Strada del Sole Sunglasses for 2009

I enjoy finding new and interesting sunglasses, and love presenting them here for more people to see and appreciate.  Browsing some eyewear websites, I stumbled across an as-yet-still-small brand named Strada del Sole and their complete line of sunglasses.  If interest in design is your thing, you will love them.

They were founded in January 2007 in a little town called Zurich, and by May 2007 they had seven models to present at their first trade show (Numbered simply 001-007).  Since then, they’ve grown to having 15 different pairs, and just in October 2008, 015 won the IOFT (International Optical Fair Tokyo) award for best eyewear, a huge accolade.   

Entirely Swiss made, these sunglasses are very design heavy, starting from scratch-paper scribbling and ending in steel-alloy bliss.  The metal used for the temples took 18 months to develop and is perhaps the most interesting part of them.  You can fold the temples right against the lenses which makes them small enough to put into your pocket.  The temples have two positions, one for when you are wearing them, and the other for when you have folded it up (concave vs convex).  To switch between the two shapes, you just put pressure on the middle and end of the temples, and it will snap into place.

Must be the thinnest pair of shades

One thing you can be sure of is that you are not going to see these on everyone’s face.  They are no Ray-Ban.  Wearing these puts you in a small group.  They really feel like something from Northern Europe and are an excellent alternative to ic-berlin.   

If you want to buy a pair, they retail for about €250.  Check their website for more info.   

Source: Strada del Sole