May I Introduce

May I Introduce: LUNAR ARMBANDS

PROFILE

YEAR FOUNDED: 2014
CO-FOUNDERS: Joshua Quintana & Matthew Hall
MISSION STATEMENT: “It is the Mission of Lunar Armbands to destroy the glow stick empire.”

Josh & Matt met each other in college at Colorado State University in the bright year of 2009ish. They were both business majors, Josh in Marketing and Matt in Management. As their classes began to overlap, they became friends and eventually roommates right off of campus (shout out to Blevins). With full class schedules, their hang time would be mostly dedicated to late night biking to the old town bars, raging at techno shows, parties, and hanging on the roof of their college house on the weekend. This is when they realized the limitations of flashlights and glow sticks while on the go. In their search for a well designed, durable, and long lasting light solution, they developed the concept for what would later become Lunar Armbands.

Dialogue

SFRA: When did you guys come up with the idea of starting the LUNAR ARMBANDS brand?
Matt: I’m a big longboarder and when I’d be back home from college my friend Drew and I would constantly stay up late and start our longboard adventure around 12:00am. In the area of Kansas City we longboarded in, it was hilly and dimly lit. Constantly we would have to be on watch for headlights and quickly react to them by jumping off our boards and running to the side of the road.
Josh: In college, I would spend the majority of my time outside at night. From camping, to the EDM scene, I would constantly have glowsticks and mr. phone flashlight on. I noticed a few issues with my old light selections though. The glowsticks would not last very long and the phone light looked awful.
Matt: One cold Colorado night in 2011, we were hanging out on the roof at night talking about business ideas. Josh and I were both in the Business College together and always talked about starting some kind of one together. I dropped my glowstick off of the roof and it broke open spilling its horrible chemical nonsense all over the ground. I had been researching different lighting technologies that a roommate had been telling me about and it hit me. These LED lights that ran through these clear fiber optic type cables would light up just like a glow stick, last longer and not be filled with a toxic material.

SFRA: Tell me about the name.
Matt and Josh: We were kind of lost at first with what name we could call our company. Josh and I would write down names we came up with in our notebooks and throw them back and forth. I can’t remember which of us threw the name Lunar out first, but it stuck instantly. We just felt like Lunar fit with the whole night activities theme of our product.

SFRA: What did you see lacking in the market that you believed LUNAR ARMBANDS could fulfill?
Josh: The market found us. Our goal was to come up with a fashionable and long lasting solution. What we ended up creating was a product with more uses than we were ever able to imagine.

SFRA: What inspired you to start LUNAR ARMBANDS?
Matt: It’s always been our dream to start a business together as friends. Growing up, my dad owned his own business and I liked the idea of being your own boss and being able to make decisions about where your company will go and what it will do without going through a hierarchy of people. Lunar Armbands was our chance to do start something we were both passionate about and it honestly doesn’t feel like work when we’re doing it.
Josh: Exactly. The most powerful form of inspiration is to create a company that goes beyond ‘paying the bills’ and makes an impact on my life. I have been a workaholic since graduation and Lunar gives me the inspiration to get back outside and with friends at night.

SFRA:What has been the most difficult aspect of getting your brand off the ground and how did you overcome that?
Josh: The most difficult aspect of getting Lunar Armbands off of the ground has definitely been planning product improvements. We are not hustling a set product from one place to another, the project of Lunar Bands is to constantly evolve and adapt to create an incredible solution oriented product that our customers truly love and find inspiration in.

SFRA: Who has influenced you over the years and where do you find inspiration today?
Josh: Our first mention from Tyler.io gave us an incredible amount of inspiration. He used our bands to quit smoking cigarettes and start running every day.
Our first partner, Erwin from Electric Nights will be on the ground in San Diego repping the bands. Check out his light up masks, they are sick.

SFRA: Is it a struggle to keep up with trend and competition in such a modern and constantly-evolving fashion industry?
Matt: We don’t really feel like we’re trying to be a trend or keep up to date with whatever new is out there. We came to a conclusion early on that we wanted to create a product that we would use and that would make us happy. We always have one attached to our backpacks or on our bikes. Josh made the comment that the armbands are like a carabiner. When you go outdoors you may not always need it but it’s there for when you need it.
A lot of the feedback we received from open discussions Reddit were about how people would use them. A lot of people bought them for festivals and raves. Who knows how long dressing up in lights will be the thing to do. What really surprised us though was everyone telling us about how they would use them after the festivals. People told us they used them anywhere from camping, running, biking even so parents can see there kids at night. We’re just happy that our product can fit into all these different areas and still fill the basic idea of the product…to be seen at night.

SFRA: Tell us more about LUNAR ARMBANDS. How has the brand progressed since its launch?
Josh: We were both surprised with the rate that the Lunar Armbands took off. We have received wonderful feedback and support from our friends and family and we have met some amazing friends along the way.

SFRA: Who do you consider the LUNAR ARMBANDS woman/man?
Josh: We promote the Night Owl lifestyle. Lunar Armbands are for those who like to stay up late and adventure with friends. The best memories often happen between the hours of 12AM and 4AM from night bicycling, to urban exploration and hitting up the dance scene.

SFRA: Who would you love to see wear the brand?
Josh: Our goal is to get Lunar Armbands to the point where we can meet strangers at festivals that are already wearing them. Many of the comments we received pointed out that fellow Lunar customers were tracking each other down at shows and using them as conversation starters. While getting a big name to sport the brand would be cool, I am not sure that anything beats the feeling of knowing that the bands are bringing people together.

SFRA: Where would you like to see the brand go?
Josh: Our first goal was to get one in each state. Two months later our goal was to get one on each continent. Once we get an order from a scientist in Antarctica, our only option will be space. So if you know any astronauts, tell them to hit us up.

SFRA: What’s on the cards for the rest of 2014?
Matt: We’re in the middle of testing a new product that is essentially what we have now but with a twist. We’ve been handing them out to random people to try out and give us feedback on how well it holds up and asking what they liked and disliked about it.
We’re also working on getting the power supplies smaller and making prototypes of the armbands out of different types of fabrics trying to figure out a more elastic material that also is as strong as what we have now. We’ll always be tinkering with our armbands and it’s probably been one of our favorite parts about the company.
Josh: Our R&D specialist in Austin, Texas, we call him our Minister of Magic, Chris Hernandez, is the driving force behind our biggest product improvements and he is the reason we have some incredible new models that will be launching soon. We have some big plans for Lunar and I am very excited that they are within our grasp.