Our Story
The founder of Sunglass Monster, Tom Shiao, sold their first pair of sunglasses from his middle school locker back in 1982. Since then sunglasses became one of Tom’s passions. Throughout middle school and highschool, Tom sold thousands of sunglasses from his parent’s downtown store and from several fleamarkets in San Antonio. Like a Marvel superhero who is blessed with a unique power, Tom was blessed with the ability to spot sunglass styles that were an instant hit which his customers wanted. In 1998, Tom founded Sunnut.com, one of the web’s first dot com sunglass websites. In 1999, Tom & Nikki drove from Dallas, TX to New York to be the exclusive sunglass seller at Woodstock (Sorry, we can’t talk the absolute insane things people did there, but you can probably imagine, or not). In 2000, Tom and his wife Nikki opened his first Sunnut Sunglasses cart at a brand new mall in Frisco, TX. With the help of 18 loyal and hardworking employees, Sunnut expanded to 7 carts throughout the Dallas Metroplex area. In 2001, Tom founded Bikershades.com, which revolutionized sunglassses for motorcycle riders. During this time, Tom and Nikki also traveled around the United States selling thousands of motorcycle sunglasses at the largest biker rallies in the Southwest. For the past decade, Tom and Nikki have partnered with Ebay, Amazon and Walmart.com; and in 2016, Sunglass Monster was found. Tom and Nikki are thankful for the support of their customers and the dedication from their hard working employees. Dreams are real and dreams never fade.