Waveborn, the D.C.-based luxury sunglasses retailer, has hired two new employees to help with marketing. The new hires bring the total number of full-time employees at Waveborn to six. Tara de Nicolas, a freelance marketing consultant, has been hired as the company's director of marketing. She will be working with Jaclyn South, Waveborn's new PR and marketing specialist.
"I met Mike [Malloy, Waveborn's CEO] through Georgetown University," de Nicolas explains. The two Hoyas are putting their heads together to bring big changes to Waveborn, "to increase sales and retail [availability] and to increase the impact of our charitable giving."
Waveborn's
model puts giving at the forefront; for each pair of sunglasses sold, the company donates a pair of eyeglasses or a sight-saving surgery to someone in need.
Besides rebuilding and rebranding the company's website, which is first on her in-house to-do list, de Nicolas says Waveborn will focus on "strategic international growth, starting with Brazil. Their winter season is opposite to ours," she says, making it a great place to market in the off-season. "Our goal is to tie in with the Olympics in Brazil in 2016. It's our mark of where we want to explode."
Closer to home, Waveborn is focusing on expanding its business to California and to "niche industries like skiing and snowboarding," de Nicolas says. "We're already in Delaware and the Jersey Shore. We should be all over D.C. It's our town!"
Waveborn currently offers 29 different frame styles to fit clients' needs and wants. De Nicolas says that six more styles for women are coming soon. The new website will feature local spots that carry the frames so customers can try before they buy.
De Nicolas says that Malloy's passion for giving drew her to work with the company. "Mike wants to do whatever is best to give the most back," she explains. "There's no 'founder's syndrome.' He's passionate about growing and making all the right decisions, and it's contagious."