Enemy Eyewear launched in early 2019 by serial entrepreneur, Aaron Marino of AlphaM fame. The brand aimed at creating quality, affordable sunglasses that are also stylish.
Just a month later, Enemy LLC acquired the ultra premium domain name, Enemy.com, for the sum of $43,000 dollars.
Our guess that it’d take $200k to $300k for that premium domain was wrong: One cannot underestimate the lack of bargaining potential of domain sellers.
Fast forward three years later and Enemy.com is shutting down, just six months after restructuring its inventory of quality sunglasses, dropping it from 39 styles to just nine.
An emotional Aaron Marino announced the end of Enemy.com in a video two days ago; making $2 million in sales isn’t the sole indicator of how successful a brand is.
If it takes time, work, and constant babysitting, a brand is actually costing more than what it generates; then, it’s time to call it quits.
So what will happen to the premium, aged domain Enemy.com?
Perhaps it’s an opportunity to acquire it in the aftermarket, as a branded, established domain with proven traffic. Enemy Eyewear is not a failed, toxic brand and I personally bought (and wear still) the Enemy sunglasses.
On top of all this, Aaron Marino is an inspiration for entrepreneurs that overestimate the success of their ventures and struggle to keep them alive, pouring time, effort, and money into a project that does not scale up satisfactorily.
