OUR STORY
ONCE UPON A TIME...
Once upon a time in Santa Barbara California a few friends sprouted a crazy idea - "Why don't sunglasses have nose shades on them? I mean your schnoz is right there, angled perfectly to the sun" we asked ourselves. We were constantly getting sunburnt during our frequent trips into the mountains or onto the water, and quickly put together the silliest looking prototype you could ever imagine (much to the chagrin of our significant others).
With a passion for design and entrepreneurship, and as ambitious young men with a shared dread of working for the man for the next 40 years, we set about a journey of constant tinkering and no less than 15 prototype designs that we would test on various adventures in the years to come. What we initially thought was a silly niche idea kept getting great feedback wherever we'd go - "What are those things? Where'd you get those? Who are you? Do you have an insta handle? Are you guys crazy or...? How do I get me some of that?!"
We decided we might have something here and knew we had to take our little idea to the next step. Our hand built prototypes were fun, but weren't going to get us very far. Could this become an actual product? Who will design it? Who will manufacture it for us? Can we even afford to start down this path with absolutely no guarantee of success? While the answers to all of these questions remained completely unclear, our idea remained an itch we had to scratch, a dream we couldn't help but pursue, and a shared goal that would unite our little team as we rode the wave of life in separate parts of the country.
#YOLO
Through the friend of a friend of a friend's friend we were introduced to a local industrial design firm that had a certain specialty in high end sports eyewear. Intrigued by our working prototypes and with a heart to help the young bootstrapping entrepreneurs, they agreed to work on our project. Retrieving our jaws from the floor after hearing the astronomically high price tag for professional design services we decided #yolo and found enough funds to flesh out the attachment mechanism and render one completed design. A couple months later we got an email with the simple subject line "your product" and opened it with bated breath. We were floored. Our idea had suddenly come to life and we immediately started looking for a manufacturing partner.
ARE WE THERE YET??
If you've ever tried to maufacture a product from scratch, then you probably know it's a slow process requiring gobs of patience and countless back and forth. Well we didn't know (ha!) and the next three years felt like ten as we evaluated, tweaked, reevaluated, and tested various iterations of our design in the mountains of Colorado, the beaches of Mexico, and the rivers of Wyoming. At times it felt like we would never get to where we envisioned. Weeks would go by with seemingly nothing happening at all. But bit by bit we chipped away, we persevered, and are proud to finally share the Onus with you!
THE ONUS MISSION
When we created our first prototype in 2015 our mission was clear, to design the world's most protective sunglasses without sacrificing style, form, or function. It's estimated that 1 in 5 Americans will eventually develop skin cancer. BCC is the most common form, and the nose the most likely victim. Yet despite being very preventable, rates continue to increase worldwide. Help us fight this terrible disease as we donate 1% of all profits to skin cancer prevention organizations.. Welcome to Onus - Home of the Original Nosebrella.