Handmade in Italy. Fighter Pilot Optics. Made From Carbon Fibre That Was Part of Your Sport.

Sunglasses made from retired bikes, oars, and sailing parts. 500 pairs per sport. The provenance of the original equipment built into every frame, verified by tapping your phone.

98% of Carbon Fibre From Sport Goes To Landfill

The sports industry is the third-largest user of carbon fibre. Ahead of automotive. Behind only aerospace and wind energy.The average lifespan of carbon fibre sports equipment? Three years.After that, it sits in a skip behind a bike shop. Or in a pile at a boatyard. Or in the corner of a club. It waits there where nobody wants to be the one to throw it away. The inevitable is prolonged as long as possible. But the inevitable does happen...Once it gets to landfill, carbon fibre doesn’t break down. It’s estimated to take 60,000 years to degrade by just 25%.Your cracked bike frame, a snapped oar, the mast that didn’t survive last season, all of it will outlast everything else you’ll ever own.And nobody collects it. Nobody reclaims it. Nobody built a way to keep it in play.Until now.

What You’re Actually Getting

These aren’t novelty sunglasses that happen to have a recycling story attached. They’re serious eyewear built to a specification that competes with anything in the premium market.Barberini polarised lensesTwo options. Both built for people who use sunglasses in real conditions, not just for looking good in photos.Platinum Glass - The clearest lens on the market. Mineral glass with the highest Abbe value available, which means sharper, more true-to-life colour than any plastic lens can deliver. Virtually scratch-proof. Integrated polarisation that kills 99.9% of reflected glare from water, roads, and car bonnets. Infrared protection that blocks thermal heat, keeping your eyes cool in intense sun. These lenses don't dim the world. They sharpen it.NXT - Developed from the same material used in fighter jet canopy visors and attack helicopter windshields. Impact-resistant at a level most eyewear can't touch. Half the weight of glass, near-identical clarity, and chemically resistant to sunscreen and sweat. So light they float in water. Zero optical distortion, even through cockpit glass or car dashboards. If you want optics that are effectively indestructible and feather-light, this is the one.Glass for the purists. NXT for the people who break things.Italian artisan manufacturingHand-finished by a specialist eyewear workshop in Northern Italy that has been producing premium sport optics for leading global brands since the 1980s. Over 100 production steps per pair. This is not a factory line.Carbon fibre from elite sportThe frames carry a distinctive texture of the original material. Each pair looks and feels different because each piece of carbon fibre lived a different sporting life. That visible grain is not a flaw. It’s the signature.Provenance by simply tapping your phoneEvery frame has an embedded NFC tag. Tap your phone and see exactly which sporting lineage your carbon came from, the equipment type, the batch, and your unique serial number.Frame #347 of 500 isn’t a claim. It’s something you verify.

You’ve Got Branded Gear For Your Sport. None of It Is Actually From Your Sport.

Caps with logos. Printed hoodies. Sunglasses with a brand stamped on the temple. Strip the logo off and there’s nothing connecting any of it to the sport you care about. It’s plastic with a badge.Meanwhile, the actual material - carbon fibre that survived alpine descents, Henley campaigns, or foiling across the water at 30 knots - is sitting in a skip behind a club or a bike shop.Nobody collects it. Nobody reclaims it. Nobody thinks to.The equipment that defined your weekends, your regattas, your early mornings on the water, just leaves the sport entirely. Not because the material failed. Because nobody built a way to keep it.

• Pick Your Sport. £1 Gives You Early Access

Fully refundable · No commitment ·
Priority access to Kickstarter before public launch

The World’s First Sunglasses Made From Carbon Fibre Sports Equipment. With the Provenance to Prove It.

These sunglasses contain carbon fibre that was part of your sport.Bikes that were ridden hard enough to break. Oars that took thousands of strokes in training and racing. Foils that lifted hulls out of the water at 30 knots. That equipment was headed for landfill. We intercepted it, reprocessed it, and built it into something you can wear.The provenance is tracked and verifiable at every stage. Nobody else does this.

If You’ve Ever Watched Equipment Get Binned and Thought “That Shouldn’t Happen”, That’s Exactly Where This Started.

