Business Spotlight: Made in the Shade

Sometimes, the best job comes after losing a job.

That was the case for both Steve and Rene Jager, husband-and-wife air traffic controllers laid off after joining 13,000 strikers in 1981. They had really good federal jobs in Albuquerque, N.M. But the tough circumstance left them searching.

“When we were fired, the general thinking was we all were going to be hired back,” Steve Jager says of the famed walk-off by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. “Nobody would hire us for a short-term thing.”

This year, they mark 25 years in business as owners of Glass Tint USA in Springfield.

“We kind of fell into it. It was a little out of desperation,” Steve Jager says.

At the time, glass tinting was a pretty new field. Still living in New Mexico, a friend pitched the tinting business idea and the Jagers gave it a whirl. They called it Glass Tint USA, but it was short-lived.

“I hadn’t even handled a piece of film,” Steve Jager says. “That went belly up in a couple, three months.”

A second attempt as The Tint Factory fared better, and the couple built it up for a sale in the late 1980s before moving to Springfield.

When they restarted the business in 1991, the name Glass Tint USA returned, and today, the Jagers and 10 employees handle commercial, residential and auto window tinting to the tune of $847,000 in sales last year. Steve Jager says the company has recorded 10 percent growth annually, and this year it could cross the million-dollar threshold for the first time.

On the go
The work goes beyond car tinting. Automobiles make up about half of the jobs, with commercial and residential buildings accounting for the rest.

Generally working in a 50-mile radius of Springfield, Glass Tint USA’s commercial clients include hospitals, banks and hotels.

“That’s the growing end of it,” Jager says. “People are realizing they can save some money on utilities.”

The company tinted the windows as part of the upgrades at University Plaza Hotel last year, and it’ll send a crew to work on the Showboat Branson Belle next month.

“If we don’t get seasick doing it, that’ll be kind of neat,” Jager says.

Cambridge Motorsports in south Springfield is a client that tapped into the energy efficiencies. The luxury preowned auto dealer’s showroom and offices face south and has little tree coverage.

“I just knew that much glass in the front of the building, and getting morning and afternoon sun, we were going to need something,” says Cambridge Motorsports co-owner Cameron Wells.

The dealership selected a mirror finish on its windows when it constructed the $800,000 facility in 2014.

Before the office job, Cambridge Motorsports already sent its vehicles to Glass Tint USA before posting them for sale. Now, one or two of Cambridge’s cars are in Jager’s tint shop each week.

“We’ve noticed a lot of times people want windows tinted when they buy a car or it’s one of the first modifications they make,” Wells says of shoppers for his Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW cars. “It makes our cars stand out a little bit more on the internet.”

Other car sellers Glass Tint USA regularly works with include the Honda and Acura dealerships, as well as luxury dealers Premier Sports Cars and Willhoit Enterprises.

“These Lamborghinis and Ferraris, there are a lot of those that go through Springfield,” Jager says. “East Coast to West Coast, they come here and go out. You don’t see those around town very often, but you come in here and it’s not unusual to see a Lamborghini and Ferrari. And Porches are all over the place.”

New to the market
Glass Tint USA is among roughly a half-dozen window tint shops in Springfield, including Custom Shade, Perfect Tint and Tint Clinic. When Jager started the business, there were maybe two competitors.

“They started popping up all over the place,” he recalls.

Now, there’s also competition from the do-it-yourself market. YouTube is full of how-to videos for window tinting and applying a paint protection film. The newer application is something Glass Tint USA has been offering customers as well.

“That’s a clear film applied to eliminate stone chips and make your paint last,” he says, noting the cover, aka a clear bra, can be removed and reapplied if damaged.

Another specialty film is a covering on the windshield. Manufacturers have created a virtually clear film that keeps out heat and ultraviolet rays.

“They made it for over-the-road truckers,” Jager says. “Truckers were getting skin cancer a lot on their left sides. It has filtered down to cars.”

The new windshield jobs cost about $350 apiece, while typical side window tinting runs $200-$600, Jager says. The clear bra film is under $600, too, but a full car wrap of paint protection is around $3,500.

Glass Tint USA and other tint shops are caught in the middle on vehicle tinting laws. Governed by each state, in Missouri tint must allow at least 35 percent of light.

“It’s not illegal to tint your car. It’s illegal to drive your car with an illegal tint,” Jager says. “That’s the nuance about it. Not everybody keeps it legal.”