Entrepreneur John Jerit’s latest achievement as the world’s premier supplier of 3-D and novelty glasses was eye-popping to say the least. The man behind Bartlett-based American Paper Optics recently supplied Sports Illustrated magazine with 6.5 million pairs of red and blue specs for its annual swimsuit issue, a photo feature closely monitored by gentlemen and sports enthusiasts around the world.

Jerit supplied the order—one he had chased for years—in record time, running production in his 13,000-square-foot Shelby County manufacturing facility 16 hours a day over a 40-day period to fill the three-and-a-half semi-truckload order.

It’s a far cry from APO’s earliest days when Jerit drove cross-country to civic fireworks displays hawking his full arsenal of optic wares from a van. Breaking free of that nomadic lifestyle came only as the result of a full solar eclipse.

It was 1991 when Corona beer contacted Jerit offering him his big break—an order for six million specialty glasses—for a promotion timed around the arrival of an eclipse visible throughout Mexico and Hawaii.

“I went from pretty much ready to throw in the towel to having enough money to grow the business,” Jerit says.

From 1990 revenue of $125,000, the company has topped $10 million in recent years. Clients through the years have ranged from the makers of the Nightmare on Elm Street series to National Geographic magazine, which ordered 20 million glasses to view 3-D images from Mars Rover expeditions and Titanic wreckage in 1998.

Future growth hinges in part on the better margins Jerit squeezes from innovative (and retail-friendly) optic products he either owns or controls as licensee. Among them are ChromaDepth, which transforms color images into 3-D, and HoloSpex, which when exposed to light project designable 3-D holographic images before the user’s eyes.

“Same paper, same printing, same die-cutting, same gluing, same labor, different optic,” Jerit says. “And if there’s only one place in the world to get it, which is us, we pretty much command the price.”

Growth may also come through more standard channels. Hotshot Hollywood movie director James Cameron recently stated his belief that the movie industry must emphasize digital 3D to curb declining revenues and piracy. And between 3-D films now in theaters (Meet the Robinsons) or planned for the near future (Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf, to feature Angelina Jolie’s lips in 3D), Hollywood seems to be listening. Simultaneously, hundreds of cinemas nationwide are being retrofitted for digital 3D viewing (including another 75 owned by Knoxville-based Regal Entertainment Group).

It’s a trend on which one of Tennessee’s most novel companies is well positioned to capitalize.