About me
Hi, my name is
Luke Rhoads
I’m 14 and a Freshman at Murrieta Valley High School in Murrieta, CA. I play baseball for the Freshman MV Team. I ride my Surron most days I’m not on the field or at the gym and like to hang out with my friends. I have a family that supports me, loves me and fosters my entrepreneurial goals.
Why did we start homeschool?
Mainly we started homeschooling with the idea we wanted to try new things. Covid lockdowns and all the restrictions within the school system fueled a fire within my mom to show us a different way. My mom saw that we needed different skills that we wouldn’t get with going to traditional school and she felt it was the perfect time.
I’ve been playing baseball since I was 3ish- joined Temecula pony because they were the only league around at the time that would allow 3 year olds to start. I loved baseball and still do. I’m currently playing for the Freshman team at Murrieta Valley High School.
I like to ride my Suron with my friends sun up to sun down. I’m getting pretty good with tricks and wheelies.
My little brother Logan has now joined in working and developing our brand. He usually takes the orders to the post office after school and likes to make our event videos.
Why did we start Meta Shades?
We started Meta Shades because we saw a need for a couple of things. One, my mom wanted to teach us life skills and how to start and run a business. We started with opening a checking and savings account as students with Bank of America. So we talked about money and how savings work, spending money, all that stuff.
We had a couple weeks of extra time while we waited for our homeschool curriculum to arrive. So again, life skills came up every morning. How to be a good person, doing chores, how to give a proper handshake, what kind of job we were interested in, how to start a business, etc. etc.
I wanted some sports type sunglasses that most of my teammates had. $200 sunglasses were not happening so my mom told me to find some around $30-40 and she’d get me those. I found a guy on TikTok that seemed cool and ordered a pair from him. When I got the sunglasses, they were just okay, nothing special, no special packaging or branding, just a pair of sunglasses you could get anywhere. Just a pair of sunglasses in a box.
So, my mom was like, “Hey, you should do that! Sell sunglasses. Would that be something you’d want to do? But better and cooler!”
We were trying to find something “to do” and learn.
We also wanted to make it affordable for everyone. We weren’t trying to get rich or anything. I mean some cash in my pocket was a plus but it just wasn’t our driving force. Our goal was to have something cool and fun to do, a product everyone could afford and “we try something new”. To this day, two years later our mission and goal is still the same. Affordability and customer service. That’s also something my mom has instilled in us. Nothing is better than a company that actually cares and their customer service shows that. Although we’ve upgraded quite a bit; new custom product boxes, stickers, more styles and colors to choose from; we have not raised our price! $25 is what we charge.
How did we start Meta Shades?
My parents gave me $300 to start. They said I didn’t need to pay it back, just wanted it all used for starting my business. We still have the video when our first shipment arrived, we were waiting outside on the porch when the driver pulled up. That’s a pretty cool memory.
I started with thinking about what I would call my brand. Meta Shades just felt right and I thought it sounded pretty cool.
Then, I started working on a logo. I searched google images and got the idea of the gorilla with baseball bats. I used capcut and some other apps to make our 1st Logo. We have since hired a graphic designer to come up with the other three logos that we are currently using today.
After figuring out the logo and name, my mom said to start researching websites and find one that was easy to use. I tried out a couple of them before I decided on Squarespace. My website is okay for now, but I’d like to make it a lot better so I’m working on that. We have recently hired someone to work on our website and product images. We want to take our website to the next level.
Next was doing some research into sunglasses, what made them what they are, polarized, non-polarized, sizes, colors, what would I like them to look like, what did I want MY BRAND to be. We found a manufacturer that seemed like a good fit, easy to work with, and gave us creative control and we placed our 1st order on August 5th. 2022.
Since then, we’ve made some significant upgrades. We have our logo laser engraved on the lenses, rubber ear socks on the sides in 11 different colors. We started with 6 non-polarized sunglass colors and now we have over 42 different colors including polarized and kids sizes. We have cases with our logo, 4 different vinyl waterproof stickers, keychains, air fresheners, shirts, hats and growing.
We started with word of mouth with friends and neighbors. We really didn’t think it would go past that honestly. Well I didn’t think it would but when my mom sets her mind to something she usually makes it happen. My mom told everyone that she could about my business. It embarrassed me a lot actually. Now I see why she did that but at the time it was annoying. My teammates on the Whitecaps helped me a lot, especially Carson, Max and CJ. Max actually is working for us as an affiliate brand ambassador right now; doing videos, giving discount codes and we give him sunglasses in return.
We’ve done lots of tournaments, market night events, golf tournament fundraisers, sponsorships, opening day baseball events, homerun derbies. We do monthly giveaways on Instagram and that’s a lot of fun. My favorite events are the Storm Stadium events we’ve done. We’ve done two seasons now with Storm Stadium.
We also made a pretty huge upgrade this year. We designed and had display cases made. They came out pretty rad. We currently have our display cases and our sunglasses in four different locations. We have three training facilities and one sports equipment shop selling our brand Meta Shades. That in itself was something I did not envision happening. That was and is my mom. She saw and sees that envision and she continues to make those contacts and opportunities happen. There’s one shop we keep saying that if we get in there, “we’ve made it.”
My favorite thing is to see kids wearing them when we’re out and about. Sometimes, they don’t know it’s my brand and I hear them talking about how cool they are. That makes me pretty proud. I also feel really lucky that I got this opportunity at such a young age. I’m learning more life skills than what I thought I would but I also have a lot of free time and fun too. My mom helps with everything and is pretty much running the day to day and wants me to enjoy being a kid. Now that I am back to school at MVHS, my mom usually packages the online orders in the morning, checks emails, customer service stuff and if she doesn’t drop them at the post office, I will take them to the post office after school on my bike.
In the beginning, we put most of our profits back into the business and that’s what helped us grow and how we were able to make our brand what it is today. When we did big events, I would get a percentage of the sales as long as I worked. I started getting a good shoe collection going. I’m over the shoe collection now and spend most of my money on Surron and 73 parts and the occasional stop at Cane’s with my friends these days. Halfway through the year in 2023, we developed a plan. We keep a spreadsheet of our daily sales and at the end of the week my brother and I get paid as long as we put the time in and work. I was able to buy my surron and 73 and am pretty proud of what we have accomplished.
I’m working on starting up a clothing brand. This one will focus on bike life stuff. Stay tuned.