By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal (4/20/2016):

The Bartlett-based American Paper Optics wants to sell at least 100 million solar eclipse sunglasses by Aug. 21, 2017.

That may seem like an astronomical number, but the date marks the biggest astronomical event of the past century in the United States.

“Once we get close (to Aug. 21, 2017), people are going to get really excited. We need to have all the glasses.’’

Those words don’t come from the local company that has been making 3D, special-effects and eclipse glasses for 25 years, but from University of Missouri astrophysics professor Angela Speck.

She’s placed an initial order for 5,000 cardboard glasses decorated in the Mizzou logo and stripes of school’s tiger mascot.
The university will sell eclipse glasses in the campus bookstore and at its observatory in preparation for a most unusual first day of the fall 2017 semester. The total eclipse will darken the Columbia campus of 35,000 student during lunch.

Not since 1918 has a total eclipse cut a 70-mile-wide swath across the entire continent.
The moon’s shadow will diagonally cross the U.S., slanting from Oregon to South Carolina and coming as close to Memphis as Nashville.

The phenomenon is different from a partial eclipse. Not only does day turn to night and the temperature drop, but the moon and sun choreograph themselves for a bejeweled performance lasting two minutes or so. The sky ring is called a “diamond’’ or “corona’’ or “plasma.’’

“People think they have seen an eclipse, but they haven’t,’’ Speck said.

Both Speck and John Jerit, president of American Paper Optics, believe the build-up to the eclipse eventually will hit a fever pitch. But Jerit’s 35-employee company, housed at 2995 Appling Road, must get ahead of the excitement to reach its sales goals.

His company can produce 50,000 glasses an hour.

The biggest order so far is 110,000 glasses for Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which like Columbia, Missouri, will be within path of total eclipse and plans a number of related festivities to entertain citizens and tourists. The National Solar Observatory in Hawaii ordered 25,000. And so far universities in Wyoming, Indiana and Ontario are buying glasses from the Bartlett firm.

Protecting the eyes is a must, whether by creating a projected image of the sun with a “pinhole camera’’ or by wearing the kind of special glasses American Paper Optics makes. Glasses that are 10,000 times darker than sunglasses, Jerit says.

American Paper Optics’ eclipse glasses are ISO certified for the protection they provide. The company has never had a claim that its glasses failed to protect someone’s eyes, Jerit said.

To claim a healthy market share, it’s now up to Jerit’s sales force of six people.

The glasses are relatively inexpensive. An order for 1 million glasses with a corporate customer’s brand printed on them might sell for 16 cents per pair of glasses, Jerit said. The glasses might be 25 cents each with an order for 100,000 of them.

The key to selling at least 100 million glasses is connecting to the big advertising agencies and the big companies that would give away the glasses emblazoned with the company colors and logos, Jerit said.

Timing could be a challenge for American Paper Optics. The sooner the public becomes aware of the eclipse the better for the company. “The media will pick up on it very much close to the end,’’ Jerit said. “You’ll get a little pop Aug. 21, 2016, one year out and then it will start to build. People got to know to make plans.’’

Now, smaller groups like University of Missouri and Hopkinsville are ordering their custom-branded glasses to build excitement, he said.
“We’re now getting out there to try to knock on doors of big sponsors and big agencies that control those sponsors, to get somebody like FedEx to sponsor and give away 10 million glasses.’’

He doesn’t know when yet, but a national fervor over the total eclipse will come, Jerit said.

Said Mizzou’s Speck, “We need enough (glasses) for the entire population.’’

See More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK2MdMxVM_s

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