By Deirdre Carroll: Senior Editor
I recently had the enormous privilege of attending my very first
Indianapolis 500 car race on behalf of Vision Monday thanks to the
wonderful folks at Viva and William Rast. (check out the story and
photos on page 39 and see the full picture album at
www.facebook.com/VisionMonday)
Now, prior to this I was not a racing fan. In fact, I didn’t know
a stock car from a go kart and the only reason I was familiar with the
names Helio Castroneves and Danica Patrick was because of “Dancing with
the Stars” and the Go Daddy! Super Bowl commercials (the commercials of
course being the only reason I would watch the Super Bowl).
It was an amazing weekend. Not only were a number of preconceived
notions about the types of people who attend car races shattered but I
develop a wholly unexpected appreciation for the sport and was
surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people who have truly embraced
eyewear. It was everywhere!
Here in NYC you have a lot of glamour pusses wearing the latest
designer “this” and hipsters wearing the newest underground “that” but
in Indiana eyewear isn’t a fashion statement… or at least not just a
fashion statement. It’s a necessity.
It was hot and bright and dusty and the Oakleys, WileyX,
Silhouettes and Maui Jims, just to name a few, abounded. The William
Rast Racing styles from Viva were the talk of the Speedway. Other
drivers would come up to us at dinner and ask where they could get a
pair. The Twitterverse was all atwitter with when the styles would be
available to the public.
Jack Nicolson, Mark Wahlberg, Kim Kardashian, David Letterman and
Ashley Judd were just some of the celebrities there and they too were
all sporting some serious UV protection. As editor of VM’s weekly High
Visibility and Bold Face features, you know how I love me some
celebrities in eyewear.
I even ended up with enough info to do a brief roundup of some of
the drivers and the eyewear they were sporting in the current High
Visibility: Start Your Engines! now live on VisionMonday.com.
Needless to say, I was in heaven. As a B-to-B editor, it is
sometimes too easy to lose sight of the end consumer and who ultimately
benefits from the information I deal in everyday. It was really an eye
opening experience to be surrounded by so many people, famous and not,
who have truly embraced eyewear and made protecting their vision a
priority.
And yes, just in case you are wondering, I now know the
difference between an IndyCar, a stock car and a go kart.
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dcarroll@jobson.com