Our Story
In short, NīS Eyewear is the culmination of two desires: to start our own business and to shine the light of our Savior into this dark world. But why sunglasses? This is the question we are always asked…
On September 30, 2021, I was heading home with my youngest two kids after having taken them to the Dude Perfect Tour. We were on I-35 north of Waco in bad weather when I witnessed a car hydroplane off the highway and crash into the median after taking out a large sign. Immediately I pulled over and told the kids to wait in the car while I checked on the driver. Thankfully, she was uninjured. When I calmed her down, she got out and we started assessing the situation and whether or not we could get her car over to the access road. We checked the front of the car, and I stepped away from her to look at the back of her vehicle. That’s when I saw another car that had lost control on the highway in the same spot heading right toward me. With no time to react, I was hit along my right side by the vehicle traveling 70+ miles an hour and thrown through the air about 30 yards.
In a wave of adrenaline and panic, all I could think about was my kids who were still sitting in the car, obviously in a dangerous spot. I got up to run to them, but a man named James assured me he would watch over them and instructed me to lay down. For the next 45 minutes, I laid in pain in a muddy puddle waiting for an ambulance, clenching a stranger’s calf who shielded me with his umbrella during the storm. Head-to-toe scans in the emergency department revealed fractured ribs, a fractured spinal process, a fractured fibula, blown ACL and LCLs, and a shattered pelvis that would require surgery with metal plates and screws as soon as possible to reconstruct.
The mix of emotions that first few days was real and raw. Receiving the news that I would be completely wheelchair-bound for three months and would require additional surgeries after was difficult to hear…learning to do simple tasks like showering, getting dressed, and getting in and out of a car was a humbling experience…the fact that I sustained that kind of trauma with no injury to the head or internal organs was nothing short of miraculous! In just two weeks, I was heading home.
As one could imagine, going from working 44 hours a week and being a dad to three kids with loads of activities to being home-bound was quite the learning experience in patience and serving. I also found myself with more free time than I’d ever experienced. When you find yourself in a valley, the only real place to look is up! I spent most mornings digging into the word of God where I found great joy and comfort. Books I had read many times before were suddenly taking on new meaning. Books like Philippians, where in 1:21 Paul says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Selfishly, I would have loved in those moments to have just been in the arms of my Savior. But in verse 22, I was struck with Paul’s next statement: “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” I was convicted in that moment that the Lord wasn’t finished with me. The Lord commands us to be fruitful, listening to His Spirit that works through us to do His work here on earth. While I am still here in the flesh, I am to labor for Him, sharing the good news of the gospel with others.
Another day of reading landed me in the book of John where 9:25 says. “I was blind, but now I see.” I thought to myself, “Now I See…that would be a great name for an eyewear company.” That’s about the time I started rolling out the backdoor to sit on the porch when, from my new lower perspective, I caught a glance of some of my wife’s many sunglasses and thought, “That would be a good name for OUR company!” My wife is a life-long sufferer of migraines that cause extreme photosensitivity. There’s not an exit to our house without sunglasses laying around, because she can’t go outside without them. It was all so clear - a business of our own producing something we are passionate about and allowing us to send out the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone we serve.
