Julbo: High-Performance Sunglasses and Snow Goggles for Extreme Conditions
The company JULBO originates from the French High Jura, the northern side of the Swiss Alps. It was founded in 1988 by Jules Baud high up in the Jura about 2 hours from Geneva. The company is family-run.
Glasses for mountain sports, multisports, water sports, cycling and winter sports
Mr. Erhard Kappel explains to the Messe.TV team at opti 2024 how the company was founded. The first blue crystalline glasses were used by mountain crystal hunters in the mountains. Over the course of its history, the company has developed from this beginning into mountain sports and is now active in multisports, water sports, cycling and winter sports, in fact in all sports. The lenses of the goggles adapt to the light conditions quickly and regardless of the temperature, whereby they tint at fairly fast speeds so that the human eye does not even notice. There is always optimum protection from category 0 to category 4. The stylish glasses and lenses are available in various flash colors. JULBO lenses all glasses from normal glasses to sports glasses, including those equipped with a continuous mono lens. This mono lens is milled out and reinserted, yet the self-tinting continues to function seamlessly. The whole thing in beginner varifocal lenses with a tolerance range between 6.5 and minus 6.5.
Spectacle frame with fixed central wedge, combined with sporty temples
At opti 2024, the company will also be presenting a new prescription line with a sporty design, as befits a sports company. Mr. Kappel demonstrates a frame with a fixed central wedge on his own glasses, combined with a sporty temple that can be adjusted and also used as a clip-on temple. Recently, there is also a magnetic clip for the prescription frame. As a sunglasses manufacturer, the company is particularly proud of its glazing, which it loves to make. But prescription glasses should also offer a successful solution, which is why the magnetic clip is a great solution. Two models with this solution are presented in a display case.
Sports eyewear with the sustainable material Rilsan
JULBO is striving to become ever more sustainable. Rilsan is used for the sports glasses, a very sustainable material as the plastic is bio-based. Mr. Betrand Ragonneua-Flemming explains to us that it is produced from a plant, more precisely from the seed of the plant, from which oil is pressed. The oil is chemically transformed into a granulate that can be used to produce plastic frames. Around 45% of a spectacle frame is produced from this material, which means that 45% of the raw material is of organic origin. This means that the glasses are not 100% bio-based, but it is a start. Half of the material used in JULBO frames is therefore not necessarily recyclable, but it is made from a natural plant-based material. This material has been around for several years and is being used more and more in the eyewear industry when it comes to plastic. The aim is of course to increase the use of natural plant-based materials in plastics so that the percentage of bio-based material used by JULBO is constantly increasing.
