Safety eyeglasses made here keep GIs in Iraq looking
good
By Harry Levins
Of the Post-Dispatch
Saturday, Apr. 30 2005
AROUND ST. LOUIS,
almost all of us know that Boeing makes fighter planes out at
Lambert
Field. But who among us knows that SafeVision of Webster Groves also
stands in the ranks of local military contractors?
Apparently,
few people beyond SafeVision's five employees know that the company
supplies soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But thanks to a newspaper
story
about sunglasses for soldiers, SafeVision has come to light.
The story told of a local Marine who credited his $200 fancy
shatterproof
sunglasses with saving his eyes when he got smacked in
Iraq by a piece of
cable. His family here started a fund drive to buy
more of the sunglasses for
the Marine's buddies.
Which makes
SafeVision's Joel Wishne wince a bit. He says that the fancy
store-bought sunglasses "are better than nothing. But ours are
certified - and
much safer."
"Ours" are prescription safety
glasses - with interchangeable clear and tinted
lenses - mounted in a
Wiley X SG1 wraparound frame with orbital frame padding
to keep sand
and other debris from a soldier's eyes.
Last year, SafeVision
outfitted perhaps 1,000 soldiers. "Almost all were in
Iraq or
Afghanistan, or about to go there," says Wishne, the company's chief
financial officer. This year? "It's increasing. It could easily be
2,000."
Military procurement people place three-quarters of the
orders, with the rest
coming from individual soldiers.
So what
sets Wishne's product apart from store-bought models?
"The lenses
have been rated to withstand high impact," says Wishne. "The frames
have been rated to have the lenses either stay in or, if they pop out,
to pop
outward. The lenses won't go into your eyes."
SafeVision subcontracts most of its military lens work to Midland
Optical of
St. Louis, where 150 workers churn out 1,700 pairs of
glasses each day. Midland
President Matt Iovaldi delights in ushering
visitors around his high-tech
plant.
SafeVision is just one of
Iovaldi's 350-plus customers - not a huge account, by
any measure.
"The huge guys have their own optical labs," says Iovaldi. Even
so, he
says, SafeVision "is among the top 25 of our accounts."
Not bad
for a company that got started only six years ago and turns out such
varied products as prescription motorcycle glasses and prescription
diving
masks.
Today, military orders bring in one dollar out
of every five the company earns.
Wishne wants to get that military
share up to half. Two years ago, he got
SafeVision entered into
military databases. Now, he says, "We're getting a
reputation for
being good, which gets us new referrals."
He shares a printout of
an e-mail from a warrant officer handling supplies for
a military
police battalion in Iraq. The message ends: "You have been
outstanding, and I will definitely recommend your services to others.
Thanks!!"
Yes, SafeVision's military glasses are available to
civilians. But they're not
for your average drugstore sunglasses
buyer. The frames alone go for $95. Add
the prescription tinted lenses
($100) and interchangeable prescription clear
lenses ($80), good for
night use, and you're talking $275 total.
"Of course, we give the
government a big discount, because they're a big
customer," says
Wishne, who offers no details on the Pentagon's price.
He thinks
SafeVision is one of only 10 or so competitors in the military field.
"There aren't many," Wishne says, "because it's so specialized."
But he says he's never heard a soldier in Iraq ask for fancy
store-bought
sunglasses. "They say, 'I want a safety frame and safety
lenses.'"
Wishne's bottom line: "Soldiers deserve the real thing."
SaveVision's military glasses can be viewed on
the
company's Web site, at www.safevision.net.
Reporter Harry Levins
E-mail:
hlevins@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8144
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