Frustration is a dangerous emotion. It’s the emotion that has caused us 11 months of trial, tribulation and joy. But, as I write this - staring at a pair of the black and blue pair, it's worth it.

WHY?

The sunglasses market is an interesting one. Without going in to detail, it’s driven by a few global players and then some challenger brands. What do all of these companies share? Chasing margins for their shareholders ultimately reducing product cost and quality. This is problematic because very few brands actually design sunglasses specifically for road biking. Shimano don’t share brakes from Mountain biking to Road biking. So why do sunglasses manufacturers do it? Because it’s easy. But, that doesn’t mean it’s right. So. Here's what we've come up with. And, we think you're going to love them. Starting with the Black and Blue Pair, alongside the Black and Gold. Designed for the sunny days. You'll find a lens category graph below.

 The ice-blue lens above with gold below.

DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ROAD BIKING

We started from the ground up to design and develop sunglasses that were specifically for road biking. So, without further ado - here's what we've done to make your next ride even better.

1. They handle high speeds (you’re not going to run at 80kph on the way down from Argentiere to Chamonix…)
2. They provide an uninterrupted field of vision, with total clarity. Nothing in the middle, no chance of distraction
3. Have an excellent fit. We all know you’ve got to wear your sunnies around the outside of your helmet strap. This is (as far as we know) the only discipline in the world that does this. So we’ve changed the shape of the arms to make sure it fits properly
4. Just epic lenses. Covering a range of different light conditions, increased clarity and obviously a wet-weather lens included
5. This is a personal pain of mine… no vents in the lenses. Why? Because ultimately these are protective glasses and vents have caused me issues over the years with small flies and pieces of debris coming through
6. They had to be light. Like, really light - gram counting extends to every piece of kit! No added metal logos, nothing but the necessary goodness - sub 30G.
7. Lens changes needed to be SUPER easy without the fear of snapping the glasses. It takes 8 seconds
8. Ideally, they wouldn’t be made of plastic… which proved a challenge, but with reduced packaging and a bio-based frame material - we’ve given it a good shot. The frames are made from castor beans!
9. Lenses which don’t scratch… that’s a hard challenge to fix, but we’ve given it a damn good shot. Oh, and replacement lenses will be reasonably priced too (read, not £80/$120+ - £35.)
10. This one is really specific to me, but, I broke my nose a long time ago. And most glasses are wonky. So I wanted to fix that. Which we did! These have an adjustable nose piece to make the fit absolutely dialled
11. Not mimic an advertising board from 1999. Sorry, not sorry - but I’d like something slightly more understated and not to make me look like a man from the future 

Each pair will obviously ship in a delightful box with a microfibre cleaning pouch, alongside a clear lens for the rainy days.

LENSES

We've had a few questions from tuckers on lens categories. This graphic will be updated with the FT style, but we wanted to make sure you had the info now! The Blue lens is cat 3, the Pink and Gold are Cat 2. Clear is Cat 1. Nice. 

So there you have it. We've allocated 50% of our initial delivery to pre orders, keep your eyes on your inbox for an invite. They will ship in late September.

I've been using these for a couple of months now, as have several others in the Chamonix valley. This was quite the day, stole my first ever KOM on a 6.6%er. More water required.

We went through so many different styles and manufacturers to get this right. It felt a bit stupid, we had upwards of 100 pairs of prototype sunglasses at one point, ranging from off the shelf to custom moulds. Most of these have been given away to the local community, apart from a few which we'll keep for old times sake. Yes, this picture was taken in the kitchen!