The other day a friend told me about Quicksilver wood eyewear: a collaborative edition from Quicksilver with Vuerich b and Javier Mendizábal. The result has been spectacular eyewear made from skateboards, a limited edition with just 50 items in each model!
This collaboration has artistic and business logic as Javier Medizábal is a well- known professional skateboarder and Vuerich b is a small, young urban brand located in Barcelona that makes eco-friendly eyewear.
The guys from Vuerich b are specialists in maple woodworking, which is robust yet flexible. Furthermore, in order to offer completely unique models, Vuerich b also designs and paints the planks before working with them. Although not many glasses of each model were made, there are still some available for €295 at the Vuerich b online store if you like them, but hurry because some are already sold out!
Today it is no longer enough to have a good product. In mature markets, such as the optical sector, the value of experience and the emotions of the brand are important. This is why Quicksilver, Vuerich b and Mendizabal decided to go beyond the project and join the Skateistan NGO (skate + Afghanistan).
Skateistan was founded when a skater, Oliver Percovich, was travelling in Afghanistan and noted that all eyes of the children in the area were fixed on him every time he practiced with his skateboard. The children wanted to skate and play sports.
That's how Oliver quickly set the objective of developing, transmitting and facilitating his passion for skateboarding in this country under reconstruction. He supplied some skateboards and started building the first skateparks in the country in 2009. Today, Skateistan is continuing his work in Cambodia.
According to them "The development of skateboarding in countries without access to sport means giving young people the opportunity to express themselves and participate in projects. Skateboarding is a valuable educational tool for the transmission of values such as respect, creativity and humanity that allows young people to gain self-confidence and independence".
http://vimeo.com/27163952
For every pair of sunglasses sold, Quicksilver donates a share of the profits to Skateistan :-)
Here are some photos, I really love the colours!
Bianca
