With unrivaled clarity, contrast, and performance, Shred sunglasses establish a new standard in optics designed for an active lifestyle
All too often, sunglasses designed for active endeavors make compromises. Whether through their frame design, lens quality, or the materials they use, ordinary shades sacrifice performance to enhance style or make an extra buck. Simply put, the technology found in the world’s best optics has not been available in shades built for life in motion—until now.
After struggling to find sunglasses that truly met our needs, we created them. Our Shred Boost sunglasses offer unrivaled clarity, contrast, and performance in optics built to endure the great outdoors. Made in Italy and paired with the finest lenses from Japan, these shades showcase a crisp appearance and unparalleled craftsmanship. With your help, we stand to create a new standard in optics, blending premium technology with designs that are as stylish as they are durable.
Our passion runs deep—and so does our experience. Throughout the past ten years, this has enabled Shred to emerge as a quiet leader in craftsmanship and innovation. Shred is the brainchild of Ted Ligety and Carlo Salmini. In addition to snagging two Olympic gold medals in alpine skiing, Ted is a five-time World Champ. Carlo is a materials engineer, avid skier and biker, and a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management. United by a passion for refining their equipment, they’ve crafted new products whenever those on the market have failed to meet their needs and expectations. As a result, they’ve attained a slew of patents and Shred’s helmets, goggles, and protective gear have earned no shortage of accolades and a loyal following among fans and athletes. Ted and Carlo are also joined by a tight-knit crew of engineers, product managers, athletes, and friends.
Today, we’re turning to you and the Kickstarter community to help fuel innovation and bring these shades to market. As a small, independent company in an industry dominated by giants, your support is essential. Together, we can create a new standard in optics built for an active lifestyle.
Stop. Take a minute to name all of the brands you can think of that make sunglasses for an active lifestyle. There’s a good chance that every single brand you named uses either CR-39 or polycarbonate lenses. After all, approximately eighty percent of the world’s shades feature them. Despite their prevalence, these lenses are deeply flawed.
Polycarbonate lenses are injection molded. Essentially, they are created by shooting resin into a mold. Because this resin flows into the mold in a turbulent fashion and immediately begins cooling, it fails to solidify at a uniform rate. This subjects the lenses to stress and produces inconsistencies in their structure, which creates optical distortion and makes them brittle.
Despite having good optical properties, CR-39 offers extremely poor impact resistance. Because it is especially brittle, lenses that use CR-39 must be thick—which also makes them heavy—to avoid shattering with the slightest tumble. These lenses also have very poor heat resistance. Just leaving your shades on the dashboard during a sunny day, for example, can compromise the optical precision of these lenses. Consequently, CR-39 is not fit for an active lifestyle. Simply put, both CR-39 and polycarbonate lenses are riddled with compromises and offer sub par performance.
Rather than embracing the status quo, we moved beyond it. In lieu of CR-39 or polycarbonate lenses, we use liquid-cast urethane lenses of the highest optical grade, which also offer the best impact resistance and durability. By liquid casting our lenses in glass molds, we ensure they’re free of distortion. In addition to offering crystal clear vision, urethane lenses are exceptionally light and provide excellent scratch and shatter resistance. Rather than making compromises, our lenses offer unrivaled performance.
The use of these lenses places us in elite company. Less than fourteen percent of the world’s sunglasses feature lenses crafted from urethane-based materials. And, representing just a sliver of this fourteen percent, Shred and a handful of other brands use high-grade urethane. These other brands are synonymous with excellence in optic precision and quality.
Yet none of these other brands has applied this technology to products designed for an active lifestyle. Armed with a wealth of experience and a thirst for change, we’re addressing this need—and forging our own path. We’re proud to craft frames that deliver fresh style and plenty of performance while also featuring some of the finest lenses in the world. Whether you’re bombing trails on your bike or riding to work in your finest suit, our shades are the perfect complement to your active lifestyle.
It wasn’t enough to make our lenses free of distortion. We also wanted them to enhance image definition, contrast, and the vividness of colors. Driven by this desire, we created our Contrast Boosting Lens (CBL) technology.
