Bændit - the sunglasses you can mould to fit your face
Vanessa Assarasakorn
In 12th-century China, sunglasses were made of flat, smoky panes of quartz, which offered no protection against ultra-violet light and were rather hard to see through - a sacrifice then deemed worth making to ward off the sun's glare.
"You can shape them to hook onto things, to be a wristband, you can even make them into a smartphone rest," says Alessandro Schueli, who, with designer Dane Galphin, recently launched Bændit, a Hong Kong-based brand of modular, bendable eyewear.
The frames are made of TR-90 polymer, also known as "memory plastic" because of its unique molecular structure; the material is light but strong and, most importantly, pliable. So you can adjust the frames to fit your features. Big nose? Bend the bridge to accommodate your beak. Playing sports? No problem, just squeeze the frames to tighten their grip. Or for fun, try them out in wiggly shapes - they easily revert back to their original form.
Bændit's frames can also be dismantled and stored in a convenient, flat case the size and shape of a packet of playing cards.
While Bændit is still in its soft-launch phase, the Salvatore Giuliano and Ned Kelly styles are available for purchase for US$59 each (the glasses are named after bandits, naturally). The company is running an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise US$20,000 to expand the brand.
