Vision Expo East: Natural New Yorkers

As the premier optical tradeshow in North America, Vision Expo East always has more than its fair share of first time exhibitors. 2014 was no exception with dozens of companies across all facets of the optical industry bringing their wares to the Big Apple for the first time.

Among the more notable debutantes on the frames side of the event was Shwood. As the name suggests this US company primarily specialises in the design and manufacture of eyewear made of wood.

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‘We started back in 2009,’ explains Ryan Kirkpatrick, president at Shwood. ‘Eric Singer, the creative founder of the brand, is an artist who mainly works with wood. One day he realised he could make a pair of sunglasses from a tree branch. So he cuts down the branch, takes some cabinet hinges off the wall and goes down to the corner store and gets a pair of sunglasses to use for lens parts. In three days he created a pair from just those materials and, because his friends soon wanted pairs too, he kept making them as a small fashion project. Around that time is when I met him and we decided to start a company.’