Every pair of OCENEO glasses starts where others see waste: a neoprene surf wetsuit that has reached the end of its life. Rather than let it end up in landfill, we give it a second life as a frame.
Neoprene, a material that is hard to recycle
Neoprene is a synthetic foam designed to resist cold and water. Those qualities make it an excellent insulator, and a real problem at the end of its life: very few recycling channels know how to give it new value. As a result, countless wetsuits are thrown away every year.
From wetsuit to frame
We collect used wetsuits, clean them, cut them up and then grind them into a fine neoprene powder. This powder is mixed with a bio-based resin and injected into aluminium moulds, then each frame is sanded and finished by hand in our workshop on Arcachon Bay. Every batch of material has its own nuances: no two pairs are quite the same. The full process is explained on our Material page.
A material that tells a story
Wearing glasses made from recycled neoprene means wearing a unique, traceable object. The material that once kept out the cold underwater now protects your eyes from the sun. Got a wetsuit at the end of its life? With Recycle my wetsuit, we turn it into a pair that is yours alone.
