Bringing together accessible brands with responsible materials

Coral Eyewear brought collections full of colour and highlighted its new licences at 100% Optical (28 February–2 March).

On display was the core Coral Eyewear brand featuring bright and colourful designs, along with collections from its new licences with Umbro and Crayola, shown alongside the popular Paddington collection.

George Bailey, one of the co-founders of Coral Eyewear, explained: “What we’re trying to do at Coral, in terms of the licences, is to make those brands really accessible to people from a price point perspective, but also using the ethos that we have built from Coral in terms of using recycled and bio-based materials.”

All of the collections have been created with the same recycled or plant-based materials as the original Coral Eyewear brand.

The collaboration with Umbro has seen the brand enter the optical world for the first time.

“Umbro is a brand that has been around for more than 100 years and it has a huge heritage in sport,” Bailey shared, highlighting its accessible price point and recognisability as a brand.

Sharing his plans for the business, Bailey said: “The year ahead is about engaging with practices who we have seen over the last few years and introducing those new brands to them.”

He shared that the company is looking at finding new ways to bring recycled materials into eyewear collections and “introduce them to different types of customers who might be looking for a sportier frame, or a more colourful frame, or even in the kid's category.”