The sunglasses start-up putting sustainability at the heart of everything it does

SunGod’s founders believe business should be done differently. Sustainability should be the goal and high quality over fast fashion is one way to come closer to those goals, writes Sean Russell

Ali Watkiss and Zoe Armstrong with baby Kaia (without shades) (SunGod)

Imagine that you sit on your brand-new pair of sunglasses and break them. What do you do? You’d probably throw them out and get some new ones and then at some point you damage those, too. It’s probably the same for your clothing. What happens to all that waste? Not just the materials themselves but all that went into making that item: the machines used, the people who helped make them, the emissions of the vehicles that transported them, all of it wasted.

The truth is, we cannot go on like this, that much we know. The people behind SunGod are trying to do everything they can to fight this wasteful model and become an influence on how others do business and how their customers think about fashion.

“It’s really important that we’re using the best materials possible,” says Ali Watkiss, co-founder, “and it’s a really important part of our sustainability drive, it’s our rejection of fast fashion. We’re building products that are going to last for years and years and if they don’t last will repair them for you, and, if necessary, we’ll replace them.”