent unmitigated UV light exposure.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I would say our proudest moments are when satisfied customers send us pictures of their kids wearing the sunglasses or tag us on social media platforms. We are so grateful to put a smile on these kids’ faces while simultaneously protecting their eyes and helping parents worry less!

Pricing:

• Mint Snappies – Polarized: $29.99
• Mint Snappies – Original: $17.99
• Purple Snappies – Polarized: $29.99
• Purple Snappies – Original: $17.99
• Black Snappies – Polarized: $29.99
• Black Snappies – Original: $19.99

Contact Info:

• Address: 8915 East 29th Place
  Denver, CO 80238
• Website: https://sunsnapkids.com
• Email: sales@sunsnapkids.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunsnapkids
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunsnapkids
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SunSnapKids

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