North Texas couple’s eyeglass company keeps them going

by Tessa Howington of of North Dallas Gazette

At first glance, the Andersons' story sounds pretty typical – high school sweethearts that got married, had four wonderful children, are involved in their church, own a business and seem to be living the good life. However, they will be the first to tell you that’s not reality.

“It’s been a long, crazy, journey . . .” Chris Anderson says, but is interrupted by his mother-in-law Sue, “And the best is yet to come.”

Meeting while Chris and Adrienne were in high school and falling in love is exactly what happened. However, Adrienne became pregnant in high school and didn’t finish, while Chris quit the last semester of his senior year finding a job in an ophthalmologist’s office to support his soon to be family. In the office, Chris worked in the lab, creating eyewear for the doctor’s patients and learning more and more each day about optics. They were fortunate enough to live with family members, allowing them to cut living expenses and provide help for Adrienne with the new baby.

It also allowed Chris to continue to be involved with some rather shady individuals and doing things he shouldn’t. He’ll admit, “I was in a gang. Alcohol, drugs, you name it, I was around it or involved with it.” He describes himself as a “wild child” while growing up in Pleasant Grove. While his past actions are not something he’s proud of, he knows he doesn’t need to hide them either. He adds, “What good are the trials I went through if I don’t use my experiences to educate at least my children?”

But, while he was involved in these activities, he continued to work as an optician and did try his best to take care of Adrienne and their baby, Ivy. Around the age of 24, he hit, what he describes, as “rock bottom.” He had quit working in optics, and had a receptionist and sales type job with Earthlink. He didn’t like his job, was realizing that the life he was leading was going nowhere fast, and had a great concern for his wife and daughter’s overall well-being and future. At the time, he didn’t know why he was at Earthlink, but knew he needed to do something to better his life. Fortunately, Earthlink had an insurance program that paid to send him to rehab.

Looking back, he now realizes that the only reason God sent him to Earthlink was to get the help he needed. “I’ve been clean for about 8 years now.” That program was a “blessing,” and he never would have been able to go “if it wasn’t for that job.”

After finishing rehab, things began to turn around for Chris and Adrienne. Chris decided to go back into optics, realizing that field was one he really enjoyed. By this time, he and his wife both had their GEDs and he became certified with the American Board of Opticianry. They borrowed $4,500 from his father and bought some lab equipment to start their own wholesaling business. Leasing a 120 square foot space in Dr. Wilken’s office in Coppell, it wasn’t long before their business took off. “Within 6 months I had to make a decision,” Chris says. And that decision was to expand.

After they moved to a larger facility, they were able to invest in newer and more equipment to help fulfill the numerous amounts of orders they were receiving. Adrienne’s grandparents also purchased a home for them so they could move to The Colony and have extra money to invest in the business. He describes the way everything came together as “amazing.”

But while things were seemingly going great, tragedy struck. Chris’ mother died of cancer not long after they opened the larger lab. He describes this event as “the most horrible experience of suffering ever.” The silver lining was that he had already given jobs to his brother and sister, so working together and being with each other every day helped them overcome their mother’s death. Not long after, his father, who was set to retire from Kmart, was laid off, and after the company filed for bankruptcy, lost his entire life savings. Chris, wanting to help his dad however he could, gave him a job.

Needing an office manager, Chris also gave a job to one of his church’s elders who had been laid off from Boeing after September 11. Adding more employees, at the height of their business, they were doing wholesale orders totaling around $60,000 a month and had 7 employees. They also worked with other doctors in the area to provide free eye clinics on Saturdays, a program that helped kids without social security get glasses, and helped with Hurricane Katrina relief. Chris was also heavily involved with church activities as well. “Chris’s heart is just incredible,” Adrienne says. “Helping out unfortunate families is a priority of his.”

Within the last year, the officer manager left, and finding a replacement became a huge hassle and created a downhill slide. Investing time and money bringing in new people almost cost the business everything it had. Adrienne describes what happened as Chris being “so generous, but people took advantage of that.” Adding to mounting financial pressure, they decided to add a retail storefront to the lab and sell directly to the public. During this time, Chris’s uncle and grandfather had also passed.

Chris and Adrienne decided to downsize the lab and store to try to save money. Other wholesalers and larger companies began undercutting them and lessening their business. And, they did not want to have to lay off any of their seven original employees either. On January 12th, they officially opened their new, smaller store, Eyewear Direct, which is a retail wholesale eyewear store with its own lab behind it.

The opening was also a four-month notice for their employees that things may drastically have to change.

While things were looking tough, the good news was that Adrienne was expecting their fourth child, and both were excited. This February, on Chris’s birthday, they went in for a seemingly regular check up and sonogram to find that their baby, Stella, had already passed.

Devastated, Chris decided to take some time off to cope with the recent events, help Adrienne get through the loss, and spend time with his girls. Once he believed things settled down, he returned to work to find that their biggest client had canceled their contract for another distributor, something that could have been avoided had he not taken the time off.

Struggling to make ends meet, he helped all of his former employees find other jobs and made some severe cutbacks and financial sacrifices to help his family and their business stay afloat.

Now, he and his wife Adrienne believe that the best is yet to come. Even though sales are still slow, business is starting to pick up again. And they are extremely proud of their oldest daughter, Ivy, who is excelling through junior high. Adrienne recently enrolled in the Cooper Institute to become a personal trainer and is an independent consultant for Arbonne Pure Swiss Skin Care, and the two youngest daughters, Emily 5 ½ and Krislyn 3, are “crazy,” happy and healthy.

Chris is still trying to do as much work within the community as he is financially allowed, working with nurses in The Colony ISD to provide free eyeglasses to kids in need and those with Medicaid programs. Their goal is to “help everyone see better without having to empty your checking account; eye care shouldn’t depend on what mommy or daddy makes.” Adrienne adds, “That’s why we wholesale, to give the patient the best service and fair price.”

The Andersons feels that this path is where they “need to be.” Chris says, “It’s rewarding. When you are only doing lab work, all you hear is the bad things – you get beat down. But with the retail side, you get to see the patient’s reaction.”

Even though the journey has been hard, Chris hopes that in five years this is all behind them, they're out of debt, and still in business. He also hopes to become more involved with charity work and let everyone know that you have to “dream big and be world changers, not followers.” He wants to work with children and provide eye care where it is needed. His ultimate goal is to open a free rehabilitation clinic to help people turn their life around like he has his.

The Andersons' store, Eyewear Direct, is located at 4300 South Main Street in The Colony and can be reached at 972-370-2043. You don’t need an appointment, just your prescription. They offer prescription and non-prescription frames, sunglasses, and have a large kids section. For August, they have a “Back To School Special” for kids – buy one get one frames for all school age children, elementary through high school.