As a kid in Pittsburgh, Joe Jernigan had one answer when adults asked what he wanted to be: he just wanted to go fishing. Decades later that answer led him, in a roundabout way, to build Shades Sunglasses and Casual Apparel, a regional chain of sunglass and casual clothing stores based at The Wharf in Orange Beach. The stores are also known for the dogs that greet customers at the door.
Shoppers at the flagship store, below the company’s offices at The Wharf, are usually met by several dogs lounging around the sales floor. The store’s own Shades-brand T-shirts show a Golden Retriever in sunglasses. At all ten Shades locations, employees are encouraged to bring their dogs to work.
“It’s fun for the customers and helps us attract better staff,” Jernigan said in a 2024 interview. “People come in all the time just to see the dogs. They may not purchase anything, but we’re okay with that. We just want a fun place to visit and shop. It’s worked out well.”
From Auburn to Alabama’s Fisheries
When it was time for college, Jernigan chose Auburn University, whose fisheries program is among the best known in the country. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fisheries management there in the mid-1980s.
After graduating he went to work as a fisheries biologist for the state of Alabama’s wildlife and fisheries agency. “I started in Prattville and was transferred to Spanish Fort as a District Fisheries Biologist,” he said. “That’s when I discovered the Gulf Coast, and I’ve never looked back.”
A big part of his job was managing aquatic plants, which meant long hours in helicopters and airboats spraying invasive grasses so native vegetation could come back. “We called it ‘Bass and Grass Interaction,'” he said. That work continues today, he noted, but it is now handled at the federal level by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Spotting a Gap in the Beach Market
After the transfer, Jernigan and his wife, Mary, settled in Fairhope, where both of their sons graduated from Fairhope High School. As a fisherman, he knew good sunglasses matter on the water, and he saw that Gulf Shores and Orange Beach didn’t have a real sunglasses store.
“You could find sunglasses in tackle shops and souvenir stores at the beach, but there wasn’t much of a selection,” he said.
In 2004 the couple opened the first Shades at the Tanger Outlets in Foley. Jernigan kept his state job while the store got started. They leased 3,500 square feet and spent $100,000 on sunglasses, and the store still looked empty. “We had to get into apparel just to make the place look like a real store,” he said.
A Store a Year, Then a Career Change
Business picked up fast. The Jernigans opened a new store about every year after that: Spanish Fort, then The Wharf, then Tuscaloosa. By 2007 Mary was running four stores while Joe worked a full 40-hour week for the state and another 40 unpaid hours for Shades. That year Mary called him and said, “I need help.”
He left the fisheries job to run the business full time. Shades has since grown to ten stores in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. The stores sell T-shirts, shorts, pants, swimsuits, flip-flops, hats and women’s boutique clothing, a category Jernigan calls “women’s fast fashion.”
“We originally just wanted to own one store,” he said. “But after we realized the potential, we wanted to own the market.”
Casual Brands, Broad Appeal
Jernigan said Shades was never trying to be an outdoor outfitter. “We weren’t trying to be an outdoor brand that carried Patagonia or The North Face, but more casual lifestyle brands; inexpensive yet good quality with a broad appeal.”
The stores carry lifestyle brands such as:
- Vineyard Vines, from Martha’s Vineyard
- Southern Marsh, from Baton Rouge
- Old Row
- A wide range of sunglass brands, including Costa, a favorite with Gulf Coast anglers
“Brands come and go, styles come and go,” Jernigan said. “We try to establish relationships with brands just as they are coming into the market so that we can stay on top of the latest fashion trends.”
He says he would rather “hit singles” with customers than swing for home runs. The goal is for everyone who comes in to enjoy the visit, which is why the store offers shoppers a drink. At The Wharf store that has included pineapple margaritas served in hollowed-out blocks of Himalayan salt.
Dogs, Rescues and Adoptions
The dogs started with one: Jernigan’s Golden Retriever, Lola. “I started bringing my Golden Retriever, Lola, to the store, and people began expecting to see her whenever they came to shop,” he said.
That grew into a regular adoption program. “Now, we host rescue events at all the stores, one about every six weeks. We work with Wags and Whiskers and usually have 60 or so dogs at every event. We provide the location, and about 20 dogs per day are adopted. Shades pays all the adoption fees.”
For a retailer, covering adoption fees brings people into the stores and builds goodwill. For the rescue group, it puts adoptable dogs in front of a steady stream of local shoppers and tourists.
Still Fishing, Just Offshore
Jernigan still fishes, now offshore. He and Mary fish for marlin aboard their boat, Feeling Nauti, a 65-foot Hatteras with a full-time captain. They skip tournaments. “If I lose a fish, it just costs me a sandwich, not $100,000,” he said. He likes to go out during the week, since weekends are busy on the water “plus I have to work.”
At the time of the interview the couple had lived on Ono Island, between Orange Beach and Perdido Key, for nine years. He is happy about how much the area has grown.
“I love it. What’s not to like? It’s Orange Beach! The only problem is deciding what to do because there are so many options, and you can’t do them all.”
He ended the conversation with an old joke: “The future’s so bright, you have to wear Shades.”