Carbon Fibre That Rode. Or Rowed. Or Sailed. Then Got Binned.

We rescue elite carbon fibre sports equipment the moment before it hits landfill - and turn it into something you can wear.500 pairs per sport. Hand-finished in Northern Italy. Verified provenance built into every frame.

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Trusted by leading sports organisations

Something Doesn't Add Up.

Think about what goes into a piece of carbon fibre sports equipment.A bike frame engineered to survive alpine descents at 90kph. A sweep oar built to handle the forces of an Olympian with a 5.39 2k. A foil designed to lift an entire hull out of the water at 30 knots.Years of R&D in each one. Materials tested to destruction. Every gram accounted for.These objects are over-engineered on purpose. They have to be. When the forces involved can snap steel and crumple aluminium, there's no margin for "good enough."So here's the part that doesn't make sense.One day, the frame cracks in a crash. The oar goes soft. The foil gets superseded by a regulation change.And the material just... disappears. Stored in a shed. Chucked into a skip. Buried in landfill.Nobody collects it. Nobody reclaims it. Nobody thinks to.The most engineered material in sport exits it entirely, sometimes because it failed. But other times, because the equipment around it moved on.Two facts, side by side:Fact 1: This material is engineered to standards most manufactured goods never come close to.Fact 2: It's being thrown away.That contradiction is the reason Afterlife Carbon exists.

We Thought That Was Wrong. So We Built Something To Solve It.

I'm James. I spent 19 years as a professional rowing coach, winning 17 international medals, including 4 golds.In that time, I broke and threw away a lot of carbon fibre.Dozens of oars, binned because they'd either snapped or gone slightly soft. Boats worth up to £90,000 that couldn't be repaired at the level we needed.I always felt guilty about it. I knew what went into that material. I knew what it cost. And I knew nobody had a solution for what happened to it at the end.When I retired from coaching in 2021, I started a business leasing carbon fibre sports equipment. It didn't work. But the model raised a question I couldn't shake: what do you actually do with the used carbon fibre?Could it be recycled?That question kicked off nearly five years of research.I spent a year contacting companies, academics, and composites specialists across the industry. Most ghosted me. Some told me flatly they wouldn't work with me.Eventually, one person said, "Yes, we can do this, but not right now."That one answer was enough.Turns out, reclaiming the carbon fibre was the "easy" part. What nobody could help us with, and what took us years, was everything that comes before and after this step: processing the material, re-engineering it for a completely different application, building a manufacturing process, and creating provenance tracking that follows the material from equipment to finished product.That's the work nobody else has done. That's why it took five years.But we figured it out.Today, Afterlife Carbon has built the world's first supply chain that takes end-of-life carbon fibre sports equipment, processes it, and turns it into a finished consumer product.We're also the first in the world to track the provenance of carbon fibre waste through the entire chain, from the original equipment, through reclamation, to a finished product with its story embedded and verifiable via NFC.It took a failed business, a year of closed doors, and five years of research to get here.Now we work with sports organisations across the UK, the RYA, London Cycle Workshop, CBT Coalville, rowing clubs, and more, to intercept carbon fibre equipment at the exact point where it would otherwise be discarded.Then we give it an afterlife. One you can actually wear.Here's how.

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From the Skip to Your Face. In Four Steps.

Step 1: Equipment RescueWe collect damaged and retired carbon fibre equipment from sports organisations across the UK.
Bike frames that crashed. Oars that got old and soft. Sailing components retired because the regulations changed.This is equipment that rode real miles, rowed real regattas, and sailed (un)real conditions before it was retired.Step 2: Material ReclamationWe use our proprietary process to separate usable carbon fibre from the surrounding resin and structure.
This is slow, manual work. Yield varies from item to item; some equipment gives us more usable carbon than others. There's no shortcut. What we can reclaim dictates how many frames we can produce.Not a sales forecast. Not a marketing target. Just material science.Step 3: Italian ManufacturingThe reclaimed carbon is stabilised, re-engineered, then sent to specialist artisan eyewear manufacturers in Northern Italy.Hand-finishing techniques reserved for luxury optics. Premium Barberini polarised lenses, the same specifications used in fighter pilot helmets. Precision assembly by people who've been making eyewear for decades.Step 4: Provenance VerificationEvery frame gets an integrated NFC tag.
Tap it with your phone. No app. No account. A dedicated provenance page shows you:- Which sporting lineage your frame belongs to- What type of equipment the carbon was reclaimed from- The batch it was produced in- It's unique serial identity within that runThe history isn't a story we tell. It's built into the object. Verifiable by you, any time, for as long as you own it.

What Early Testers Said

Before we opened this to the public, we put our proof-of-concept product in the hands of people who know elite gear - the kind of people who've owned dozens of pairs of premium sunglasses and can tell the difference.

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Ken Harley - (Re)Orbit Customer

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Three Sports. Three Lineages. 500 Pairs Each.

