That’s what happened on September 16 as the University of Colorado and Colorado State University met on the gridiron for the Rocky Mountain Showdown at Folsom Field in Boulder, with the "A Milli" rapper spitting lyrics about Coach Deion Sanders's now-viral sunglasses as CU came onto the field.
“It’s personal,” Wayne rapped from the end zone before the game. “I got my shades on.”
Sunglasses were the talk of the town ahead of the Saturday night game, after CSU head coach Jay Norvell took a shot at Coach Prime's flashy style and affinity for wearing them inside.
“'When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off,” Norvell said in an interview before the game. “That's what my mother taught me.”
True to form, Sanders used Norvell’s comments as a springboard to his own success — rallying his team behind the slogan “It's personal," and announcing a brand-new line of Blenders Eyewear x Coach Prime sunglasses, which he gifted to players, sports interviewers and celebrities in town for the weekend.
“It’s like we’ve been shot outta a fkn cannon, in orbit, in a whole new universe,” Blenders CEO and founder Chase Fisher wrote on Instagram under a photo of him and Sanders sporting the shades.
The collaboration actually started before Sanders came to Colorado, when Fisher’s father encouraged him to reach out to the coach about an eyewear deal while Sanders was still coaching at Jackson State University, where he spent three years before coming to the Centennial State last December.
“All the sneaker companies over the past decades have made sneakers for athletes,” Fisher’s father texted him. “What sunglasses company is making signature sunglasses for athletes? Nobody.”
Fisher started Blenders after he sported a custom pair of shades at a concert and people loved them. The former surf coach began selling the glasses out of his backpack on the beach using a $2,000 loan from his roommate. His dad encouraged him to work with Sanders, even predicting his move to a bigger school during the off-season.
Now, thanks to the encouragement from Pops, Fisher has struck eyewear gold.
“I started to see [Sanders’s] affinity for loud, affordable eyewear — which is exactly who we are here at Blenders,” Fisher says. “We started a conversation with his team, SMAC Entertainment, and it turns out that he was in the market for an eyewear deal.”
The Blenders team began working with Sanders during the off-season to develop what would end up being the most-talked-about sunglasses in Colorado history. The frames are metallic and have reflective lenses that stretch all the way to the edge instead of ending at a visible rim.
“Coach Prime was involved throughout the process and has a knack for details,” Fisher says. “He even requested that the sunglasses be priced at $67 to pay homage to the year he was born.”
After Norvell’s comments, people were more than ready to pay that $67 price.
The original plan was to launch the eyewear line on September 20, but Blenders decided to move the announcement up to September 15 to capitalize on the moment.
“The timing of things could not have been better,” Fisher says. “Coach Prime is truly one step ahead of the game, and we couldn’t be more excited to continue this electrifying journey with him.”
The Blenders CEO and founder even came to Boulder himself to witness the action — meeting Sanders’s mother, who gave the team its pregame speech after being a target of Norvell’s trash talk.
“I write this as I’m coming off the craziest week of my life,” Fisher shared on Instagram. “I have freight trains running through my mind. My heart is pounding. Filled with electrifying energy. Living & moving at light speed while dreaming in a thousand different directions.”
Blenders originally planned to sell 16,000 pairs of the shades, but the company has already amassed over 70,000 pre-orders. While it isn’t sharing the exact percentages of who gets what from sales of the shades, doing the math shows the number has easily made its way into the multi-millions.
Sanders gifted all the players on his team a pair, and the cast of ESPN’s First Take — Molly Qerim, Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe — all sported the sunglasses when Sanders joined the show the day the Blenders collab was announced.
"This collaboration is much larger than our shared love for fashion and eyewear,” Sanders said in a release. “Eyewear is much larger than just fashion. It's an outlet to express yourself, it's a conversation starter, it sets the darn tone! Look good, feel good, play good!"
That last phrase — "Look good, feel good, play good" — is one of Sanders's signature slogans, and this week he applied to trademark four of his catchphrases with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, including "Coach Prime" and "It’s Personal." So the glasses may not be the last marketing move Sanders makes off Norvell’s words, and it definitely won’t be the last CU sees of Blenders.
The company also inked a deal to become the premier eyewear partner of CU Athletics. Fisher says it will offer player, fan and student options in the future.
“This is the biggest collaboration Blenders has released to date, but this collaboration goes far beyond sales,” he tells Westword. “We’ve started a movement and rewritten the playbook for e-commerce brands looking to make a statement and authentically build their communities. Coach Prime truly aligns with our values, which is why this all works so well.”
The first wave of glasses will be available October 12, with others coming in the following months.
