We at the Manual love sunglasses and we love drinking bourbon, so we can’t tell you how excited we got when we saw that Woodzee and Maker’s Mark — two products proudly made in the U.S. A. — were teaming up for a sunglasses collaboration.
Now how would a bourbon label collaborate with an eyewear company? In a stroke of genius, Woodzee used old whisky barrels to make the sunglasses. According to a press release, “Woodzee is going against the grain of overseas production with an American-made line of wood sunglasses produced in collaboration with Maker’s Mark, the name in small-batch bourbon whisky. Maker’s Mark bourbon barrels are made from wooden staves air-dried outdoors for nine months. After the bourbon aged in these barrels reaches full maturity and is packaged into the company’s iconic red-wax-dipped bottles, the barrels are recycled by Woodzee to create unique, hand-charred sunglasses.”
“It’s not just made in the United States, it’s made better,” says Woodzee founder Luke Winter. That’s not just because all sunglasses are made in the United States. It’s because the sunglasses are made according to high standards, and the company’s employees get fair wages. “These sunglasses are made with nontoxic materials from sustainably sourced American woods, yielding an overall better product. Taking production to the next level, this line of sunglasses also introduces science into the equation with patent-pending IsoShokTM technology and high-quality polycarbonate lenses,” reads the release.
We can’t wait to get our hands on a pair of these proudly American-made sunglasses.
Woodzee’s Maker’s Mark sunglasses, $150 at woodzee.com.
