In the November issue of Paste Magazine, journalist Kate Kiefer profiled the evolution of the Hipster over the past decade (2000-2009) and how the Hipster’s fashion has changed with the times. The above photo is a characterization of the 2008 Hipster: “He thoughtfully hangs shutter shades in the deep-V of his white tee, and he’s often seen walking his fixed-gear bike around town while texting with his iPhone.” We at Shutter Shades find this hilarious, but oh so true. Click here to see the full evolution of the Hipster.
Today, Monday September 14, 2009, marks two years since we went live and introduced Shutter Shades to the world. Kanye West had the only pair in the world before we launched and since then, people from all corners of the globe have experienced the fun, excitement, and chaos that Shutter Shades provide.
Here’s a look back at some of our favorite moments.
Here are the guys that brought Shutter Shades to the globe:
L-R: J Clyde, Pete, George, Lew, Todd, Shawn
Here is the intro photo that you would see on our very first website design that launched September 14, 2007.
Once you clicked into the website, this is what you would see. If you clicked on one of the colors, it would take you to the checkout screen. The website has come a LONG way since then!
The world famous Shutter Shades Crew (L-R: George, Shawn, Todd, Lew, J Clyde. Not pictured is Pete). This was taken right before our Launch Party in November, 2007 in Hollywood.
This was a very memorable night for several reasons:
We followed that up in December with our Christmas party:
For new years eve 2007 we went to Las Vegas and ran into a very special friend. She liked what we had to give her:
Paris Hilton
The following month, January of 2008, we flew all the way over to Barcelona, Spain for The Bread & Butter Trade Show, the biggest European and possibly the biggest international trade show on earth. To say the least, we made a big SPLASH!
The coolest, most talked-about people at the trade show by far – The Shutter Shades crew and The Amsterdam Clubkids:
This is an awesome photo, taken by the New York Times during the historic Presidential primaries:
In February 2008 at the Project trade show in Las Vegas, world famous fashion designer Christian Audigier couldn’t help but experience the Shutter Shades phenomenon, even as his brands took in the highest sales volume of all brands during the week!
Also in 2008, Shutter Shades linked up with Kanye West to join him on his critically-acclaimed Glow In The Dark tour:
Later that year, we teamed up with The Far East Movement to collaborate on a FM edition set of our 2.0 edition sunglasses.
Far East Movement
The greatest:
Muhammed Ali
We celebrated our 1 year anniversary, Vegas style:
This was awesome!
We then linked up with electro-hop group Hyper Crush to collaborate on a set of Tron edition sunglasses (check them out here):
Hyper Crush
Gatorade came up with a very cool ad campaign with several athletes, check out one of the commercials that aired in which NBA player Kevin Garnett used Shutter Shades for inspiration:
One word: Hef.
Along the way, we sponsored parties for nearly every holiday and occasion – you can check them all out here on our myspace page – usually because we felt like partying! But mostly to connect with our fellow Shutter Shades movement. We give all the credit for this movement to all of you out there who LOVE Shutter Shades, who love everything about what they stand for. We even give some credit to those who hate Shutter Shades, because they make those who love them LOVE THEM even more!
Shutter Shades will be around forever now and so will we. We THANK YOU for your support and for being a part of our journey. Feel free to reach out to us and let us know what you think about Shutter Shades, where you want to see them, what ideas you have, what you want us to do. We are here because of you. With you, we will last another two years and many more after that.
Shutter Shades – Accessorize your face. They’re that hot! Summer officially ends in less than two weeks, but Shutter Shades will be around forever. New colors, new styles, and new apparel is on the way, so take advantage of this end of summer sale. You have to be fly for the start of school with authentic Shutter Shades.
In the summer of 2007, we launched what would become Shutter Shades, Inc. The international popularity (and infamy) of Kanye West would help to catapult our unique eyewear in the global spotlight and create a huge fashion frenzy. Everyone had an opinion about Shutter Shades. Love them or hate them, as long as you had some kind of an opinion about them, we were happy.
Before this time, this style of eyewear was commonly referred to as “Venetian Blinders.” Above you will find an image taken from Life.com about Venetian Blinders from the 1950s. The second photo (not sure where it’s from) shows children in the 1980s who wore “futuristic” eyewear and one of the girls (far left) is wearing the Venetian Blinders.
When I started conceptualizing the idea for this eyewear, I knew that I wanted there to be several colors for people to choose from and that I wanted to design a functional set of actual sunglasses for future release, but I really wanted to come up with a catchy enough name for people to instantly recognize the shades. I thought of the names “Aviator” and “Wayfarer” by Ray Ban right away – here were two styles of sunglasses instantly identifiable by their names. When I thought of those names, I immediately saw the shape and style of the sunglasses. I wanted this to be the case with these sunglasses that I was designing.
The name and term “Shutter Shades” popped right in my head one night while drafting a long document about the purpose and potential global appeal of shutter shades (basically my business plan) and while designing what was the first shuttershadesonline.com website. The design of the shades reminded me of window shutters and the sound of the words “shutter” and “shades” together blended perfectly and felt like a natural fit. The name was genius and it stuck with me through the development process and remarkably has stuck around ever since as the name for the eyewear. Alain Mikli, the famed sunglass designer who is credited with producing Kanye’s first pair of the shades, did not coin the term “shutter shades” as it is widely believed. That credit goes to yours truly. It’s hard to believe that a name that is known around the world now as not only just window shades but specific type of eyewear was first conceived in my mind! I’ll never forget that night in August 2007 and I’ll never forget the journey that has lead to where this brand is today.
Only my business partners and close friends know this story, but it’s a great story that must be told to the rest of the world. From it, hopefully you will appreciate the style of eyewear and the brand a little bit more now that you know some of its history.