I’m James. I spent 19 years as a rowing coach.In that time, we broke and threw away a lot of carbon fibre.Dozens of oars, binned because they snapped or had gone 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 it raised a question I couldn’t shake: what do you actually do with the used carbon when it comes back?Could it be recycled?That question kicked off nearly five years of research. Most people ghosted me. Some told me flatly they wouldn’t work with me. One person eventually said, “Yes, we can do it, but not right now.”I thought that was the breakthrough. It wasn’t. It was just one link in a chain that nobody had built before.The steps on either side of reclaiming the fibres turned out to be the real problem. I needed specialist processing that clearly existed somewhere in the world, but the companies that could do it wouldn’t deal with me. The UK’s own composites trade association couldn’t give me any answers.So I started testing with companies that told me they could “definitely” help. One after another, they ran into the same problems. Every single one. The same failures kept cropping up with the reclaimed fibres, and nobody could get past these. There's essentially zero publicly available information on how to do what I was trying to do. I looked. For years.I was about to quit when one more niche search turned up someone I hadn’t found before. I reached out expecting the same answer. They could actually do it.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, with the provenance of the original equipment tracked and verifiable at every stage.It took a failed business, a year of closed doors, and nearly five years of hitting the same wall, before finding a way through.

• Pick Your Sport. £1 Gives You Early Access

Fully refundable · No commitment ·
Priority access to Kickstarter before public launch

Got Broken Carbon?

There’s probably a cracked frame in your garage. A snapped oar at your club. A mast section in the corner of a boatyard that nobody quite wants to deal with.You’ve probably looked at it and thought: this shouldn’t just go in a skip.You were right. It shouldn’t.We collect end-of-life carbon fibre sports equipment from individuals, clubs, and organisations across the UK. We document where every piece comes from, and it enters our supply chain with its sporting identity intact.If you’ve got retired carbon equipment, we’d like to talk to you.Send us a message and tell us what you’ve got.

• Send Us Your Carbon

How It Works

Step 1: We Rescue the Equipment.We collect retired carbon fibre equipment from individuals and sports organisations across the UK.Bike frames that climbed, sprinted, crashed, and eventually cracked.Oars that took tens of thousands of strokes, maybe millions, before they snapped or went soft.Sailing parts, retired because the regulations changed, or were pushed so hard they broke.Every piece is documented: where it came from, what it was, when we collected it. Named sources, photos, and collection stories. All published and verifiable.Step 2: We Give the Material a Rebirth.We use our proprietary process to turn retired sporting carbon fibre into eyewear-grade material. This took nearly five years to develop.The reclaimed carbon is sent to specialist artisan eyewear manufacturers in Northern Italy:Hand-finishing techniques reserved for premium optics.Barberini polarised lenses.Precision assembly by people who’ve been making eyewear for decades.Step 3: Your Sunglasses Arrive With Their Story Built In.Every frame gets an integrated NFC tag.Tap it with your phone. 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, and its unique serial number.The sporting legacy isn’t a story we tell. It’s built into the object.Verifiable by you, any time, for as long as you own it.

Want the Full Story Before You Decide?

We’re documenting the entire founding journey: which equipment we’ve collected, where it came from, and how we’re turning it into something worth owning.Sign up and you’ll get the provenance story behind our founding batch (which bikes, oars, and sailing components we rescued and from where), behind-the-scenes content from the Italian workshop, and first notification when the Kickstarter goes live.No fluff. Just the story of the journey as it happens.

What Happened When We Put These in the Hands of People Who Know Elite Gear.

Before we opened this to the public, we put our proof-of-concept product in the hands 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

*(Re)Orbit was our proof-of-concept, prototype product, made from spaceships, satellites and aircraft

What Changes When You Put These On.

Someone will ask.It might be at the café stop. Maybe in the club car park. It could be at a dinner where nobody else is thinking about sport.The grain catches their eye. These sunglasses have a visual texture that people who know recognise immediately, and people who don’t find themselves asking about.“Nice sunnies. What are they made from?”And then you get to tell them.These frames are carbon fibre. Not manufactured carbon fibre. Reclaimed carbon fibre from a bike frame that was ridden until it cracked. Or an oar that took tens of thousands of strokes. Or a foil that flew across the water until the day it didn’t.Tap your phone on the frame.Show them the provenance page. Watch them realise this isn’t a gimmick. The serial number, the lineage, the sporting equipment it came from, all verified, all real.You go from being someone who likes sport to someone wearing a piece of it. Not a logo. Not a replica. The actual material, with a story you can prove.

