What’s not to love about Sunski? Founded by two mates in San Francisco, their sunglasses are half the price of the big brands, and the build quality is top-notch. Constructed in their very own recycled polycarbonate resin, Sunski’s huge range of frames draws inspiration from classic and modern styles alike.
The only possible downside is that there are just so many to choose from. To help you on your way, we’ve put together a few recommendations based on outdoor tribes we have known…
Do you own a four-wheel-drive vehicle that offers ‘character’ as opposed to performance or reliability? "The engines on these things are good for half a million miles," you confidently declare – based on the testimonies of elderly Australian men in online forums – and yet just last week yours conked out on the supermarket run. Well, after all, they weren’t made for short journeys.
A couple of years ago you took it overland right down to the southern tip of Europe. Pretty much 50/50 tiddling around under the bonnet at the side of the road and posting Insta reels of yourself driving through the Tabernas Desert to an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. Open up the glove box and there’s a socket set (the 10mm one is missing, obviously), a can of WD-40 and your trusty pair of Sunski Astra aviators.
"I’d much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size zero," you quip, knowingly misquoting the great Sophia Loren as you sip an Aperol spritz in a pavement café somewhere in Tuscany. Slacks and sailor stripes, weekend city breaks and Thursday evening life-drawing classes, you can’t decide whether you’d rather be played by Hepburn or Bardot in your imaginary biopic.
And no-one needs to know that rather than a chic cream Jag E-type, you actually drive a rusting old van with a list of MOT advisories as long as Holly Golightly’s cigarette holder. Still, at least you look the part behind the wheel in your Sunski Biancas, bringing a dose of sixties style with modern fit and function.
When you read the news story about those two teenage lads who casually rescued some inept walkers while they were out ice climbing in the Lakes, you thought, ‘standard’. After all, you’ve been hiking, climbing, backpacking and mountaineering since you were in short trousers. Munro compleatist and veteran of Alpine peaks and Himalayan treks, you once took four months off work to knock off Norge på Langs, losing two stone in the process.
Your idea of fine dining is stirring extra peanut butter into your pouch of freeze-dried curry, and you still have a sort of tingling feeling at the tip of your nose after a frostbite incident in the Cordillera Blanca half a decade ago. Your trademark aesthetic is a beaten-up old puffer jacket – liberally repaired with gaffer tape – and a pair of Sunski Ferrata sunglasses. With removable nose bridge and sun-shields, they’re true trail-ready shades that’ll block strong sun from all angles and help you achieve a stonking panda tan.
Ever since you read Michael Herr’s Dispatches, you’ve been convinced you were born in the wrong era. You should have been choppering into Khe Sanh with Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, a Nikon F slung around your neck and a reporter’s notebook cuddling up to the pack of Luckies in your breast pocket. And really, doesn’t ‘foreign correspondent’ sound more glamorous than ‘travel blogger’?
Not that you’re complaining. Your last press trip was to Botswana, where you went hippo-spotting on the Okavango Delta in a dugout canoe on someone else’s tab. It made you feel a bit like Hemingway or Lee Miller, except they couldn’t zap their photos straight from their camera to their phone, edit them in Lightroom Mobile and get them up on Insta in 20 minutes. Boom! Of course, it’s all about the look: suede chukka boots, faded safari waistcoat and your trusty pair of Sunski Cambria shades – a vintage-inspired browline style that’s straight out of a Graham Greene novel.
Bucket hat, baggy trews and a band t-shirt, you’ve partied just about everywhere it’s possible to party. Full moon on a Thai beach, techno at a converted paperclip factory in Berlin, a club boat off Mallorca… if there’s banging music and the prospect of seeing sunrise from the wrong end then you’re all over it.
It’s kind of self-perpetuating, because every time you go somewhere, you make new friends and they tell you there’s this place in their home city that you’ve got to visit. Hey presto – scarcely are you back home in Croydon before some chap from Sweden adds you to a new WhatsApp group and you’re booking more flights.
It does mean you can feel a bit, ahem, photosensitive of a morning. It’s time to reach for your Sunski Puerto sunnies – a bold, oversized pair of shades with stylish squared-off frames and polarised lenses, which not only cut out glare but also hide your bloodshot eyes. Hopefully Erik from Malmö knows a good place for a latte and a fry-up…
Alright, so the roads are gridlocked in summer and those cutesy old fishermen’s cottages are all holiday lets, but you get to live by the beach, baby! Sunrise swims, sunset campfires, surfing whenever you like… well, at least, whenever you’re not working 50+ hours a week in service industry jobs to afford your fixer-upper in the ex-council estate on the edge of town.
You don’t mind, though. Round here, the best things in life are free, and there isn’t much to compare with catching fresh mackerel off your kayak after work then grilling it minutes later on the beach. You live in shorts and a sun-faded hoodie all year round, plus a pair of polarised Sunski Dipsea shades. You’ve been considering a year or two in Oz, but then you think, what about the sharks?
Ski patroller? Lifeboat crew? Mountain rescue? In filthy weather when everyone else is watching Netflix with the central heating jacked up, you’re out in the worst of it, getting some unlucky sod or other out of trouble. You’ve lost track of how many family dinners that dreaded beeper has disrupted, from Christmas lunch to Mother’s Day – but you don’t mind really. You’d be bored otherwise.
When you’re not out being a hero, you like to relax by tearing down a black run on the MTB or knocking off a trail marathon. Keep the glare off with a pair of Sunski Treelines – an Alpine-style frame with side-shields that’s a favourite with wildland firefighters in the US.
Your old guitar is covered in stickers and marker pen – testament to the many adventures it’s been on. From backstreet bars in Colombia to festivals in the Home Counties, there’s nothing like a few beers and a singalong, and you’ve become quite the troubadour in your time. Chances are, if someone wants to sing it, you can play it – though 90% of the time what they want to sing is either 'American Pie' or 'Riptide'.
People are always surprised to hear you’re not a professional musician, but frankly, you wouldn’t be able to travel as much if you were, and the gig as a sustainability consultant sort of makes up for all the long-haul flights. Part of what fools your fellow travellers is that you look like a musician. The long hair, chest tattoo, stonewashed jeans, button-down shirt and battered leather jacket. And, of course, your Sunski Ventana sunglasses – a classic Wayfarer-style frame with oodles of retro cool.
If none of the styles we’ve mentioned are quite you, then check out the full Sunski range. With more than a hundred different combos of frames and lenses, there’s bound to be something that suits. SHOP THE COLLECTION
