Meet Saunt Eyewear

1 day ago
2 min read

Where are you from & how does that affect your work? As a surfer growing up in Venice in the 80’s, I would always ask to sit in the shaping room when they were making my boards. I was captivated by the process of taking a foam blank and sculpting it into a precise functional shape that was not only beautiful to look at but also stimulating to the touch and feel.

At Saunt, I bring that same level of intention and focus to the shapes and details to every design we create.

What is your biggest influence? My connection to the ocean and nature has always had me searching for a way to responsibly make eyewear ourselves locally while moving away from plastics and manufacturing processes typically used in the eyewear industry.

What is the hardest part of the creation process?

The hardest part of the creation process is narrowing down new styles to focus on and finish.

What's your favorite item that you've created, and why?

I love the Flame, it was a real technical challenge to create the wave shapes and I think it’s beautiful.

What do you love most about Santa Barbara? Growing up in Venice , where the surf was awful, we would always drive up to Ventura, Santa Barbara and Jalama Beach to score great waves. We would even walk and boat into Hollister Ranch to poach their private waves.

Love that <3 Anything special you'd like to share? I clearly remember the day a couple of years ago in 2019, holding a non-eyewear part in my hand that was locally made, quickly doing the basic cost calculations while looking at the surface quality and strength of the part, I was struck with a vision that the time had come.

After over 20 years of designing eyewear for overseas manufacturing, we can now make them ourselves here at home.

This is a breakthrough in eyewear - a new type of eyewear – made locally by us, streamlining the production process while also making our frames out of 100% plant-based material.

A few years of testing and development I launched Saunt Eyewear. At Saunt I both the brand, designer and the manufacturer.