Padua, September 26, 2022

Safilo Group – one of the eyewear industry’s key players in the design, manufacturing and distribution of prescription frames, sunglasses, outdoor eyewear, goggles and helmets – announces the introduction of Eastman Tritan™ Renew in its polarized lenses, becoming the first player in the market to adopt Tritan™ Renew Polarized lenses and have a bilateral collaboration with Eastman on technical innovation, unlocking new opportunities for the eyewear industry.

From August 2023 Tritan™ Renew Polarized lenses will be featured in Under Armour eyewear, one of Safilo’s licensed brands, and will be progressively rolled out across the Group’s broad brand portfolio of sunglasses, further asserting the Company’s business commitment to sustainability and its efforts to bring more recycled materials to the eyewear industry.

Tritan™ Renew polarized lenses development is the next chapter of continuous cooperation between Safilo and Eastman, a global materials provider and pioneer in molecular recycling.  Tritan™ Renew is part of a comprehensive range of sustainable materials now offered at scale by Eastman. This recent technical breakthrough allows Safilo to introduce a 50% certified recycled content* material in collections with polarized sunglass lenses while retaining the performance and quality standards expected in Safilo products.

“Our goal is to expand the use of sustainable materials as much as possible in order to progress in our sustainability journey”, declared Vladimiro Baldin, Chief Licensed Brand and Global Product Officier of Safilo Group. “After announcing that we are the first player in the eyewear industry to use all Eastman Renew materials, we couldn’t be more proud to be the first player to have a technical innovation partnership with Eastman which allows us to work together to offer a variety of differentiated options that meet our high standards for both design and sustainability”.

This collaboration is part of Safilo’s purpose-led strategy based on three sustainability pillars: planet, product, and people. Sustainability is at the core of Safilo’s business strategies and is based on developing projects and initiatives that can contribute to addressing the global challenges of tomorrow.

“We are proud to take this next step in our sustainability-based collaboration with Safilo and expand our work together to include technical innovation”, said Glenn Goldman, Commercial Director, Eastman Specialty Plastics.  “The introduction of polarized sun lenses made from TR demonstrates both Safilo’s leadership on sustainability and the versatility of Tritan™ Renew as a sustainable solution for all types of sun lenses”.

Safilo and Eastman began their successful collaboration in March 2021 with the introduction of the Eastman Tritan™ Renew and Eastman Acetate Renew in the Spring Summer Collection 2022 of Safilo’s proprietary brand Polaroid. In July 2022, Safilo announced the introduction of Eastman Tenite™ Renew in its collections launching January 2023.  

*The recycled content is achieved by allocating the recycled waste plastic to Eastman Renew materials using a mass balance process certified by ISCC