Chicago maker Scott Urban spent 10 years creating custom handmade wooden eyeglasses through his company Urban Spectacles, and his craftsmanship attracted customers such as chef Graham Elliot, the Late Late Show band leader Reggie Watts and DJ Tony Colman (also known as London Elektricity).
While he was among the first to create wooden eyeglasses, this style of frame has grown so popular that Urban estimates "thousands" of eyewear companies are creating glasses with wood elements. So Urban is trying out a new material in hopes he's onto another big trend: reflective eyewear.
This fall he's launching Reflectacles, which Urban says is the first-ever line of reflective eyewear. When light hits the frames, they reflect back a bright light and change depending on what angle the light hits. Direct light, such as from oncoming car headlights or a camera flash, will make the glasses glow intensely, similar to how a stop sign lights up when a driver approaches an intersection at night. When light shines less directly, the glasses take on an iridescent, "almost holographic" reflection, Urban said. He declined to name the specific material that he's using for the glasses, but said it is rated to be seen from 1,000 feet away.
Urban sees them as a sustainable safety device for bikers and night walkers (the frames are available with clear lenses or sunglass lenses, as well as prescription lenses for an extra cost), as well as a party accessory for those looking to make a splash (or rather, flash) with their eyewear.
"The oddity of it drives me to it," he said. "There’s nobody doing reflective eyeglasses, whereas it’s all over shoes, running jackets, hoodies. The idea of reflectivity is out there with things we wear, but not with eyeglasses."
"With this concept I was able to attempt to do something that hadn’t been done before, but also put my experience as a designer and maker of eyeglasses for 10 years into my first solid collection," he added.
Urban got the idea for Reflectacles after a long-time client put in a request for reflective eyewear. He liked the idea so much, he decided to create an entire line of the specs. He insisted he doesn't want people to see the glasses as a novelty: he spent a year and a half perfecting the design and material, and personally selected a manufacturer to create the frames.
"Even though this is a whole different approach to eye glasses than my custom work, I’m into quality and if I don’t believe in it I don’t do it," he said.
So far Urban has been wearing the glasses himself, and has sent out samples to several of his high profile clients (including Watts, who wore them earlier this summer per Instagram). He'll be selling his first line for under $100 with free shipping (though an additional cost for prescription lenses) through a Kickstarter campaign, launching later this month. After that, he aims to let customer demand dictate whether he'll sell Reflectacles on his website or through retail outlets.
