Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Sunglass firm’s founder has a vision
Ex-Marine goes from military supply to eyewear
Entrepreneur Mark Llano, a former Marine who built a $200 million-a-year military supply business in Wellington, is scoping out a whole new market for his latest business, founded about six months ago.
Skeleton Optics, also based in Wellington, is a maker of high-end sunglasses for people who love the outdoors.
The business is a marked change from his previous company, Source One Distributors, which sold tactical gear, weapons, safety products and other goods to the military and police departments. In 2015, Source One was acquired by Washingtonbased military supply company Unifire for an undisclosed amount.
“As an entrepreneur, you have to know when it’s time to [move on]. Working with the government is probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. You learn a lot. But when there’s an opportunity to find something different and something invigorating, I found personally it was time to make a change,” said Llano, 48.
Llano said the move also made sense financially. With Source One, he took on a lot of financial risk — which paid off, as demand for military supplies grew during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he also saw how quickly lines of credit could disappear during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
He also traveled a lot, booking up to 150,000 miles a year to build Source One. The apex was in 2014 when Source One Distributors won a $10 billion contract from the Defense Logistics Agency.
“There were plenty of opportunities during those 14 years to sell. I didn’t feel like it was right then. There was plenty of room to grow,” said Llano, named Florida’s Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. That same year, Llano was named Florida Entrepreneur of the Year by management consultant Ernst & Young.
Gilbert Colon, previously deputy district director for the SBA in Miami and now in Jacksonville, said Llano is successful as an entrepreneur because of his passion and tenacity.
“Everything that Mark touches turns to gold,” Colon said.
After serving in the Gulf War including Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991, Llano earned a degree in criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. In 1997, he became a founding partner of Sterling Financial Investment Group in Boca Raton. He left in 2000, and founded Source One Distributors in 2003. Llano also is a Porsche race car driver, part of the Serket Racing team founded in 2012 that works to support veterans and their families.
In 2015, Llano decided it was time to sell Source One and start a new venture.
“Mark loves the challenge of building new companies and learning new industries,” said Lori Stanek, who is chief financial officer of Skeleton Optics and Llano’s fiancee.
Skeleton was a Colorado company purchased mainly for its name. Llano then shut down the company for nine months to
develop a new business plan. Llano soon found that the sunglasses business “was a 180-degree change from the military.”
“Marketing for the government business was totally different, not even on the same page. We couldn’t talk about certain things, we couldn’t do certain things. [Skeleton] is fun and exciting,” Llano said.
For Skeleton, social media is key. So Skeleton posts pictures of people wearing its sunglasses and enjoying outdoor activities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“We wanted to people to feel they’re entering into a lifestyle,” Llano said.
Llano said Skeleton’s sales are growing quickly through both online sales and retail distributors. “We’ve only been out there a few months and we’re already doing a few hundred thousand dollars in sales,” he said.
He said it would have been easy to manufacture sunglasses in China or Taiwan and put their label on them. But he didn’t want to do that.
Instead, Skeleton went to Italy to develop frame molds the company now owns and partnered on lenses with Carl Zeiss Vision, known for its vision technology. Designed for a “rustic, Americana outdoor lifestyle,” the sunglasses retail for $180 to $350, with the highest-priced pairs having limitededition hand-painted frames.
More than $100,000 has been invested in the business so far, said Llano, who is the majority owner.
The sunglasses were inspired by experiences Llano and Stanek enjoy — fishing, hunting, camping, whitewater rafting and skeet and trap shooting. Other sunglasses were always slipping off the nose or fogging up. So their sunglasses are designed with lenses that easily wipe clean and nose pads that resist moisture and are flush to the frame to prevent slippage.
Llano said there are major players in the sunglasses market that will make it difficult to break into retail stores. That’s why Skeleton is focusing on the outdoor sports market. “If we take a shotgun approach, we’re never going to be successful,” Llano said.
Wellington landscaper Dan Heller signed up as a distributor for Skeleton about six months ago. He knew Llano through his lawn business. “When he sold his other business and decided to open the sunglasses company, it surprised me. But I know how he is. He’s a very driven person. He loves the chase,” Heller said.