Some eyewear brands are starting to make non-medical masks due to COVID. Parasite Eyewear's are some of the more interesting ones I've seen. I've pre-ordered a couple:





I was hoping that Oakley and ESS would've put out some masks, but they've focused on eyewear PPE instead (at least the Group 1 and Group 2 stylings are listed as such) with the clear collection:

I'm quite disappointed with PE regarding their eyewear.
There design are amazing, but the quality level in general is way below what I would hope to see in that price range.
And I have 8 pairs from them...

Masks are coming. July.

Masks are coming. July. - obsession

Interesting. Last I heard they weren't going to do any because they were afraid of people assuming they were medical grade. Glad to hear they a changed their minds.

Masks are coming. July. - obsession

Will glasses with no UV protection be next?

Rēvo Thirty-Five limited edition folding aviators. Limited to 1000 pairs.

Cool pair, those Revos.

I suppose we’ll be seeing the FB/RB shortly:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/first-look-at-facebooks-smart-ray-bans-coming-sooner-rather-than-later/

I was under the impression the pair would be AR-capable, but it sounds like it’s just basic smart glasses. Not exactly compelling but interesting nonetheless.

For those into acetate, JMM has released their second Last Frontier collection. With only 35-200 pairs per colourway, this should sell out as quickly as the first one:

https://jacquesmariemage.com/lastfrontier/

There have been a couple eyewear brands I've been monitoring recently, Akoni and JF Rey.

Akoni:
Akoni is the brand that licenses and produces the sunglasses for Balmain. Its a brand that was co-founded by a former DITA executive, but that's not the interesting thing about the brand.

DITA eyewear was founded by Jeff Solorio and John Juniper nearly 26 years ago. They've since left the company they founded and are now designing for Akoni. Don't know why they left, but it certainly is a big coup for the brand.

They are ramping up on their own line of glasses (other than the ones produced for Balmain), but obviously there is some distinctive features from DITA that will be filtered into their eyewear. They also lift other features from other brands such as the bolts and barrel on the temples that are reminiscent of TAVAT eyewear's stuff:





We'll see what the next few years bring for the brand as it finds its own identity.

JF Rey
JF Rey is a French designer and eyewear brand that does some wild stuff (within an ocean of normal eyewear). I haven't had a chance to handle their stuff since dealers around these parts are scarce, but there are some interesting models.

They came to my attention because they've done several eyewear for famed game director and producer Hideo Kojima (creator of the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid franchise). Over the last few years, JF Rey has put out glasses for Kojima's games include Metal Gear Solid V and Death Stranding. The most interesting of which is the Cliff Skull:



They've also put out a model called Merci Japon which looks like something you'd see while you're at your optometrist's office

The cliff skull is not half bad. The bone part anyway. The skulls are somewhat oddly placed.

Call me crazy but I do like the last ones. Reminds me of something steampunk in style. I'd love to get a pair of the eye wear Ichabod wore in the Johnny Depp Sleepy Hollow movie. Which are not even close to these... Ha Ha... but I still like them.

Since Tadej Pogacar won this year’s Tour de France (and last year's as well), I wanted to see what brand he was wearing (I usually don’t follow biking at all). Apparently it’s from Scicon:

https://sciconsports.com/

The designs of their glasses are very much in line with biking glasses nowadays. Not my thing, but I found this lens design to be interesting:

The lens is cool.

Since Tadej Pogacar won this year’s Tour de France (and last year's as well), I wanted to see what brand he was wearing (I usually don’t follow biking at all). Apparently it’s from Scicon:

https://sciconsports.com/

The designs of their glasses are very much in line with biking glasses nowadays. Not my thing, but I found this lens design to be interesting:




- Oak

Would have been all Kato all the time if Cav would have broke the record and not got boxed in on the final stage. These remind me of a cross between 100% Eyewear and Killerloop from the 80/90's

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Killerloop.

Oakley's been working on electrochromic sunglasses for a long while now and actually wanted to release Prizm React on a snow goggle a few years back but never did. EssilorLuxottica has created a smart eyewear hub in France to develop further technologies including electrochromic eyewear, but new line-wide releases are still a ways away.

In the meantime, Ampere is ready with their tech:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dusk-app-enabled-electrochromic-smart-sunglasses#/



Probably not the most optically correct product but probably still good enough to pass by.

Really wish the O would get this out. I'd love to have something like this but of course I'm not buying these. Ha Ha. Love tech and this would be an amazing O release!!!

I agree, if Oakley would put their spin on them, they could be pretty awesome, especially for people with prescription lenses.

They'll come out with their version eventually. They're just taking their time perfecting it. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

Good, creative stuff come from the independents these days:

JF Rey x Hideo Kojima
For the video game fans comes a real life version of the Ludens mask from Kojima's Death Stranding game. € 499 and supposedly limited to 888 pieces (which is staggeringly high production #, IMO).

https://kojima-jfrey.com/




Matrix: Resurrections by TD Tom Davies
TD Tom Davies created all the eyewear for the new Matrix movie (previously by Richard Walker's Blinde Design) and consumer versions will be available soon. I'm looking forward to the Morpheus:



Jacques Marie Mage Kirby Box
JMM has released a sunglass case made of sterling silver as part of its Last Frontier collection. A mere $4,750 for this piece of jewelry:

There have been a couple eyewear brands I've been monitoring recently, Akoni and JF Rey.

Akoni:
Akoni is the brand that licenses and produces the sunglasses for Balmain. Its a brand that was co-founded by a former DITA executive, but that's not the interesting thing about the brand.

DITA eyewear was founded by Jeff Solorio and John Juniper nearly 26 years ago. They've since left the company they founded and are now designing for Akoni. Don't know why they left, but it certainly is a big coup for the brand.

They are ramping up on their own line of glasses (other than the ones produced for Balmain), but obviously there is some distinctive features from DITA that will be filtered into their eyewear. They also lift other features from other brands such as the bolts and barrel on the temples that are reminiscent of TAVAT eyewear's stuff:





We'll see what the next few years bring for the brand as it finds its own identity.

JF Rey
JF Rey is a French designer and eyewear brand that does some wild stuff (within an ocean of normal eyewear). I haven't had a chance to handle their stuff since dealers around these parts are scarce, but there are some interesting models.

They came to my attention because they've done several eyewear for famed game director and producer Hideo Kojima (creator of the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid franchise). Over the last few years, JF Rey has put out glasses for Kojima's games include Metal Gear Solid V and Death Stranding. The most interesting of which is the Cliff Skull:



They've also put out a model called Merci Japon which looks like something you'd see while you're at your optometrist's office

- Oak

The Cliff Skull and Merci Japon look like the Badman and Madman, just a little more eccentric

The Matrix stuff is up for sale now:

https://iwearbritain.com/collections/the-matrix-resurrections-collection

The Morpheus one is amazingly cheap (shipping from this stockist is probably pretty crazy, though, since it's coming from the UK). The ones Blinde Design put out in 2003 were something like $300 but were made out of Ti. The Neo ones are interesting and so are the Bugs. I will probably pick up the Morpheus ones once they hit North American shores.

Yep, the Morpheus is on the list.

I ordered ;-)