OUR STORY
About The CLIX Project
There's a better way to keep your sunglasses safe, no strings attached.
The CLIX Project began the same way many great inventions do, with a simple problem that needed solving.
Founded by husband-and-wife team Alexander Mena and Sara Smith-Mena, CLIX was never originally intended to become a business. It started as a personal solution for Alex while working in the swimming pool industry for over a decade.
Every day, he dealt with the same frustration: sunglasses falling from his hat into pools, onto concrete decks, or into the back of a service truck. After countless prototypes and lots of trial and error, he developed a simple magnetic system that securely attached sunglasses to a hat, with no bulky clips, dangling cords, or uncomfortable attachments.
At first, CLIX was just for him. But as friends, family, and coworkers saw it in action, they began asking for their own. Soon, people weren't just asking for one; they were offering to buy them. That's when Alex teamed up with Sara to transform a passion project into something bigger.
Meet the Founders
Sara Smith-Mena
Creative Vision & Customer Experience
Sara brings creative vision and customer experience, having grown up around and worked for her father, a small-business owner himself. After 12 years bartending and managing bar staff, she understands the importance of creating things people genuinely love and providing customer service that goes beyond expectations.
Alexander Mena
Inventor & Product Developer
Alex is the inventor, problem-solver, and product developer behind the brand. He sees challenges as puzzles ready to be solved and is always looking for ways to improve products and ordinary experiences. His confidence, persistence, and determination to make everything he touches better than he found it make him the ideal inventor, teacher, and business owner.
Handmade Near Houston, Texas
What started as a way to protect one pair of sunglasses has grown into a family-owned business on a mission to show people there's a better way to keep their sunglasses safe, no strings attached (pun intended). Today, every CLIX product is designed, assembled, and packaged from our dedicated 'CLIX Room' at home near Houston, Texas. We source high-grade materials, continually improve our products, and personally stand behind every order that leaves our hands.
Our goal is to make CLIX a staple for golfers, anglers, baseball players, racquet-sports athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, and anyone tired of dropping, scratching, or losing their sunglasses, because once it CLIX, it sticks!
“Once it CLIX, it STICKS.”
Our slogan wasn't born in a marketing meeting. It came from a customer at one of our first Small Business Saturday markets, who installed CLIX on his hat, walked away impressed, then turned around and said it. It stuck.
Built for Today. Inventing for Tomorrow.
While CLIX started with protecting sunglasses, our vision goes far beyond eyewear. We believe magnets can solve countless everyday frustrations, and we're already developing and prototyping new magnetic-based products built on the same principles that made CLIX successful: simplicity, convenience, and innovation. Our goal is to build a family-owned brand known for solving life's everyday annoyances with magnets, with products you'll find in sporting goods stores, outdoor retailers, home improvement centers, and beyond.
This is only the beginning. And we're grateful you're part of the journey.
— Alexander & Sara, Founders of The CLIX Project