For the CBL technology used in our sunglasses, we developed a dye that is optimized for compatibility and performance with the high-grade urethane used to make our lenses. This dye is tailored to the conditions that shape the active lifestyle for which our sunglasses are designed, making specific color ranges warmer and richer. When creating this dye, we worked to ensure it was especially versatile. While some companies tout contrast formulations that are highly specialized, the resulting lenses are extremely limiting. Consequently, we created a single lens tint that could handle all terrain and conditions. After all, you shouldn’t need a garage full of sunglasses just to meet the needs of your active lifestyle.
Whether you’re hiking, skiing, snowboarding, fishing, biking on roads, riding on trails, or just kicking back in the great outdoors, CBL enables you to see nuances that would otherwise escape detection with a traditional lens. By making the colors and details that truly matter pop, our lenses amplify your experience. This stands to boost your confidence, safety, and ability to enjoy the moment. Thanks to CBL, you can see more—and see better.
One of the greatest ways to improve the comfort of a pair of sunglasses is to reduce its weight. Guided by this belief, we designed our NoWeight frames to be especially light. The result of extensive structural engineering studies, these frames use minimal material while maximizing stability and performance.
The exterior of our NoWeight frames provides a clean, streamlined appearance while their interior sports a sophisticated design. On the frame’s interior sides, we’ve reduced the material used in areas subject to minimal stress while reinforcing target areas for maximum durability. This significantly reduces the weight of our frames. This difference is immediately evident when you put on our shades.
Yet don’t be fooled by their weight—our sunglasses showcase an exceptional attention to detail. To lessen CO2 emissions, we make our frames with a specially formulated polyamide that is partially bio-based, as fifty-four percent of this polymer’s raw material comes from renewable resources (measured in accordance with the ASTM D6866 standard).
This premium polymer allows our frames to be extremely thin and flexible.
Its ability to be molded into complex shapes also enables us to create the structural reinforcements necessary to maximize the stability and durability of our frames. GRIP-ON™ pads on the nose and temple tips further enhance comfort and ensure the frames stay in place while you’re in motion. And for unrivaled craftsmanship, we build our frames in Italy and pair them with the premium lenses we create in Japan.
While we developed a single tint for our CBL lenses to ensure they’re especially versatile, we offer our Shred Boost sunglasses in a range of designs and lens treatments to better meet your needs—and budget. Each model is available in polarized and non-polarized versions, as well as with mirrored and non-mirrored lenses. And for a crisp appearance and timeless style, all of our sunglasses sport matte black frames.
Shred polarized lenses filter out scattered and reflected light to minimize glare while further enhancing contrast and your ability to perceive color. This stands to improve comfort by reducing strain on your eyes—even during the brightest days of summer. For those searching for additional style, mirrored lenses provide an appearance that’s both bold and timeless.
To help ensure that their clarity stands the test of time, all of our lenses feature a permanent oleo and hydrophobic protective treatment on the inside of the lens to make its surface water and grease repellent.
For exceptional quality and to further enhance durability, we use physical vapor deposition (PVD)—rather than dip coatings—to create our mirrored lenses and oleo and hydrophobic treatments. Although many companies use dip coatings to cut costs, they result in uneven treatments and are often compromised by the accidental inclusion of contaminant particles. With physical vapor deposition, however, the molecules used to create our mirrored lenses and protective treatments are deposited layer-by-layer at incredibly high speeds in an ultra-low pressure environment. This process allows us to better control the thickness and composition of our protective layer and ensure the treatment is exceptionally clean, free of contaminant particles, and extremely durable.
The Shred Boost collection includes:
- Belushki—Armed with a timeless style, the Belushki is at ease on the peaks and in the streets. Its Wayfarer design features accents on the front of the frame and lenses with a base six curve, which provide a flatter look.
- Provocator—Bold and confident, the Provocator cradles the contours of your face for a fresh blend of style and performance. Its base eight curve lenses provide the frames with a wrap-around design, offering a streamlined appearance and additional protection. We also offer the Provocator Airflow, which incorporates a thin vent into the outer edge of each lens to maximize ventilation. This design prevents the lenses from fogging when you’re especially active. The Provocator Airflow features CBL lenses and also comes with a bonus clear, non-CBL lens.