The founding run is built from three distinct sporting lineages. Each one defined not by us, but by what we can physically rescue and reclaim.
Each capped at 500 pairs. When the material is gone, the lineage is done.🚴 Cycling: (Re)FramedCarbon fibre reclaimed from damaged and end-of-life bike frames collected through UK bike shops.These frames reached the end of their riding life through crashes, fatigue, or structural damage, after years of real miles and real races. The carbon survived. The frame didn't. Now the material rides again.🚣 Rowing: (Re)RowedCarbon fibre reclaimed from sweep oars used by UK rowing clubs and programmes.Oars get replaced for performance reasons long before the carbon itself has failed. When they fall slightly out of spec, they leave the sport entirely. We intercept that material at exactly the moment it would disappear.⛵ Sailing: (Re)RiggedCarbon fibre reclaimed from high-performance and experimental sailing components — foils, spars, and structural parts designed for speed.These components are often retired due to damage, regulation changes, or development cycles. The material didn't give out. The rules moved on.Each lineage represents a specific moment where world-class sporting equipment typically stops mattering.That's where our work begins.

Why 500. Not 5,000.

This isn't a marketing constraint. It's a materials constraint.Three things limit every founding run, and none of them are decisions we made.1. The equipment available.We only work with sporting equipment that has genuinely reached the end of its usable life. We don't commission material. We don't substitute sources. If the equipment doesn't exist, the lineage doesn't exist.2. The yield.Equipment uses different resin systems and layup methods. Each piece produces different amounts of usable carbon. We can't predict how much we'll reclaim until we process it. What we get determines how many frames we make.3. The time.Reclaiming, stabilising, and re-engineering carbon fibre from finished sporting equipment is slow work. Rushing it compromises the material. Scaling it compromises traceability.Those three constraints resolve to 500 pairs per sport.When a founding lineage is complete, that batch of equipment is gone. There's no second run. No "back by popular demand." The material dictates the numbers, and the material is finite.

Don't Take Our Word For It. Scan It.

Every frame includes a discreet NFC tag. Tap your phone (no app, no account), and you see a dedicated provenance page:- The founding lineage your frame belongs to- The equipment type the carbon was reclaimed from- The batch it was produced in
Its unique serial identity within that runFrame #347 of 500 in (Re)Framed isn't a claim we make. It's something you verify.Batch documentation showing equipment collected and yield calculations will be published during the Kickstarter. You'll see the maths behind every number.We're material-constrained, not marketing-constrained. The verification proves it.

What Happens After You Secure Priority Access

Now: You place a £1 fully refundable deposit to secure your place.Spring 2026 (target: May): You receive 48-hour early access to the Kickstarter campaign before public launch. You choose your lineage and backing tier.Campaign period (30 days): The Kickstarter runs. Founding lineages stay open until 500 pairs per sport are claimed.Summer–Autumn 2026: We produce your frames, assign verified provenance, and complete Italian manufacturing.Target Q3 2026: Your sunglasses arrive with full verification built in.

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Your Questions. Straight Answers.

Why £1?
It secures your place in the priority queue. It signals genuine interest without requiring full commitment. And it helps us gauge demand without asking for the full price upfront. Change your mind? Contact us before the Kickstarter closes. Full refund. No friction.What will the actual sunglasses cost?
Pricing will be announced at Kickstarter launch. Expect premium positioning — this is Italian artisan manufacturing, Barberini lenses, and verified material provenance. Not a mass-market product with a sustainability sticker on it.How do I know there are really only 500 per sport?
Every frame's NFC tag includes a serial number within its lineage. Frame #347 of 500 is verifiable via scan. Batch documentation — equipment collected, yield calculations — gets published during the campaign. You'll see the working.What if I don't like the design?
The photos on this page show the actual Kickstarter production design. Priority access means you see the full campaign 48 hours early. If it's not for you, don't back it. Your £1 stays refundable until the campaign closes. You're reserving the right to decide first. Not committing to buy.Can I choose which specific piece of equipment my carbon came from?
Yes. Select from (Re)Framed, (Re)Rowed or (Re)Rigged - bikes, oars and sailing parts respectively. Your NFC tag shows batch-level lineage (equipment type, sport, collection programme) and your unique serial number within that batch.Are these prescription-compatible?
Not for the founding run. Prescription lenses require different architecture. If demand supports it, future lineages may include that option.What about damage?
Standard warranty covers manufacturing defects. Replacement lenses and repair services will be available post-campaign. Full warranty terms disclosed at Kickstarter launch.When does the £1 deposit window close?
It stays open until the Kickstarter launches (target: Spring 2026). Deposit holders get 48-hour early access. After that, remaining inventory opens to the public on a first-come basis.What if the Kickstarter doesn't hit its funding goal?
All deposits refunded in full. No risk to you.

This Isn't For Everyone.

If you want cheap sunglasses, this isn't it.If you don't notice, or don't care, when world-class sporting equipment gets thrown in a skip, this probably won't land for you either.Afterlife Carbon is for a specific kind of person. Someone who understands what goes into elite sports equipment. Someone who thinks the material that carried years of training and competition deserves better than landfill. Someone who'd rather own one pair of sunglasses with a real story built into them than ten pairs with none.No badge. No claim to status. No virtue required.Either the idea resonates, or it doesn't. Both are fine.

The Material Is Finite. Your Window Isn't Open Forever.

The founding run is 500 pairs per sport. The carbon comes from equipment that has already been collected and is being processed now. When it's allocated, the lineage closes.A £1 refundable deposit secures your place and gives you 48-hour early access to the Kickstarter before the public sees it. You choose your lineage first. You decide on your terms.If it's not right, you walk away. Full refund. No questions.

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Contact: [email protected]