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 and sculling oars used by UK rowing clubs and programmes.Most 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.Some break due to a clash of oars or a crash.We intercept that material at exactly the moment it would disappear.Sailing: (Re)RiggedCarbon fibre reclaimed from high-performance and experimental sailing parts: foils, spars, and structural parts designed for speed.These components are often retired due to damage, regulation changes, or development cycles.Each lineage represents a specific moment where world-class sporting equipment typically stops mattering.That's where our work begins.Three sports. That’s where we’re starting.But the same problem exists everywhere carbon fibre touches sport.Formula 1 cars shed thousands of carbon parts every season. NHL teams go through 5,000 carbon sticks per club per year. Tennis players smash carbon rackets on live television, and nobody asks where the pieces go. Runners bin carbon-plated shoes after just 200 miles. Golfers upgrade carbon shafts every season. Skiers snap carbon poles on gnarly runs.We’re building the infrastructure to intercept all of it.Cycling, rowing, and sailing are the founding lineages. They won’t be the last.

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.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.The traceability. Every frame carries a verified provenance chain back to specific equipment. That chain requires documentation, batch separation, and individual serial assignment at every stage. Scale that up, and the chain starts to blur. 500 is the number where every frame's story stays genuinely verifiable. The scarcity exists because of the thing that makes the product worth owning.The time. Reclaiming, stabilising, and re-engineering carbon fibre from finished sporting equipment is slow work. Rushing it compromises the material.Those three constraints resolve to 500 pairs per sport. When the founding lineage is complete, that batch is done. There's no second run. The material dictates the numbers, and the provenance dictates the limits.For context: carbon fibre is estimated to take 60,000 years to degrade by just 25%. You're wearing a material that has already proven itself under conditions most manufactured goods never come close to, and it will outlast everything else you own.In fact, we're so confident in it we're operating a lifetime take-back scheme.

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 #062 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.

The Default Outcome Is Simple: Landfill.

Nobody in the composites industry is building traceability for sporting equipment waste. Nobody is connecting people to the actual material history of their sport. The standard practice is to throw it away.We built a different option. But it only works if people actually want it. Every pair of sunglasses from this founding run represents equipment that would otherwise have been lost.

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.

• Pick Your Sport. £1 Gives You Early Access

Fully refundable · No commitment ·
Priority access to Kickstarter before public launch

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.How is this different from other sustainable eyewear brands?Every sustainable eyewear brand we're aware of builds its frames from recycled ocean plastic or recycled nylon. The recycled material is the frame itself. Our frames are built from recycled carbon fibre sourced from specific sporting equipment, bound with a matrix of recycled PA6 nylon. The carbon fibre is what you see, what you feel, and what carries the sporting provenance. It's visually distinctive, it carries the performance heritage of the sport it came from, and it can be traced back to specific equipment through NFC verification. The material story is fundamentally different because the material is fundamentally different.What will the actual sunglasses cost?You already know what premium sport eyewear costs. Oakley, POC, 100%. You’ve probably owned a few pairs.This is in that territory. Italian artisan manufacturing, Barberini lenses, hand-finished frames. The optics and build quality compete with anything at that level.The difference is what the frames are made from and what they carry with them. No other pair of sunglasses at any price comes with a verifiable sporting lineage built into the frame.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 work.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. If demand supports it, future lineages may include that option.What about damage?We'll be operating a lifetime take-back scheme. Replacement lenses 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. 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 Equipment Has Been Collected. The Material Is Being Processed. The Founding Run Is Finite.

500 pairs per sport. Three lineages. When the carbon from this batch of equipment is allocated, each lineage closes permanently. There is no second run, because there is no second batch of this specific equipment.

• Pick Your Sport. £1 Gives You Early Access

Fully refundable · No commitment ·
Priority access to Kickstarter before public launch

Contact: [email protected]