N3L OPTICS—WHAT'S IN A NAME

Issue: Sunglasses Magazine, June 2009

In May 2008, the first sunglass shop entirely focused on sports opened its doors in Cherry Creek, CO. N3L Optics has since grown to five stores—located in California, Florida, and Texas—and 30 employees. A handful of talented people brought this Oakley subsidiary from napkin sketch to innovative reality. One of them, Kendra Reichenau, Senior VP-Brand Director, is in charge of everything from managing the field to developing all real estate, marketing, and merchandising strategies.

SUNGLASSES: N3L stands for Newton’s three laws of motion. Can you explain a bit about how that concept came to be used?

KENDRA REICHENAU: We’re all about vision. Newton was a visionary, adventurous; he thought outside the box. His approach has served as a guiding principle for us. Our stores are visionary, very interactive. No one else is doing this, except maybe Apple. We’re about learning, experiencing, getting it right. As our mission statement says: We will always be in motion.

SG: What are some of the “toys” customers can play with?

KR: You can try on frames, let the Smart Mirror take your photo in them, and e-mail it to friends. With the Immersive Display, you can customize tints and materials for whatever sport you want. If you don’t know what you need, use the touch screen to pull up the top five we recommend. Then, head to the Explorer Chamber and test them under different light and wind conditions, with polarized and then without.

SG: Who is your typical customer?

KR: It varies by store, but overall it’s 70% male, 30% female, mostly casual athletes and weekend warriors. On average, people spend 15 to 20 minutes and try on at least six pairs.

SG: How are the stores set up? What kind of displays/P-O-P materials do you use?

KR: Each store is approximately 700 sq. ft. and organized by brand and lifestyle. We have about six zones, including Active Life, Polarized, and Sport Performance. This is the way we’re set up now, but that may change. We have the ability to flip zones, if it works better for a particular location.

All of our stores are open-sell, and displays/windows are done in-house. We also sponsor a lot of sports-talk radio shows from our stores, where we bring in local athletes.

SG: How do you train your sales staff on brands, frames, lens technology, etc.?

KR: Training is critical to make sure we ask the right questions and give the customer the right sunglass. For each store opening, we do one week of training. We collaborate with vendors, who run training seminars on their brands. N3L provides Web-based training to learn about lens performance and customer service standards. Each month, updates are sent out and we do about five to 10 hours of ongoing training.

SG: Of the 21 brands you carry, what are some of the best sellers?

KR: In the sport category, Oakley dominates the field, but also Ray-Ban®, Maui Jim, and Rudy Project do really well. In active/skate, VonZipper and Spy Optic are big; both reflect a California sensibility.

SG: Do you see particular shapes or colors selling better than others?

KR: We sell more shields and wraps for better coverage and wind protection. We also see a huge trend to all kinds of colors and patterns, in brands like VonZipper, Mosley Tribes, Electric Visual, Oakley, and Fox.

SG: Your first anniversary coincides with the opening of a fifth store, in Dallas. Are more rollouts planned for this year?

KR: We’re just pulling together our strategy for what we’ll do next. In our first year, we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response and a lot of repeat customers.