Becca Berton once joked that the most expensive part of a cross-country trip with her husband Jake wasn’t gas, food, or their renovated 1981 Airstream. It was all the sunglasses he kept losing in the water.

Turns out, there was a business in that.

The couple launched Charleston-based Rheos in 2016 with sunglasses designed to float on their own. Its first two styles sold out within 60 days, and Rheos has since expanded into retailers across the country.

Ten years in, we talked with CEO and co-founder Jake Berton about what happens after the “good idea” part of entrepreneurship.

1. Tell me the story behind your company. Where did the idea for floating sunglasses come from and what does the name "Rheos" mean?

Rheos is Greek for "river current." We picked it because a river is always moving and finding its way forward, which is how we think a business should operate too.

The floating sunglasses idea came from the least romantic place possible. We kept losing sunglasses.

In 2015, after my first company was acquired, my wife Becca and I bought a 1981 Airstream and spent a stretch driving from one national park to another. What we left behind was a trail of sunglasses at the bottom of lakes, rivers, and coastlines. Becca pointed out that the most expensive part of our trip was my shades.

Everybody who spends time on the water has their own version of a sunken sunglasses story, usually with a hefty dollar figure attached they remember exactly.

The industry's answer was a floating strap. So we started asking a different question: Why can’t the shades float natively when we know the materials exist to do it?

We didn't just want floating sunglasses. We wanted a pair that could compete on comfort, style, and lens clarity, and then make it float.

Meet the Bertons. Rheos co-founders Becca and Jake call Charleston home with their two little ones. | Photo provided by Rheos

2. You entered the eyewear industry without a background in eyewear. How did you turn that idea into an actual product?

Not knowing the category was one of the reasons we asked the question in the first place. We started calling anyone interested in hearing us out: industry veterans, manufacturers, distributors, and the like.

We quickly learned that floating is not a feature you add at the end. Making a pair natively float is a constraint on every decision: frame material, lens material, hinges, metal, even how the weight distributes when the sunglasses hit the water.

The biggest thing I had to learn was how many tradeoffs sit behind a single feature. You only find the right balance by building the wrong version a few times first.

3. Your first two styles sold out within 60 days in 2016. What were some of the biggest turning points after that?

Selling out of inventory is fun — until it's not! Two styles, 60 days, and then no inventory and no idea when more was coming — it was a humbling introduction to physical product.

The real shift came in 2019, when we got serious about wholesale. We hired a sales manager, and things moved quickly: South Carolina first, then ICAST, Surf Expo, and retailers around the country.

Then COVID. In April 2020, half our stores canceled their orders. At the same time, online sales took off. Navigating those two realities forced us to get much better at inventory and logistics.

4. How has the Lowcountry shaped the company and its products?

Living here means the product never really stops being tested. Warm salt water, hard sun, and working boats and pleasure boats sharing the same harbor year-round put it through real use every day.

The other thing Charleston gave us is the community we built the company around. It's small enough that relationships matter, and word travels fast. People here will make an introduction for you or tell you honestly when something isn't working. A lot of what Rheos became came out of conversations like that.

*Yes, they really float.* Rheos was built around one question: Why couldn't sunglasses stay on the surface without a floating strap? | Photo provided by Rheos

5. How has Rheos carved out its place among established eyewear brands?

We had one specific problem to solve. People need good eye protection on the water, and the water is exactly where sunglasses are easiest to lose or destroy. Most eyewear brands ask you to accept that risk. We built the product around removing it.

We are also proud to be independent, which is rarer in eyewear than most people realize. Staying independent and selling through local outfitters like Half-Moon Outfitters, Sewee Outpost, and M. Dumas, plus marinas around the state and country, gives us room to innovate.

Our core sunglasses are $85. We sit well below many premium brands and clearly above drugstore, and that middle ground is deliberate. It lets us put real money into materials, and it means you're not carrying a pair you're afraid to lose. If you're afraid to lose them, they stay in the console. We would rather sell you sunglasses you actually wear on the water.

6. What lessons from building and selling your first company have influenced how you run Rheos?

Agency work teaches you to listen closely and explain an idea simply. The platforms change constantly and so do the clients, so you get comfortable with the idea that what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Working across some of the largest brands in the world, including the NFL, Coca-Cola, and Powerade for the 2012 Olympics, Mitsubishi, and Harley-Davidson… that experience taught me more about collaboration than anything since.

It also taught me that a good product or idea is only the beginning. You have to understand why somebody should care about it and tell that story in a way that resonates.

Maybe the biggest lesson was confidence in figuring things out. I didn't come into social media as an expert, and I didn't come into eyewear as one either. You can surround yourself with smart people, ask a lot of questions, keep learning, and build expertise as you go.

*Go ahead, drop them.* Rheos designed its frames to float on their own. | Photo provided by Rheos

7. Why was conservation important to build into the business?

Water is the whole reason the product exists. It would be strange to build a company around being outside and then not put anything back into it.

We have sponsored Charleston Waterkeeper's boat, supported Lowcountry Land Trust, supported eye protection programs including MUSC Storm Eye Institute, adopted streets, run beach cleanups, work closely with Make-A-Wish SC, and have partnered with SCDNR on oyster bed rehabilitation. We are roughly five years into the giving program and have contributed tens of thousands of dollars. What we look for is longevity.

8. Looking back at a decade of Rheos, what has surprised you most about building the company?

Probably how much the customer ends up shaping the company. We built these for people on boats. They turn up on golf courses and job sites now, and on the sidelines of a lot of youth sports. People buy them as gifts, take them on vacation, and use them in ways we never pictured. We didn't plan for any of that.

9. What's one thing you've learned that you wish you knew when you started?

Frame progress against your own plan, not against a feeling. It's very easy to fall into the trap of calling a year good or bad, and it's never that black and white. We ask a narrower question: Are we on plan or off plan, and what did we learn from whatever knocked us off it?

Charleston has been an incredible place to learn that. There's real entrepreneurial generosity here. Founders make introductions, brands help brands, and people show up for one another. A good idea matters, but so does being willing to share it, ask for help, and take the first step. Very few businesses are built alone.

CEO Jake Berton takes product testing seriously — although this paddleboard session doesn't look much like a day at the office. | Photo provided by Rheos