By Morgan M. Hurley

Every year, Downtown sunglass company Knockaround organizes an annual contest to raise money for art and design lessons in local elementary schools. This year, 316 students from three schools — Foster Elementary in Allied Gardens, Monarch School in Barrio Logan and Jefferson Elementary in North Park — submitted designs through the program.

The winning design, called “Striker,” was submitted by Evan Bui, a fourth-grader from Foster Elementary. His design was inspired by lightning bolts, because “he wanted people to be shocked when they saw them,” according to Knockaround’s marketing manager, Tony Martinez.

During the fundraising period, the Striker custom sunglasses sold 943 units.

Knockaround works with ArtReach, a Little Italy-based nonprofit that provides art classes to Title I schools throughout San Diego County that do not have a budget or other resources for art instruction.

Last year, Knockaround donated $8,000 from the fundraiser to ArtReach, said Judy Berman Silbert, executive director of ArtReach, and this year, because of record sales during the fundraiser, they are poised to get much more.

Knockaround calls their relationship with ArtReach the “Class Acts” project. Each year they go into elementary schools and teach fourth- and fifth-graders about art and design.

“Kids aren’t aware of what design is — especially with the current focus on STEAM [science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics],” Berman Silbert said. “We try to get kids to pay attention to things around them and realize that everything was designed, somebody drew it. [Knockaround founder Adam Moyer] told the students that Petco [Park] started as a drawing and then it was a model, and now it is a baseball stadium. We want to get kids to think not just about the sunglasses, but how they were made.”

After the presentation, students are given a worksheet with an outline of the Knockaround sunglass frame and told to design their own pair of sunglasses. The winning design gets manufactured into a real line of sunglasses and is then sold as a fundraising event; with proceeds going back to the schools and ArtReach.

“Art is a very significant part of Adam’s and Knockaround’s background, and the idea of contributing to elementary school art programs so that kids are given the same artistic opportunities that Adam and others were given is extremely important to Knockaround,” Martinez said. “Our Class Acts program is something that we intend on doing every year, with the hopes that we can continue to grow its reach and contribution.”

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Knockaround’s story is a classic tale of San Diego innovation.

When East Coast native Adam Moyer first became a regular on the beaches of San Diego nearly a decade and a half ago while studying for his master’s degree in fine art at UC San Diego, he realized that he — and his friends — had a dire need for sunglasses all year round.

Moyer found himself going through pair after pair and soon began buying in bulk, which gave him an idea: Why not create his own?

So, while still a grad student at UCSD, Moyer launched Knockaround — the name inspired by a familiar term his father used for “old, reliable clothes that could take a beating.” He began producing a line of practicable and affordable, but stylish and sturdy sunglasses out of his personal art studio.

The standard Knockaround model is a Wayfarer-style frame, but then new models, alternative frame styles, an expansion in the variety of color choices, differing lens options and even a line of accessories, soon followed. Today Knockaround offers 10 select models with over 100 styles of sunglasses, and that doesn’t include the countless custom and limited-edition models they create.

Ten years after opening, Knockaround operates out of a large warehouse at 2031 Commercial St., just east of Downtown. With a fun, laid-back startup-style culture, they have become so successful they juggle a number of philanthropic projects at any given time.

“Knockaround has always been, from the beginning, a very positive, optimistic, all-inclusive, feel-good brand intended to be a part of your feel-good moments,” Martinez said.

In addition to the annual student design contest, the company will be giving away 20,000 pairs of Knockaround’s “Fort Knocks” model sunglasses — a $30 value and renamed “Friarknocks” for the giveaway — to fans walking through the turnstiles at the San Diego Padres game on July 22. This is their fourth year of doing so.

“’Friarknocks’ is the name that we’ve casually given the sunglasses that we do for the Padres giveaway each year,” Martinez said. “It started out as a hashtag we used for our second-year giveaway, and every year we try to design a new set of ‘Friarknocks.’ We’ve come across a lot of fans that have two or more of our giveaways, and it’s exciting for them to collect and look forward to the next one.”

This year their “Friarknocks” sunglasses will come in the infamous 1984 Padres colors, and each pair will come with a special Padres version of Knockaround’s custom Knocchi strap — another $6 value.

They also upped their game with the Padres this year by offering to be a sponsor at seven College Nights at Petco Park during the team’s home season, three of which are still left; July 23, Sept. 3 and Sept. 24. On those nights, Knockaround staff can be found operating a photo booth up on the Budweiser deck and giving out even more sunglasses to students who come through the booth.

For more information about Knockaround Sunglasses, visit knockaround.com. To learn more about Art Reach, visit artreachsandiego.org.

— Morgan M. Hurley puede ser contactado en [email protected].