Built to Withstand the Rigors of Leisure.
We spent four years making the most beautiful pair of sunglasses in the world. Why did we do it? The love of building something new.
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Who We Are
THE STORY
This is our art. These are our pride, every time we see them worn it brings us joy. We all have full time jobs, and we plan on keeping them. We don’t expect to make great fortunes from Bisous, we do it for the glory.
We had a vision for these frames and two guiding principles for constructing them. The first is “Without Compromise.” One of us (Bert) is an architect and was able to transform vision into a real, masterfully engineered product. We are a Miami and Shanghai company because that is home for us. As expats in a foreign country, we travel all over the globe and have built a network of suppliers to source every perfect input along the way. Our acetate is from Italy, our hinges from Germany, our lenses from Korea. Our materials are manufactured by partners that often have been crafting their products for generations. There are brands out there that charge hundreds of dollars for products that are of inferior quality to Bisous. We see it and we sigh. We created these as an alternative for ourselves, and we are thrilled to offer as an alternative to our customers as well.
Our second guiding principle is that our products are “Built to Withstand the Rigors of Leisure.” We want people to wear these all the time without fear of losing or damaging them. Bisous is not just about beautiful design, but having fun. Once you own a pair, you never need to fear needing a replacement. The spirit of Miami and Shanghai is one of adventure, of excitement, of radiating energy. It is the warmth of the sun shining on you, whether you are walking out of a skyscraper or onto a beach. We are committed to bringing this ethos to every one of our customers.
And one more thing, we love to hear from our fellow voyagers. Please send us an email or a message on Instagram to tell us what you think. Tell us about your rigors of leisure. Tell us about how we can be better for you. Ultimately, all we want, the reason we are sharing all of this, is to make you as happy with your sunglasses as we are with ours.
Jonas, Jimmy & Bert
LENSES
Our lenses are manufactured in a state of the art facility in Korea and constructed from CR-39, a polymer with half the weight of glass but the same index of refraction. Our lenses are polarized and UV400 grade, meaning they block 100% of harmful UVB and UVA rays. You should never let any lens on your face that is not CR-39.
CR-39 does not age and is even resistant to gamma radiation. CR-39 was actually developed in WWII for use in B-17 bombers because of its reduced weight and superior impact and scratch resistant qualities. In fact, it has the highest scratch and abrasion resistance of any polymer in existence. Just for good measure, we add an impact resistant coating to all of our CR-39 lenses.
HINGES
After years of searching, we found a factory in Germany that specializes in manufacturing some of the strongest hinges in the world. While we do not encourage you to do so, you can bend a pair of Bisous 90 degrees and bend them back without the metal in the hinge snapping. Hinges are critical for maintaining the feeling of a solid construction and ensuring that the glasses never feel like they have aged. Oh, and we also include a custom screwdriver with every pair, so you can always keep it tight.
Truly built to withstand the rigors of leisure, or any other rigors you may encounter.
FRAMES
Our frames are made of custom milled cellulose acetate (more on that below) and custom milled and custom plated metal. We bound the metal into the the acetate to form the frame.
Our frames are imbued with their design and colors, so they cannot be scratched or worn off.
Most sunglasses have colors sprayed on because they are made out of petroleum based plastics and manufactured via injection molding. This makes the frames easily scratched and broken. We would never wish this low quality upon anyone.
ACETATE
Our frames are made of cellulose acetate, a cotton and wood derivative that provides the optimal balance of strength, lightness and flexibility. The pattern of an acetate is permanent and cannot be worn down or washed away.
We source acetates from Italy, where the process of milling the acetate has been perfected over generations.
If we had it our way, it would be illegal for the "fancy" brands to sell non-cellulose acetate frames, which they do far too often. Think about it, would you rather have your frames be made from petroleum or cotton? And no surprise, our pairs are far less flamable than many competitors (in case you are a fire fighter).
Our acetate is what provides the perfect weight to a sturdy pair of glasses. They don’t just look great, they feel great.
FACIAL RECOGNITION
No one should have to take their sunglasses off just to open their phone, so we fixed that too. It helps to have an architect on your team that can design a blueprint around the specs of electronic companies.
NOSEPADS
...are a nuisance. They get caught in your hair, they bend, they break. We built our sunglasses so that we could solve this problem.
We added grooves to the surface to decrease slippage as well. The front of the frames are held together by a single piece of alloy which significantly increases the strength of the entire frame.
BALANCE
We have an architect on our team. He balanced the weights of our sunglasses and calibrated the angles of the hinges and frames to achieve the proportions of perfection. If the Vitruvian man wore sunglasses, they would be Bisous.
Our premium packaging includes 2 elegant cases and a mini-tool,
greatly increasing the value for your customers!
