SUPER, by RETROSUPERFUTURE®, ignited the phenomenon of acetate sunglasses. They are made in multiple color graduations, which has generated a big trend starting in 2007. Super is the 1rst brand to produce a complete range of colorful fashion sunglasses combining these characteristics together with a very high quality manufacturing process. SUPER sunglasses are made to the highest possible standards, hand made in Italy by the best manufacturers and with the best materials. For this reason, SUPER also decided to adopt ZEISS lenses, which guarantee an extremely high level of protection to the eyes in all conditions. Since their introduction, artists, celebrities, sports athletes and trendsetters have been wearing SUPER sunglasses. Kanye West, Daft Punk, Who Made Who, Justice, Pedro Winter (and his “Ed Crew”), Simian Mobile Disco, CSS, St. Vincent, The Kills, Elio Fiorucci, Sienna MIller, Jessica Alba and Valentino Rossi are just a few who have been seen sporting a SUPER.
Offcially launched in spring 2007, SUPER is today currently distributed in over 350 shops worldwide. You can find them in some of the most infuential trend leaders stores such as Colette in Paris, Barneys New York, 10 Corso Como in Milan, Bodega in Boston, Fred Segal in Los Angeles, Steven Alan, Paris Texas in Denmark, Caliroots in Sweden and many others.
The 1rst year SUPER has been featured in the most prestigious international magazines like Vogue (USA), i-D (UK), WAD (France), NY Times (USA), People Style Watch (USA) as well as hundreds of online blogs including High Snobiety, Hype Beast, Josh Spear and SlamXHype.
During the 1rst two seasons SUPER has also enjoyed important collaboration projects. Special limited edition sunglasses starting with Caliroots by Super produced only 50 units (soldout in 3 days), Barneys NY by Super produced only 100 pieces, and the Alife by Super have been featured as the product of the day at the Bread & Butter Barcelona tradeshow in Summer 2008.
THE STORY BEHIND:
Daniel and Simon Beckerman are the creators of SUPER and are also publishers of PIG Magazine, the most prestigious independent music and fashion magazine in Italy together with PIG Radio, one of the most infuential indie music web-radios on the net.
The idea came out when Daniel realized that there was no eyewear brand that was representing a certain type of fashion culture:
“All the company’s that are in the market today are leaded by people that are interested in different, standard and established markets as D&G, Armani, Gucci ecc. What about all the other street couture brands? Together with this nobody was playing fun in eyewear like the great expressions you can see in the clothing business. All shades were black, tortoise, grey and maybe some white or red, that’s it… where are the shades for me and my friends?!?!”
At this point Daniel asked Simon, one of the undiscussed more infuential and forward thinking personality in today’s market, and Sean Beolchini the unmissable piece of the team, to follow him in all of the creative aspects that Super had to face. The Flea markets has been a great inspiration, not otherwise Sean, before Super, had alywas a different shade for the different moods of the day. The problem was that most of them are very bad quality and eye protection is important, something that many people do not underestimate.
The business strategy, if there was one, became to give people something that was the best quality product at the most reasonable price.
Luckily the home of the team was Italy, the best country in which to produce sunglasses. Together with the best manufactures Super has teamed up with one of the most well known german lens company: Zeiss Sunlensess division, that after a 1rst look, joined enthusiastic the project. The 1rst prototypes were produced on winter 2006 and the team, that was wearing them at all the events they attended, realized the immidiate response and success they were having from people. In the meantime the distributor has been found and together with Milan’s shorwroom Pink and Chicco d’Errico, the sales master, Super has done an astonish sales campaign. All the Top stores that were receiving the sunglasses were continuously making reorders selling any colors they had in shop, draining away to the last piece produced.
The introduction on the market of SUPER sunglasses has been such a hit that big names in the industry quickly updated their collections and introduced similar “colorized” sunglasses with multiple colors, confrming and giving credit to SUPER for anticipating this worldwide phenomenon. “Fair enough”.
For the second season, SUPER introduced the 1rst spin-offs from the original model (which was a modern take on the classic vintage wayfarers). They introduced newer shapes like the “Flat Tops” and the “Ciccio”, and the 1rst colored/mirrored Zeiss sun lens made with a special technique called “Flash Electric”. SUPER also introduced various other production techniques like particular prints and special engraving for the 1rst time on these types of sunglasses.