Stories

They say you play your best footy when you have good life balance.

I like to call it the pizza graph. On each slice you categorise your life from family, football, off-field development (university or business), friends, relationships, charity work and any other leisurely activates that can get your mind off anything stressful.

RIXX as a business was born as one of these slices.

For the unindulged, what is RIXX? Well, we noticed a hole in the market for top-end, superior quality sunglasses that are fairly priced, and that’s why we wanted to see how we could make our leap into the market.

We did our due diligence, and persevered for the right connections to help build what was most important; top quality sunglasses that had our own little twist on it.

Once we worked out our plan there was no looking back.

When I say ‘we’, I’m referring to my business partner who is a local lad from WA, Coen Rodgers.

We met in my first year after moving over to Perth from Melbourne, after three or so years of being mates the idea of RIXX was born one night over dinner!

The business has so far enabled myself to both learn and develop my professional sense off field.

I elected to get hands on with all parts as it developed. As well as trying to build something I can hopefully step straight into when my footy career is over.

Quite often I get asked where the name originated from, and while I wish there was an intriguing or mysterious story behind it, unfortunately there isn’t.

One day when we were tossing up names I yelled out, ‘Slick Rick’, which was a name I used to cop from a few boys down at the club when I used to slick my hair back.

Needless to say, it was quickly dismissed. Although, ‘Slick Rick’ turned into ‘Ricks’ which eventually ended up being ‘RIXX.’

We liked the look and sound of it so it stuck.

In September last year, we went live with our online site, and we envisage another year of growth.

It’s easy to say that we think we have a good product, but what really separates us from others in the market?

Superior top quality products that are fairly priced, not those designer labels that cost over $400 simply due to a logo. Our products range from $159 – $219.

For a bit more detail on our products, we use a combination of both metal and acetate for frames.

Our initial six styles have lenses made of Nylon and are UV400, which means they provide 100 percent UV protection against the harsh Australian sun.

In June, we released two new styles to our range in ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Cosmo’, which both sport polarised lenses for the first time.

We always strive to innovate and use the best technology available to us. For example, we have a pair of aviators called ‘Flo’ which bend, twist and mold to your face when wearing without breaking.

If you followed our work closely on social media, and specifically on Instagram, you would have noticed that we have launched Lachie Weller’s post-footy modelling career.

We did shoot Lachie a long time before he got signed up, so I like to joke and say RIXX was the reason he got picked up by Viviens.

But in reality if he wasn’t playing professional footy he would most likely be dominating fashion week in Milan or Paris, he is that good!

Lachie has been massive for us, but he is definitely more than just a good looking rooster.

He has been a great professional model to use and put his face in front of the brand, which has been unreal. He has also helped us with choosing the themes and vibes of the brand in a lot of our content early and been really creative.

While also avoiding to rock up to photoshoots with minimal cuts and bruises from footy has also been a bonus for our makeup crew!

Whenever we have new designs or colours he is one of those guys we really trust to give us valuable ideas and feedback before we head into production.

The AFL community has got right behind RIXX Eyewear. You’ll see them on a fair few champions such as Gary Ablett, Chris Judd, Nat Fyfe, Alex Rance and Tex Walker to name a few.

We have noticed the stylish, fashion gurus of the AFL are all currently wearing them which is fantastic to see.

And not to mention everyone at the Freo footy club getting right behind us, the support has been amazing.

It’s not just footballers who have supported us, with celebrities across a number of other fields being snapped wearing our products.

We’ve had NFL players like Eric Decker, and Australian punter Brad Wing who plays for the New York Giants.

Australian Hollywood star Margot Robbie being photographed by the paparazzi at LAX airport in our ‘Havana Draiz’ was pretty surreal, and Australian Victoria Secret Angel Bridget Malcolm was spotted wearing our ‘Gold Mirage’ in Paris whilst on holiday.

Clearly that all helps when it comes to promotion because social media becomes our strongest form of marketing.

If you want to find out more and browse some of our products, head to Rixxeyewear.com.au and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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