This gorgeous eyewear is designed for people of color

When I got glasses at the age of eight, the first thing I noticed was how they pinched the sides of my nose. Over the years, I got different pairs—thick acetate frames, thinner metal frames—but it was always painful, sometimes to the point of triggering migraines. At 13, I switched to contact lenses and never looked back.

It turns out, this is a common experience among people of color. Ona Utuama, a Nigerian-American designer, struggled to find eyewear that fit well. But as she trained as a doctor in Nigeria and here in the United States, she began to see the issue from a physiological perspective.

“When I tried on frames at optical shops, it was clear that most lenses are not designed for people with wider nose bridges, which encompasses most Black people, but also many other people of color,” she says. “The industry is just not designing for us.”

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, Utuama decided to tackle this gap in the market head-on, launching a new brand called Tribal Eyes whose slogan is, “It’s not your nose, it’s your eyewear!” The brand is part of a small group of other eyewear startups catering to Black communities that have popped up over the last four years, including Kimeze, Reframd, and Anwuli. Utuama goal was to design eyewear that fit better on her own nose, as well as other people whose noses don’t fit the traditional Caucasian structure that has long been used as the archetype.

Tribal Eyes has become known for its bold, fashion forward frames, favored by celebrities like Viola Davis. Utuama and her husband bootstrapped the company, and it has grown quickly since its inception. It is now available in Anthropologie in Dubai, the Hudson Bay department stores in Canada, and many local optical shops in Atlanta, where the brand is based. Importantly, Tribal Eyes and the growing list of eyewear brands for Black consumers, signal to the larger eyewear makers that it’s important to cater to the needs of diverse communities who have different facial structures.

Utuama explains that the origins of the modern eyewear industry emerged from Italy, so it makes sense that many eyewear design trends are based around the Caucasian nose, which tends to have a sharper point and a slimmer nose bridge. “These brands began by designing for the people they were seeing,” she says. “But as the brands expanded globally, they didn’t tailor frames to different populations.”

For decades, the eyewear industry has been dominated by an Italian conglomerate called Luxottica, which is based in Milan. It owns many factories in China and around the world, along with a wide range of eyewear retailers, including LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Glasses.com, and Target’s optical division. It also owns many eyewear brands, from Burberry to Ray-Ban to Oakley.

As Utuama began thinking about how to improve the design of her eyewear, she took a scientific approach. Traditionally, eyewear manufacturers look at three measurements: the eye size, to identify where the pupils would be; the nose bridge width; and the temple length. Utuama launched pop-ups with her very first designs, and gathered a lot of data about which dimensions worked best with consumers of different backgrounds. “It became clear to me that many Black customers, as well as those of Latinx and Asian backgrounds, tended to go for wider nose bridge sizes,” she says. “They wanted larger nose bridge sizes than what is typically available on the market.”

So, Utuama began designing frames that would accommodate this need. But as she widened the nose bridges on her designs, she discovered that it made sense to make frames that were wider, to create more harmonious proportions. Many of Tribal Eye’s designs have an oversized look and are made from lightweight materials like acetate and thin metal.

Utuama has continued to use pop-ups to test the popularity of styles before ordering more. She’s found that her customers, who are largely people of color, tend to gravitate towards these bolder, more dramatic looks. So, she decided to launch a specific “ethnic” collection that uses patterns and colors inspired by her West African roots. Many are inspired by Kente cloth patterns, which is a traditional fabric dying process common in Nigeria. Others have dashiki prints, which are common in Ethiopia. The eyewear pouches are also made from Aso-oke fabric which are handwoven by Nigerian Yoruba artisans.

Given the brand’s fast growth, Utuama has had to expand manufacturing to accommodate demand. She began with an American eyewear maker and has since expanded to three different factories to produce frames. But last year, Utuama went to Italy to partner with a factory there. In some ways, it’s an interesting twist, bringing frames specifically designed for people of color to a factory that has historically made eyewear for Caucasian faces.

“It’s a very different experience wearing glasses that are made for you,” she says. “You don’t have to spend the whole day feeling discomfort or even pain in your face.”