Editor’s note: RED’s Made in Denver series will be in the spotlight throughout the fall mile high business owner A graduate of the MSU Denver program.
At his wedding a few years ago, William Nalcar didn’t go home with his bride, but he met a partner who would change his life.
Nalkar, a 2019 graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver Industrial Design who lives in Frederick, has been friends with a group of people who have been gaming online for years. One day, one of them asked Narkar to officiate a wedding.
“At first I thought it was a joke,” Nalkar said. “I was like, ‘OK, we’ve known each other online for years, but this is the first time we’ve met. Are you serious?’
The groom is convinced, and it turns out he wasn’t the only gamer at the wedding where Nalkar met in person for the first time.
He and optician Jason Salinas struck up a conversation that planted the seeds of friendship and business partnerships to help people see in the world of virtual reality.
Nalker and Salinas are co-founders of Reloptix, which manufactures prescription lens inserts for VR headsets. If you’ve ever tried wearing a headset over your glasses, you know how annoying it can be.
“It’s difficult and painful to fit eyeglasses inside these headsets,” says Nalker. “People try to shove their glasses in there, but you end up scratching irreplaceable spectacle lenses or headset lenses. You can’t just pop them out. If they get scratched, you’re screwed.”
The insert consists of two parts. It’s an adapter that attaches to your headset and a separate magnetic frame that snaps onto it. The reflective coated lens comes with a stylish and durable case. The company can also accommodate prescriptions for high astigmatism.
“I wanted to create eyewear for VR headsets, something that is both aesthetic and functional,” Nalker says.
The idea for Reloptix came just months after Nalker officiated the wedding where he first met Salinas. Nalkar wanted to design eyewear and Salinas was interested in manufacturing prescription lenses for headsets. Nalker began working on prototypes during the final semester of the industrial design program at MSU Denver.
“We went through probably 60 iterations, a lot of it came from learning how to deal with it in school in the various industrial design classes I took,” he said. rice field. “They tell us that the first solution they come up with may not be the perfect solution.
Nalkar described the process early on as “trial and error.” After college, he worked two jobs, including one at Make4Covid, a Colorado-based company that makes personal protective equipment for medical staff. Besides, he was trying to get his business off the ground. Nalkar said it would be difficult.
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Business is booming these days, says Nalkar. And the positive reviews on his website reflect that.
“The whole[customer]dynamic has changed and they feel better,” he said. “There are people who have had to wear glasses literally their entire lives. You get the chance to feel the same way.”
So the moral of the story is this: Never turn down a wedding invitation.
“And don’t think your friends are making fun of you when you say you’re going to officiate the wedding,” Nalkar said with a laugh.
Vic Vela is a news and podcast host for Colorado Public Radio, a faculty member of the Department of Journalism and Media Production at MSU Denver, a 2000 graduate of MSU Denver Speech Communications, and an NPR “Here and Now” and MSU author. Contributing to RED in Denver.
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