As an Asian-American, Bryan Tarn said he never found a pair of sunglasses that perfectly fit his face.
It’s a common issue among people with low nose bridges and high cheekbones.
“A lot of people have gotten used to compromising for ill-fitting sunglasses,” Tarn told the Business Journal. “Sunglasses should not rest on your face; they should lift off of your nose.”
That’s when he decided in 2021 to start Journey Optics, a sunglasses startup based in Irvine.
The company solely focuses on low nose bridge, or “Asian fit,” performance sunglasses.
Its frames come in four styles, selling on the company’s website from $95 up to $125.
Three Key Design Features
The company released two sports and two lifestyle sunglasses styles in its initial launch.
Journey Optics frames have three primary design features that set them apart from regular sunglasses, Tarn said.
One is extended nose pads to keep the sunglasses from touching the forehead or cheeks.
They also have what’s called a lower base curve, or how sunglasses curve around your face, as well as a customized pantoscopic tilt, which is the angle that the bottom of the lenses is positioned on the cheeks.
Other eyewear brands such as Oakley, Roka, Smith and Tifosi Optics also offer low bridge fit sunglasses, but Journey Optics is the first to have all three features, according to Tarn.
Tarn said he was his own first customer.
He found that his sunglasses kept sliding down and digging into his face while mountain biking.
“I was annoyed that I had to keep pushing my sunglasses up my nose and thought there had to be a better solution,” Tarn said.
So, he decided to visit manufacturers in Taiwan and China to learn more about the demand for Asian fit sunglasses and who they’re selling to.
Most said that 50% of their market is in the U.S. with 30% being in Europe and the remaining 20% in Australia.
“That for me was the biggest light bulb,” Tarn said. “Even Asian people don’t manufacture sunglasses for themselves.”
The reason for the little demand locally is due to a few factors including the high prevalence of myopia, or short-sightedness, in Asian populations, particularly East Asia, according to Tarn.
They’re more likely to wear eyeglasses since contact lenses are less common in Asia compared to usage in the U.S., he said.
Tarn, who has been in tech sales for more than 16 years, built the company from the ground up and had to come up with brand new injection mold tools for its low nose bridge styles.
“I’m not a designer—I didn’t know (computer-aided design)—so I had to find manufacturing partners that would be patients enough with me for me to learn as I went,” Tarn said.
Made in Taiwan
Tarn is the sole employee at Journey Optics and has a manufacturing partner in Taiwan.
Each pair of Journey Optics sunglasses have “Designed in California. Made in Taiwan” on the inside of the temple.
Seeing “Made in Taiwan” on his own product means a lot to Tarn whose parents are both from the region.
As the company grows, he said there are some operations he would like to bring in-house, such as assembly and lens cutting.
Tarn also plans to introduce more lens colors by popular demand, in addition to potentially one or two new styles, in the first quarter of 2025.
Journey Optics is currently fully bootstrapped by Tarn, but he said he’s open to “raising funds in the future” from an investor who shares the company’s values.
Despite branding Journey Optics as “Asian fit” sunglasses, Tarn said he wants to be inclusive.
“Not all Asian people have a low nose bridge and low nose bridges aren’t a facial feature that only Asians have—that I’m very well aware of,” Tarn said.
