In-Depth with Mike Sullivan: An Insightful Chat with Jill Valadao with Maui Jim

What makes Maui Jim sunglasses exceptional? Join Mike Sullivan as he uncovers the answers in an exclusive interview with Maui Jim’s representative, Jill Valadao. From their unparalleled lenses to their unparalleled customer service, discover why Maui Jim is a worthy investment for your eyes.

TRANSCRIPT:

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Mike Sullivan: All right, joining us today is Jill Valadao with Maui Jim. Jill, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate you sharing some time with us.

Jill Valadao: Oh, aloha.

Mike Sullivan: Aloha. All right, so I gotta be honest. I am a Maui Jim fan. I go to the Mansfield office and two years ago, after I walked out of the exam room. Drew met me in the showcase room. I’m like, Hey, Drew, I want a good pair of sunglasses. I’ve never had a nice pair of sunglasses. It’s been a while since I treated myself. Cause all my money goes toward my little ones, my little kids. So I was like, you know what, Drew, I’m going to, I’m going to make an investment here. I’m, I’m willing to just buy my first good pair. And I settled on these Maui Jims and they. Are custom cool. They fit my odd shaped face. The, the, the, the fit is just really good. And I like the way they look. I, I feel good when I’m in them and I’ve just, you know, I’m pumped. I’m ready to go. So Jill I wear them every day when I’m driving when I’m picking up my kids, when we’re going out to the park, whatever, these are what I wear. I must ask you, when somebody like me gets done with their eye exam walks into the showcase room you, you’re met by all these awesome designer brands, glasses, sunglasses. Why should someone choose Maui Jim when all of those other brands and designer frames are, are right there as well.

Jill Valadao: So I had a lot of reasons, but my top two reasons: Our unparalleled lenses and our unparalleled custom service. Our lenses, as you can probably speak to our polarized plus two technology is unmatched by anyone else. They eliminate 99. 9 percent of glare. They block 100 percent UV and blue light. We have color-enhancing technology that, excuse me enhances natural light instead of dimming it, we have scratch resistance. And with all that also comes my second piece is our customer service, our warranty with those sunglasses that you have, Mike, your temples and your nose pieces are replaceable for free for the life of your sunglasses. Your lenses are also replaceable as well for a small fee. So are your sunglasses prescription Mike?

Mike Sullivan: These ones are not. No.

Jill Valadao: No. Okay. Yeah. So yours are what we call Plano. So the Plano lenses you can just go, any customer can go online, no matter where you purchase them from. And. Submit a repair request and you can see that your lenses, you can get a new pair of lenses for your sunglasses for less than half half the cost of what you paid originally for sunglasses, which is a great, great thing. So and I know earlier you mentioned them being an investment and they are an investment. But we have many, many folks who have bought a pair and, you know, say 15 years ago and they needed new temples, new nose pieces, a scratcher lenses and they just have gotten them repaired and just continue to live with, you know, love them and live with them. And there’s also the other piece of brand loyalty where the. Majority of Maui Jim customers own three pairs. Once you wear a pair, it’s hard to go back to wearing something else.

Mike Sullivan: Well said, cause I can tell you, and they cool, they come in this really cool case that I’d lug around everywhere too. But I can tell you I’m probably a Maui Jim guy for life. And I love that you just touched on this, but I want to ask because it’s the durability. Like you just mentioned, I, I’ve got lifetime, you know warranty with, with all of this pretty much, but. I don’t feel like I need it. At least these first two years, these things are as good as they were day one. And it’s really in, you know, reassuring that if something does happen that you can go get it fixed for either nothing or very minimal fee. So that’s, that’s awesome to hear, but I want you to touch more on that, the, the durability and, and the customization. And I probably will be buying it. My next pair will probably be Maui Jim, but can you expand on that just a little bit more at the durability customization?

Jill Valadao: Absolutely. So we offer a variety of styles. Gone are the days that Maui Jim is your dad’s sunglasses. We have anywhere from, you know, we continue to do our classic, what we call our capsule collection, the wraps. Rimless. We also do fashion. We do aviators, pretty much anything, you know, the sky’s the limits with our, with our designs. And our most recent collection, we came out with the Akahi collection. They’re, they’re really trying to, we’re really trying to broaden our reach to the younger crowd. And with that bringing in some really fun styles, but also not compromising our, our customer service, our product, our our Our warranty, you’re still going to have the same lens with the same technology, every one of our sunglasses. Glasses come with the same technology. Every pair is going to be polarized. Every pair is going to have the front and backside protection. So nothing is compromised. If you’re going with, you know, say just a different style, that might be a lower price point. You’re still going to get the best of the best ones. And then there’s also another piece. I know you, we, you spoke briefly about asking about the. Customization. There’s a option for you to do whether it’s prescription or or Plano like we talked about of doing what we call my Maui and my Maui is that you can select a frame with any color lens that we make to truly customize that, that frame. If you go into say the Mansfield office and there’s a pair on the board that you like, but you’d really prefer to have them. And Say a blue mirror lens like you have, they can do that and it’s at no additional charge. So you can really have like a true custom pair. The other folks, you know, you won’t see very often, you know.

Mike Sullivan: Good stuff. So a 40 year old father with two young children, totally cool to rock these, right?

Jill Valadao: Yes. Keep going. All right.

Mike Sullivan: Very good.

Jill Valadao: You know, it’s no longer, it’s no longer sunglasses for the, for the 75 year old elderly man. Right. Exactly. You know, the styles are, you know, there’s such a broad range of styles and that’s great. Totally. So, so last question and you touched on a little bit, but when you hear the word, the words Maui Jim what do you want people to think when they hear those words? We recently came out with hashtag Maui Jim. I can’t take credit for it, but it’s it’s a color you can feel. And I feel like that truly encompasses what Maui Jim is you know, is you put your, you put the sunglasses on. I know you can speak to it. It’s, it’s, you can feel all the colors and it’s, it’s hard to describe until you, until you truly wear them. But, you know, our technology, like we were talking about, it’s, it’s, They enhance the natural light instead of dimming it. So you know, if it’s enhancing the blue sky, it’s also making those white clouds around the blue sky really pop. So we want people to think of when you hear Maui Jim, like just great custom service and a great, what we like to call visual experience.

Mike Sullivan: Nailed it. I can attest to all of that, Jill. So anything else you’d like Bay Eye Center patients to know?

Jill Valadao: If you want the best, we’re here. If you want the best sunglasses, you want, you know, the best investment go with Maui Jim.

If it’s prescription and you’ve had some hard time in the past adapting to, say, a progressive lens, give us a try. We have a 99 percent adapt rate, which means 99 percent of people trying out a progressive, love them. And stick with them. And, you know, anyone who’s worn a progressive pair of eyeglasses, sunglasses before, no, it’s not that easy to adapt to. So we take pride in that.

Mike Sullivan: Excellent. Well, I I can tell all of you out there that I super, I’m being 100 percent honest when I say this, this is the best pair of sunglasses I’ve ever owned in my life. And I, I’m going to just stick with Maui Jim at this point. So I encourage all of you guys to do the same and give them a try. Go just try a pair on and you’ll, you will, like Jill said, see the difference when you put them on. So Jill Valadao with Maui Jim, thank you so much for sharing your time and expertise, expertise with us. Hope you have an awesome day.