Vita:Vinylize by Tipton
History szerkesztés
The Vinylize brand was founded in 2004 in Budapest, Hungary by American/Hungarian designer Zachary Tipton Milaskey. The first prototypes were made in his fathers garage/workshop in the late 1990's. The name Vinylize was coined shortly thereafter. In 2000 during a summer holiday in Hungary Zack presented the prototypes to the directors of a local eyeglass factory. With nearly 100 employees at its peak, it supplied many of the Eastern Bloc countries with fashionable eyewear, including the USSR. From 2001 to 2004 the few remaining employees of EMI launched into developing technology to produce prescription ready eyewear from vinyl records. Zack teamed up with his brother Zoltan in 2004 and founded Tipton Eyeworks.
Advertisement szerkesztés
For branding and positive become part of the public consciousness Tipton Eyeworks started to attend international optic fairs. Thus the Tipton team exhibited their frame selection at prestigious international events such as Silmo, an optic fair specialized on spectacle frames. Thanks to that Tipton brand became immediately well-known. In 2014 at Silmo-Paris Tipton introduced the “Limited Edition” collection: a three-piece set, the first one was produced with the blue Pink Floyd record release. In 2015 Tipton settled a cooperation agreement with Hungary’s biggest and most important music festival “Sziget Fesztivál” to increase the company and the product awareness. In this cooperation framework, Tipton produced a couple of exclusive and limited sunglasses boxes specially designed for each one of the 2015 Sziget main stage lineup artists. In 2016 Tipton attended the MIDO international optic fair in Milan, as well as the Copenhagen Specs independent eyewear designers’ exhibition for the first time. In 2017 Tipton attended the Opti fair in Munich, the MIDO fair in Milan again, as well as the International Vision Expo & Conference in New York City. Tipton Eyeworks partnered up with Record Store Day for their 10th year anniversary and designed a unique and exclusive poster. 10,000 copies were printed and shipped to record stores across North America and threw a party in their showroom in Budapest. To read more about the event click here.
Through Tipton Eyeworks Facebook page the company keeps in touch with old and new customers and with those who are interested in their loving frames. In addition you can contact them through their website (www.vinylize.com), where you can also see the large frame selection and even buy the one you like on their webshop.
In Budapest you can visit their showroom situated right behind the Fővám Market Hall at Erkel u. 3. It showcases the largest selection of Vinylize frames and you can also request a tour of the workshop.
Eyeglasses szerkesztés
Tipton Eyeworks created the Vinylize brand, the optic line which contains 40 different eyeglasses models with an increasing amount in their offer. Besides the traditional frame shapes Tipton tries to challenge itself by creating always original and extravagant models. The frames are mainly black, but lately the company has started trying new things and has launched its newest collection made of clear vinyl, click here to get to know more about the "NVSBLE collection".
Male and female models are part of the Vinylize frame selection. The Vinylize brand combines the love for music, excellent quality and uniqueness. Tipton believes that the human touch is what makes these frames artworks. The optical line has not been in the market for so long; this “Executive line” collection has no longer a black cellulose acetate stem, but is made of a much more exciting material: palladium-coated, making the frames even more exclusive.
Sunglasses szerkesztés
Besides the optical line, Tipton Eyeworks also produces sunglasses. At the moment the sunglass collection has 25 different models and it is constantly updating its designs. Limited Edition The “Limited Edition” consists in only a few pieces; a special box is made from a favorite artist album and includes a pair of sunglasses made from the same record. Boxes were created for artists such as Asaf Avidian, Bob Marley, Domingo, Ellie Goulding, Hollywood Undead, Interpol, Jack White, Kasabian, Kingd os Leon, Limp Bizkit, Madonna, Marina and the Diamonds, Martin Garrix, Mike Oldfield, Robbie Williams, The Prodigy.
Other products szerkesztés
Tipton Eyeworks produces a range of other products also made from vinyl records, next to their main core product, the eyeglasses. Among other things you can find sunglasses cases, business cards, belts; the offer is constantly being updated.
Technology szerkesztés
Each of Tipton Eyeworks eyeglasses is hand-crafted. Every step of the process is thoroughly thought, the concept of a new idea, the design and the material is going to be used. The vinyl raw material for the spectacles are coated with hypoallergenic cellulose-acetate extracted from wood pulp so that the vinyl record grooves do not get damaged. Subsequently, these materials are heated it, pressured and applied it. The vinyl raw material of the frame is cut out with a CNC precise machine, however the ergonomic design of the nose is always hand-carved, so that all excess materials are removed. In order to get the perfect smooth and shiny eyeglasses, after 72 hours of the above mentioned process the glasses are rotated in wooden boxes. Then again manual work follows: the parts are cleaned, riveted, engraved and stamped and then they are put together. A number of quality controls ensure that the rivets and all parts made the perfect spectacle frame. At last, the final assembled frame is polished one by one, taking care that the vinyl grooves will not be damaged.