Do Your Eyes A Favor
Lounging in the shade with Grown.
No matter what time of the year it is, your eyes always need protecting. And as we all start to become more conscious of our consumption, it’s about time we start thinking about the footprint that our favorite sunglasses leave and begin our hunt to look for sustainably made glasses that also meet the mark on style. Lucky for us, we discovered Grown Eyewear, an Australian label who prides themselves in creating sunglasses that are good for your eyes, the planet and your look. We sat down with Grown to learn more about their mission to clean up the eyewear industry with their sustainable and effortlessly cool sunglasses.
Can you tell us more about what inspired Grown Eyewear and your most recent collections?
The idea for GROWN came about organically in 2010 in Byron Bay after watching a documentary about Fred Hollows, who was an Australian ophthalmologist that worked tirelessly in restoring eyesight for thousands of people in Australia and around the World. He would travel to different countries to work for free, through contributions raised by his organization. So before we had even decided to produce wood and bamboo sunglasses, we knew that the main thing was that our business model would allow us to do what we love while redistributing profits towards funding meaningful and life-changing projects like the sight-restoring work of the Fred Hollows foundation and SEVA Canada, and also WIRES, who we added later. Today For every pair purchased in North America or Europe, We fully fund sight restoring Eye Surgery for 1 person or diagnostic Eye exams for 12 through our giving partner SEVA Canada. With our New Australian Giving Partner, WIRES (wildlife rescue) for every pair purchased we provide the Gift of Life to an orphaned or injured Australian animal.
We tend to stick to classic styles and even look to the past for styles that are coming back. We don’t carry a huge selection of style and this is done purposely to streamline the business and stick to what our customers love and ask for.
Where do you find inspiration for your styles and glasses?
As one of the earliest wood sunglasses brands (we were the first in Australia), we tend to be the ones setting the bar for styles, as far as wood and bamboo sunglasses go. We really are limited by the material itself, but we think out of the box and adapt as we can. For example we introduced a layering technique where we put different layers together in alternating grain directions which makes the glasses super durable! By doing this we have been able to create wood sunglasses as thin as plastic pairs. In the past people made the glasses out of solid wood and they would split on the grain and were really quite bulky. We are quite inspired by early trendsetters on instagram in terms of styles. We like people who live by the beat of their own drum and are fashionable before it goes mainstream. Luckily in Byron Bay there are loads of really stylish trendsetters. Its easy to get ideas from really creative people like that… the true influencers.
How do you keep your glasses sustainable? Can you tell us more about the materials you use.
All materials are sustainably sourced from plantations in various parts of the World, and we ensure that we use wood that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This means that when the wood or Bamboo has reached maturity, they are cut and replanted to continue the cycle and most replanting efforts take place long before harvesting on conjoined plantations. We also use recycled packaging materials to help reduce our impact.
When we started, we were not using FSC certified wood. We were using a beautiful species called Zebrawood for one of our styles and in fact it was our top seller. Before we went on Shark Tank, we had discovered that the wood we used was not sustainable, and in fact it likely came from illegal logging. We were mortified that something we have promoted may have had a huge negative impact on an ecosystem. We quickly pulled that product, even though it would mean a big loss for us and potentially ruin our pitch on Shark Tank. After that we worked with the FSC and found a species that looked just as nice and was completely sustainable. The Shark Pitch went ok and actually they were impressed by our dedication to sustainability that we ended up getting a deal with two of them! Today some of our favorite wood to work with is Canadian Maple and California Walnut due to the simple grain patterns, because they are highly sustainable and because they are both very durable.
What’s the most challenging thing about running a sustainable business?
We run a fairly simple business model as there aren’t a lot of moving parts or a lot of materials that we are using so really there isn’t anything that makes our business more challenging than if it were not ran sustainably. Starting out, it may be challenging to find sustainable materials as there are less to choose from on the market, but once you find a good supplier that complements your business and ethics, its pretty smooth sailing.
