Brothers battling rare eye disease raise $1.5M with clothing brand to find cure for blindness
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Two brothers who were born with a rare genetic eye disease have raised upward of $1.5 million through their clothing brand to help find a cure for blindness.
Brad and Bryan Manning, emboldened by their own challenges with Stargardt disease, launched Two Blind Brothers in 2016 with a mission to sell the softest clothing and gifts in the world and donate 100% of the proceeds to Foundation Fighting Blindness.
The foundation has worked to find treatments and cures for people affected by blinding retinal diseases since 1971.
The idea of giving everything away seemed really easy, especially "when you don't think you're going to have a big business," Bryan Manning told FOX Business.
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Brad and Bryan Manning, co-founders of the nonprofit Two Blind Brothers. (Two Blind Brothers)
However, even as the company grew, its mission stayed the same. It has allocated every penny earned over the past six years to the foundation. Additionally, a portion of the sales of guide dog stuffed animals go to Southeastern Guide Dogs and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
It's a project that's very close to their hearts — and for good reason.
When Brad Manning was just 5 years old, he started experiencing symptoms of Stargardt disease, which is when fatty material builds up on a small part of the retina that's needed for sharp, central vision, according to the National Eye Institute. The disease leads to legal blindness, which is defined as non-correctable visual acuity of 20/200, according to Brad Manning.
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"They had a test at that time where they would dye your blood and that allowed the doctor to see a scar tissue on my retina, which was the result of this condition," Brad Manning said. "Then, five years later, my brother was diagnosed with the same condition."
The brothers were told they would likely need larger print books and that they would have to learn Braille because it wasn't clear how much of their eyesight they would lose.
Their parents made sure this didn't define their lives by reminding them that life is a matter of how you face the challenges in front of you, Brad Manning recalled.
Two Blind Brothers co-founders Bryan and Brad Manning as teenagers with their family. (Manning family )
"They kind of made us almost feel like the eye issue was really not that big of a deal. … We were just told that everyone's got problems," Brad Manning said.
They were also taught that they had advantages too, he recalled.
One of those advantages is an acuity for details. That advantage became quite apparent after the brothers unknowingly picked up the same exact shirt at a clothing store in New York City in 2015.
They realized that the attention to their sense of touch coupled with their poor eyesight led them to the same shirt.
Brad Manning works on a shirt for Two Blind Brothers. (Two Blind Brothers)
"When you lose a sense … you do focus on everything else. You put more diligence into listening or into your sense of touch," Bryan Manning said.
They realized they would be able to "find a fabric that's softer, better or more comfortable than somebody else who maybe doesn't pay as much attention through their hands," he added.
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That's when the idea for Two Blind Brothers started to develop.
Brad Manning working on a shirt for Two Blind Brothers. (Two Blind Brothers)
"Brad and I had no background in marketing, branding, fashion design, website development, social ad content, just literally no background in anything productive to run an e-commerce fashion brand," Bryan Manning said.
However, after a year of making "essentially every mistake two human beings could make in starting a company," it all came together, he added.
Since then, they have been selling "ultra soft designer clothing from natural fibers" to fund blindness research, according to their website.
Two Blind Brothers (Two Blind Brothers)
"We're in the middle of the medical revolution," Bryan Manning said. "Eye diseases are being cured right now."
As a child, Bryan Manning recalled feeling defeated as time passed with no cure for Stargardt.
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"You give up that dream a little bit," he said.
Today, a cure for such a disease seems possible.
"We're living in a world where you tell a kid, diagnosed today, ‘In the next 10 years you will probably be cured of Stargardt.’ … It feels really real. Like there are clinical trials you can point to," he added.
Foundation Fighting Blindness "is the world’s leading private source for inherited retinal disease research funding," according to its website.
The organization says it's committed to "driving research until the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases is eradicated." In its 50-year history, it's raised $891 million to support this ongoing effort.