Capital is a wildly unique American brand that designs and develops wood framed sunglasses outfitted with Carl Zeiss lenses. In an era that makes it difficult to track exactly where a product is manufactured, Capital hand makes all of their sunglasses and sources all of their woods in the United States. My intrigue in the company led me to contact Capital to further discuss their process, insight, and inspiration.
In the words of Capital: "We are a small group of guys who started out making wood sunglasses in Montana. We've got a bigger shop now but every pair of glasses we make spends hours in someone's hands before it leaves our shop. It's a lot of work but it's really fulfilling and we are happy to be doing it every day."
?: Could you describe the genesis of Capital and the inspiration behind its creation?
Sunglasses have become an extremely mass produced item and it has become sort of okay for everyone to be wearing the same few styles. If you went to a house party and saw someone wearing the same size shirt you had on, you'd probably feel weird. But if you saw someone that was wearing the same glasses that you had on, you wouldn't think twice. It bums me out that it happens all the time. But what's the difference? Why should it be okay to wear the same glasses and not the same shirt?
It is our goal to bring something to the table that other companies don't offer - a pair of glasses that manages to stand out without being loud or sacrificing class.
?: What is the inspiration behind Capital's designs and choices of wood for materials?
Designs: Most of our designs are based on vintage frames. We like to take the best designs from the past generations and tweak some curves or make them a bit larger to bring them up to date.
Materials: Making wood sunglasses is fun because there is no textbook for it. If you walk into a wood shop asking how to make sunglasses out of wood, you'll get some weird looks (trust me, I've had my share). So you have to guess and check until you find a way. We set out with two goals:
1) Nothing exotic, endangered, or from a rain forest. We're the only wood sunglasses company right now that's doing this. It's easy for people to say their wood comes from a sustainable source (such as a tree farm in a far away land) but, because it's hard to tell what really goes on at these farms, we decided we didn't want to use anything that could have possibly been from a rainforest and sold through a so called "sustainable tree farm". It's a bummer that this sort of thing happens but when there's money to be made, there are plenty of people willing to label some wood something that it's not for the sake of a few dollars.
2) Wood Sunglasses should be as functional as acetate or metal frames. This one seemed like a no-brainer. We are constantly working to improve the functionality of our sunglasses without sacrificing style.
?: What were some of the challenges behind manufacturing a product in American and locally sourcing your materials?
The traditional route for this sort of thing is to call a factory in China and do your best to describe what you want through a serious communications barrier. Then you have to wait 3 weeks to get a prototype that probably won't be too close to the vision you had.
We don't have to deal with any of that. We have our own private shop so if we have an idea for a new frame or innovation, we can have a prototype in a day. We can tweak the smallest things about how our glasses look or function in such a small amount of time so manufacturing in the USA is actually proving to be a huge advantage for us.
?: What are your thoughts on the future of manufacturing and do you think domestic manufacturing and local sourcing will become more prevalent?
We think the future of manufacturing isn't in the huge factories of today. The internet has allowed people to find friends with similar tastes anywhere in the world. This is a really exciting idea! It allows small niches to grow and find supporters, no matter how far away the individuals may be. We are proud to be a part of this movement and hope that more and more small companies take advantage of their niche followers and grow with us.
?: What does the future hold for Capital?
Right now things are changing really fast. All I can say for the time being is that we will keep releasing stand out frames but we've got some surprises in the pipeline too!
Take a look at Capital's website to view their unmatched styes.
