Alessandro Schueli and designer Dane Galphin, launched Bændit, a Hong Kong-based brand eye wear with some unusual and innovative features, patent pending structure and materials allowing for a new relationship with our sunglasses. They have a modular design composed of two frames and lens modules, a nose bridge and two temples that all slot together with four and eight pin hand welded alloy attachment, coated with a silicone, sold in two sections, lens and temple set. All the BÆndit pieces are interchangeable and are compatible with all models allowing you to mix and match and change up the colour and deconstruct them when not in use to fit in even the smallest of pockets (women’s high street fashion, we are looking at you!).
The USP here is the bendable temple pieces, have them loose for casual wear, press them to your head for a tight fit, twist them round your ears for a secure hold, bend them round your arm when it gets darker, hang them off your clothing or equipment - the temples claim to be able to mould into any shape, but try and fold them down into the traditional closed sunglasses shape and you will discover they cannot. We received two sets to play with, the Red Baron and Ned Kelly Frame (there is a theme here with Billy the Kid, the Sundance Kid, Al Capone, Salvatore Giuliano and not forgetting one for the girls Belle Starr also available) as well as two sets of Unshakable temples (White and Yellow). Both feature a Silicone-Rubber Elastomer cured casing and injection moulded with the alloy core to be permanently bonded. Both lenses are custom S20 Revo lenses that filter out 100% of UVA / UVB / UVC, made from Thermoplastic Polycarbonate composite.
The Red Baron have in-mould electric welded stainless-steel structure frames with nickel free plating with hand brushed finishing and laser engraved, whilst the Ned Kelly use TR-90 polymer for a lightweight feel with a resistance to deformation index of 620kg/cm2 and the ability to regain its shape. I wanted to love these glasses, one of my friends complains they always need to bend their sunglasses as one ear is slightly higher than the other and the glasses always look wonky, these would be handy for him, but I’m not sure who else they would excite. The Unshakeable temples aren’t flexible or long enough to be revolutionary, I couldn’t get them to wrap tightly around my skinny arms, I also found it difficult to construct and deconstruct the temples (they have a very tight fit). You can twist them behind your ears to hold in place for more vigorous activities but then the lenses aren’t wide enough to make them good for sports, it also means when you straighten them out again you need to check in the mirror that they are straight. The lenses look high quality but then you attach these cheap looking temples and immediately lower the quality, this would be fine if they weren’t $149 (Red Baron) for this price they need to do more, at least make the presentation and packaging better quality. The Bendable system is interesting and has potential but needs more work before it has a real function in the market place. RRP $119
3 out of 5
Pros
Mix and match
Can be deconstructed for compact storage
Bendable Unstoppable temples can wrap around the ear for secure fitting
Lenses look attractive
Cons
Difficult to attach and remove temples
Unstoppable temples look cheap
Poorly packaged
Lenses too small for sports
Temples not flexible enough
expensive
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