A Brief History of Shady Spex
Shady Spex is the culmination of the friendship of drummer Sweet Joey Valentine and DJ Jonathan Toubin that evolved into a sunglass company. Enthusiasts of uncommon vintage shades that are nearly impossible to obtain, they’re both also the types who lose or break irreplaceable frames worth hundreds of dollars. Neither of them are rich and have thus found it nearly impossible to find affordable replacements that match their personal aesthetics. A brief conversation about this dilemma ballooned into months of pipe dreams about making their own sunglasses. They imagined economy-priced quality designs that would offer the dynamic duo and their poor, miserly, and/or irresponsible friends plentiful personal supplies of their most coveted designs. In essence they wanted to rock their favorite out-of-reach frames and also give their people, regardless of financial restrictions, access to exquisite yet timeless rock'n'roll eyewear for cheap.
Over time their quixotic quest to produce their favorite frames, with quality protective lenses, recyclable and from recycled materials, and for as low as $20, improbably crept closer to its destination. They ran into their artist friend Micki Pellerano at dinner and, after an untidy pile of napkin sketches, he was brought on board to create a Shady snake metal mold for the face - not only as a stylish design feature, but also as their trademark and proud stamp of authenticity. Next they contacted another favorite artist, their bud from way back Avi Spivak, to a conjure a vivacious logo for the inner arm. And before long the impossible dream was approaching the edge of reality!
In May 2018 the first shipment arrived. Maybe it was beginner's luck but the sunglasses proved to be visually stunning and possessed a smooth solid comfy feel. And, after trying the new design out on the entire tri-state area, they were thrilled to discover a harmonious fit on a variety of faces! So within a day Shady Spex set up an Instagram, Facebook, Ebay, and PayPal, and threw up a few posts about their introductory model - the New York Night Train (based on Jonathan's all-time favorite pair - an iconic 1959 Victory design). The orders came in faster than they could be processed and immediacy of the response was far beyond any expectation! Their weird buddy movie stumbled upon a business and their modest initial investment resulted in enough sales to bring a second edition into play within months - the Sweet Joey (an original design based on Joey’s faves - wide ‘70s plastic aviators). And the hits kept coming! In less than two years they've rolled out eight designs in twenty-five variations with more of their ultimate fantasy frames on the way.
Joey's a busy full-time musician and Jonathan is a full-time touring DJ, party thrower, and co-proprietor of NYC nightclub TV Eye. Despite their time constraints, they've managed to put a lot of heart and soul into their enterprise, sell thousands of Shady Spex, and make a small but growing international cult happy without any of the usual crass marketing, solicitation, ads, retail schemes, corporate ties, etc. They hope you love your Shady Spex as much as they do and look forward to making more for ya!
