Tired of sunglasses that never quite fit their faces, two former high school classmates, Florence Shin, 24, and Athina Wang, 25, set out to do something about it.
“We have always struggled to find sunglasses that fit us well,” Shin told NBC News, “They would slide down the nose or rest on our cheeks, which made them very uncomfortable to wear. We decided to start this company when we realized that we weren't the only ones that had this problem.”
With degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in fashion merchandising and international trade and marketing (Shin), and the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles in fashion design and business management (Wang), plus international fashion industry experience for top fashion houses, Shin and Wang set out to solve the problem. Their solution came in the form of New York-based company Covry Sunwear.
Their first collection of sunglasses is about to go into production, and features lightweight frames made from a non-petroleum-based renewable resource with Elevated Fit™, which Wang told NBC News, “is made up of longer nose pads, a narrowed nose bridge and a reduced frame curvature, and is designed for anyone that has a lower nose bridge and higher cheekbones.”
Instead of using the more common industry term, “Asian Fit,” Wang explained that “these features are common for people of Asian ethnicities, but we found that people of all backgrounds can share this problem.”
With lots of positive feedback, especially from the Asian American community, Shin and Wang are wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign. They are now looking to partner with a non-profit organization that supports vision-related issues around the world.
