Earthlings will cast their eyes towards the heavens Monday to witness the solar eclipse, and when they do, their eyeballs — about 150 million of them — will be protected with glasses made in Bartlett.
American Paper Optics (APO) has been working for this moment for years. In the company’s 26-year history, it has produced around 3 billion pairs of 3D glasses. With those and other products (like the eclipse glasses), APO is the largest producer of 3D products in the world. Along the way, it has worked with some of the biggest brands in the country, including Disney, Marvel, Nintendo, Target, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
APO has produced around 75 million pairs of eclipse glasses for Monday’s event. Jason Lewin, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, said the company learned a lot from the 2017 eclipse, for which it made about 45 million pairs of glasses. That event was a “trial by fire,” he said and the company used that event as a blueprint to prepare for Monday’s eclipse.
“I saw that Indianapolis was in this path of totality,” Lewin said. “So, I reached out to them. I said, ‘You have this amazing racetrack there. What about having a watch party?’ They kind of laughed at me.”
That watch party is now expected to draw about 130,000 people to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The event will feature race cars decked out in eclipse wraps and officials (and astronauts) from the the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Tickets are $20 for adults.
Eclipse fever was rising. So, back in Bartlett, the company needed to build capacity. It powered its sales platform with Shopify to handle volume. It’s also leveraged its proximity to the FedEx hub for faster shipping, helping to fuel sales closer to the event.
The ramp-up also meant hiring more people. Lewin said the company had around 35 full time employees in 2017. That figure is now closer to 85, in order to crank out nearly 500,000 pairs of glasses each day.
Eclipse-related gains abound for companies in and around the path of totality. The event will spur about $1.6 billion in direct consumer spending, according to The Perryman Group, a Texas-based economic analysis firm.
If this eclipse feels like a bigger deal than the last one, it is. The Perryman Group said more than 30 million reside in the path of totality, from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Houlton, Maine. And that’s the secret sauce.
”From small towns to large population centers, the numbers of visitors are projected to be unusually large,” reads a brief from the company. “These travelers will spend money locally for accommodations, meals, gasoline, and retail items. The result will be a substantial economic stimulus.”
For AOP, the eclipse has meant a higher profile. Company officials have been seen on major television networks on shows like Made In America with David Muir, CBS Saturday Morning, and more. AOP will also be featured in a 2025 documentary called “Totality.”
The company made friends along the way, too, like NASA and Bill Nye. Lewin said his favorite partnership has been with St. Jude. The company donated half the sales of certain products to the hospital and had a patient design a special set of glasses for them.
For Lewin, being a part of this event has a deeper meaning beyond any sales figures. “We’re kind of living in a time where things are a bit separated,” he said. “So, this is kind of one of those bipartisan moments where it’s like, all right, we get to do this thing all together, work for the same thing. It’s not two groups against each other. Everybody is kind of like kumbaya for the moment, where we get to see this one thing all together.”
