Efficiency Eyewear Model SunGod Is Centered On Trade Change By way of B Corp Certification

Sustainability has at all times been core to British eyewear specialist SunGod’s enterprise practices, and the model not too long ago turned B Corp Licensed to additional bolster its credentials as a sustainable model and dedication to a triple backside line of individuals, revenue and planet.

As an illustration, SunGod merchandise have a lifetime assure to maintain merchandise in circulation and out of landfill, and their Infinite frames are constituted of 100% recycled materials.

SunGod additionally companions with like-minded organisations similar to Surfers In opposition to Sewage, The Bike Undertaking and 1% for the Planet, which sees SunGod contribute 1% of their income to sustainability-focused non-profits.

I not too long ago had the chance to speak to Zoe Watkiss, co-founder and co-CEO of SunGod, the story of the companies’ journey from its humble starting as a start-up in 2013, to being ranked 687th on the FT1000 – a listing of the highest 1,000 firms in Europe which have achieved the best proportion progress in revenues between 2018 and 2021. Learn under for an edited excerpt from our on-line dialog.

Christopher Marquis: Are you able to inform me about why you based SunGod and the way the enterprise has advanced since its launch?

Zoe Watkiss: Ali and I met at Manchester College. After college, we had been each working in London, Ali in structure and me in advertising and marketing at L’Oreal. Ali was feeling uninspired (this was 2008 and nothing was getting in-built London!) and I used to be feeling overworked… between us we had been in actual want of a change!

We had been at all times searching for methods to spend extra time outdoor, whether or not that was within the mountains, on bikes or simply on two ft. We had began a Winter bobble hat firm known as Hats for the Hill on the facet of our day jobs, which was nice enjoyable however extremely seasonal! We started taking a look at methods we may make this year-round and our consideration turned to the summer season season and the eyewear trade.

It turned very clear, in a short time, that the market was solely providing costly designer sun shades that got here with large mark-ups, or low-cost £10 knock-offs that broke after a couple of wears. We believed we may create one thing higher – a model that supplied extra – and so we took issues into our personal arms and SunGod was born!

We needed to create a model with the shopper at its coronary heart. By way of reducing out the intermediary and going direct to client, we had been capable of supply sturdy, lifetime guarantee-backed customized sun shades and ski goggles, all for a fairer value for our buyer, and with a decrease impression on the planet.

10 years later, we’re actually pleased with what SunGod has grow to be. One thing that began off as the two of us grads constructing sun shades in our lounge, has grown into a world model constructed on area people, that’s fuelled by sustainable innovation. Right now, we’re an authorized B Corp™ with a turnover of £8m final 12 months, and the recognition and efficiency of our merchandise are confirmed by world-class athletes on the worldwide stage day-after-day.

Marquis: How did you fund the beginning and progress of the enterprise?

Watkiss: We’ve been funded by our crowd since day one. In 2013, after 6 months of prototyping and product testing, we launched SunGod on product crowdfunding website Indiegogo. The response was unimaginable and exceeded all our expectations! With a goal to promote 400 pairs, we bought almost 4,000 pairs in only one month. It was the impetus we wanted to give up our jobs, it supplied the cashflow to kickstart the enterprise and confirmed us that the urge for food for what we had been doing was there. Trying again, we in all probability wouldn’t have been ready to enter manufacturing if we’d solely bought 400 pairs, however our marketing campaign turned out to be a document for the platform at a time the place crowdfunding was new and thrilling!

We ran a few Kickstarter campaigns over the subsequent few years to launch new merchandise, however remained utterly self-funded with reinvested income till 2020. Momentum was robust but we had been beginning to attain a degree the place we felt unable to decide to the larger alternatives and partnerships coming our means. So, in November 2020 we launched our first Crowdcube marketing campaign, giving our neighborhood the possibility to personal a bit of SunGod’s future. It was an enormous success, and we raised £1.5m from our neighborhood (1,004 traders) in simply 24 hours. This helped us triple our income and enhance the corporate’s valuation by 166% in two years, placing us in a good stronger place for our subsequent Crowdcube, in November 2022. This went even higher; we welcomed one other 1000+ prospects to our investor neighborhood, and reached our funding cap of £3m in simply 79 minutes!

I couldn’t advocate crowdfunding sufficient. If you look to your personal neighborhood for funding, you flip your prospects into model advocates and are capable of carry them even nearer to your mission. These folks inevitably wish to you succeed; they select to speculate as a result of they already love what we do and in flip assist by spreading the phrase amongst their family and friends. We achieve an enormous proportion of our new prospects via easy phrase of mouth, and it’s typically these traders who shout about us the loudest.

Marquis: What makes SunGod totally different to its rivals?

Watkiss: SunGod has grown into one of many world’s main efficiency eyewear manufacturers, and is an authorized B Corp. We’re pushed by our mission to See Higher; via our lenses, via our actions, and thru doing enterprise higher. To see a greater future, we’re constructing a enterprise that’s higher for our prospects, with higher performing merchandise, which are higher for the planet. From our market-leading lens supplies, to our Carbon Impartial merchandise; from our charity partnerships, to our Lifetime Assure; we’ve chosen to do issues in a different way.