- Stomp—With a slightly larger lens and narrower frame than the Belushki, the Stomp infuses a classic design with modern performance. Its base six curve lenses provide the frame with a flatter appearance.
No matter the design or lens treatment you select, each Shred Boost model provides unparalleled value. Given the caliber of their craftsmanship and technology, they stand to fetch a far greater price when offered at retail. Yet we want to ensure you can snag a pair of our shades and still have a few dollars left over for lift tickets or new bars for that bike.
Sometimes, what you don’t get is just as important as what you do. We designed the packaging for our sunglasses to minimize waste and maximize value for you, the consumer. Your sunglasses will come with a hard storage case, as well as a microfiber bag that can be used to protect and clean your lenses. If you’re looking for a glossy—and unnecessary—product box, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Throughout the past decade, Shred has carefully selected the partners that produce our products and then created strong and meaningful relationships with them. For proof, look no further than our sunglasses. The factory in Italy that produces our frames is just thirty minutes from our office. Located in an area known for its rich tradition in manufacturing eyewear, our partner pairs an intense passion for design with the world’s best frame-building technology. This enables us to rapidly refine our sunglasses and continually monitor their quality, ensuring every pair is one-hundred percent on point and meets our exceptionally high standards.
To ensure our lenses offer unrivaled clarity and precision, they’re crafted in the Kansai area of Japan. The country’s manufacturers are revered for their deep commitment to quality and their ability to provide on-time delivery, short lead times, and small-batch production. And within Japan’s rich history of innovation and craftsmanship, the factory that makes our lenses is a true leader in precision optics. Its ability to rapidly prototype lenses has been essential in fueling the progression at the heart of our Shred Boost sunglasses.
While our Shred Boost shades are incredibly fresh, we’re not new to the game. We know just what it takes to make our dreams a reality and want to share this journey with you.
We’ve spent the past several years testing and refining our Shred Boost sunglasses. In addition to leveraging our knowledge and expertise, we’ve tapped a vast network of friends and team riders to ensure our shades reach their full potential.
Led by co-founder Ted Ligety, our team includes professional snowboarders Romain De Marchi, Tadashi Fuse, Kevin Backstrom, Brandon Cocard, and Antti Autti, as well as mountain bikers Reece Wallace and KC Deane. They’re joined by a roster of skiers anchored by Lara Gut, Resi Stiegler, Duncan Adams, Tom Wallisch, Alexis Pinturault, and Mike Hornbeck.
Our friends, athletes, and advocates have tested our optics on the snow and in the dirt—day in and day out for numerous seasons. Needless to say, we come to Kickstarter with a refined product rather than the sketch on a napkin. And although we’ve ensured our shades can withstand the harsh conditions that shape life in the mountains, they’re truly at home anywhere.
We’re out to change the game—and we need your help to do this. The eyewear industry is dominated by giants that saturate the retail channel. Rather than using their resources to drive innovation, these brands have often stifled it. In lieu of craftsmanship and performance, they’ve prioritized smooth marketing and clever gimmicks, often forcing small, independent and innovative companies to the periphery.
Luckily, Kickstarter allows us to directly connect with you and other kindred spirits. As Shred is one of these smaller, independent companies, this is crucial. It provides an alternative means to garner the support and resources necessary to bring the technology and innovation in our new collection of shades to the market.
It also lets us focus on what truly matters. Rather than chasing our competitors, we’re committed to enhancing how you experience the outdoors. And by connecting with you directly, we can create unparalleled value, eliminating many of the costs associated with the traditional retail model. Armed with this fresh approach, we can truly fuel innovation, debuting the most sophisticated and stylish eyewear available for active endeavors—and at prices that turn heads and command attention.
We’ve spent the past two years testing and refining our Shred Boost sunglasses and we’ll continue working relentlessly to get them to you. The project’s key milestones include:
Whether you’re sharing your support for this project or simply want to learn more about Shred, please hit us up on social media. Here’s where you can find us:
For questions about this project, please first read the FAQ below. If you still have a question, we’d love to hear from you at info@shredoptics.com.
For press inquiries, please contact borjana@properpropaganda.net.
We’d like to thank our friends, family, and you—our backers—for making this project possible. May your days be filled with deep snow, bluebird skies, fresh loam, high fives, and whatever else trips your trigger.