When it comes to product, we’re main the trade via award-winning sustainable innovation. Our 8KO® lens know-how is clearer, stronger and lighter than our rivals, and as of 2023 it’s being worn by 7x Tour de France-winning biking crew, INEOS Grenadiers, in addition to McLaren F1 Group. We’ve put years of R&D into growing a lens with unrivalled efficiency advantages, and we’re proud that it’s now the eyewear of selection for the world’s finest athletes.

We’re additionally obsessive about buyer expertise. We function an unbiased, direct-to-consumer mannequin, which suggests prospects can solely purchase SunGod from SunGod; we don’t work with third-party retailers. So, we’re capable of construct extremely shut, two-way relationships with our prospects, and it pays off (we’ve got a 4.8/5 star score on TrustPilot). The trade giants simply don’t have that. Our D2C mannequin additionally lets us supply our unrivalled lifetime assure, which might be virtually unimaginable to honour if we labored via retailers. Plus, our merchandise are hand-assembled to order within the UK, and are totally customisable, at no further value. This implies our UK prospects can order a unique pair of SunGods at 2pm they usually’ll land on their doorstep the subsequent day – not many manufacturers can supply this!

From a sustainability perspective, we’re proudly B Corp™ Licensed, we provide a Lifetime Assure on all merchandise, we donate 1%+ of income to charity, and we’re licensed Carbon Impartial – throughout each our merchandise and our operations, again to Day 1. We work with a variety of charities to boost funds and consciousness for the causes that matter, and we’re dedicated to utilizing our model as a drive for optimistic change. This comes via campaigns like our MOMENTUM marketing campaign, which celebrated the progress being made in ladies’s sport (significantly across the first ladies’s Tour de France final 12 months), and highlighted the work that’s nonetheless to come back.

However finally, as B Corp, we’re targeted on collaboration, not competitors. After we see different manufacturers taking inspiration from our means of doing enterprise, we view that as a hit, not an issue; it means we’re influencing the broader trade to make optimistic, sustainable change.

Marquis: What does SunGod being B Corp licensed imply to you / the enterprise?

Watkiss: In Summer season 2022, we turned a Licensed B Company™, becoming a member of a world neighborhood utilizing enterprise as a drive for good. This implies we meet verified excessive requirements of social and environmental efficiency, and we’re commited to a triple backside line of individuals, planet and revenue, that’s written into our authorized constitution to guard it perpetually.

B Corp means so much to me as a result of on the finish of the day, it means we’ve got held ourselves to account throughout each space of the enterprise and that our prospects can belief us – its evaluation course of leaves no stone unturned to make sure companies are creating optimistic change. Greenwashing is rife in as we speak’s market, and B Corp is certainly the most suitable choice on the market to information prospects in the direction of manufacturers which are working beneath excessive ranges of integrity, transparency and accountability.

Changing into a B Corp has reached into each space of our enterprise. From measuring the minute particulars of our carbon emissions, to providing free, limitless psychological well being assist for workers, to utilizing our advertising and marketing platform to advertise gender equality in sport; the B Corp framework has helped us analyse and improve all the things we do at SunGod, throughout folks and planet. I’m unimaginable proud that we’ve invested in constructing such robust foundations now, that can assist us proceed to develop sustainably as we scale up.

Marquis: How vital are partnerships to SunGod’s imaginative and prescient and values?

Watkiss: Our companions are completely important to our enterprise. We now have a devoted Partnerships Group who, earlier than signing a brand new accomplice, ask: a) how is that this partnership significant? and b) how may we work collectively to positively impression our neighborhood?

From England Rugby and McLaren F1, to the skilled biking crew INEOS Grenadiers, to charities like Surfers In opposition to Sewage and Defend Our Winters UK; we’ve constructed a accomplice neighborhood that proves the efficiency of our merchandise on the highest ranges. They assist us frequently faucet into new and engaged audiences, supply product suggestions to permit for fixed innovation, and create aspirational digital content material to maintain our neighborhood engaged. On the similar time, we assist our companions by creating distinctive merchandise particularly for his or her groups and followers, elevating funds for his or her charities, and utilizing our personal substantial platforms to assist their goals. SunGod partnerships actually are symbiotic relationships, they usually’ve performed a core function in getting SunGod to the place we’re as we speak.

Marquis: What’s in retailer for the longer term?

Watkiss: We now have some actually thrilling plans for the subsequent 12 months. In addition to signing our largest and finest partnerships but (that are strictly beneath wraps… for now!) we’re going to be increasing into the US market. We’ve proved our idea in our residence market and skilled unimaginable progress, so scaling up throughout the pond, the place we’ve got a rising buyer base already, seems like the apparent subsequent step.

We’re additionally extremely excited to be releasing prescription sun shades to our neighborhood, imminently! It’s one thing our prospects have been asking us about for a very long time (70% of the UK inhabitants are glasses wearers!), and we’re lastly ready the place we are able to supply an distinctive product and and shopping for expertise to them. Watch this area!