Extreme E Joins Forces With Coral Eyewear

Extreme E has joined forces with sustainable brand, Coral Eyewear, which uses recycled fishing nets to manufacture its covertable collection of sunglasses.

The British brand will supply sunglasses to Extreme E’s personnel for use during their work at the upcoming Ocean X Prix in Senegal.

Coral Eyewear is the brainchild of 21-year-old student, George Bailey, who, concerned about the damaging effects to the sea of discarded fishing nets, came up with the idea of using them to make stylish and recyclable eyewear. It is estimated that 600,000 tonnes of nets are abandoned in our oceans every year, taking up to a staggering 600 years to break down. This marine ‘litter’ causes all kinds of hazards for sea life – apart from obvious ingestion, World Animal Protection estimates that just one abandoned net can entangle up to 40 marine animals every year.

The brand, with the support of Italian manufacturer Aquafil, harvests these abandoned nets, turns them into pellets which are then moulded into frames for sunglasses and prescription eyewear. To further reduce any environmental damage, the company tumbles the frames for smoothness rather than using harmful lacquers and ships the frames to customers in plastic-free packaging via a carbon-neutral delivery service.  

Ali Russell, Chief Marketing Officer at Extreme E, said: “As a sport for purpose series, it’s essential for us to align ourselves with people and companies that share our core values – we are therefore delighted that Coral will be supplying us with its fantastic range of sunglasses.

“What George Bailey has achieved, particularly at such a young age,  is truly inspirational. The Coral sunglasses are not only superb and will be hugely appreciated by the Extreme E team, but the company is actually dealing with an issue that we all need to be aware of, and that is taking care of our oceans by ridding them of plastic waste.”

George Bailey, CEO at Coral Eyewear said: “As a planet-positive brand, we exist to shine a spotlight on the incredible solutions happening across all areas of sustainability. Since our launch last year, we’ve built a fantastic relationship with electric motorsport through our ambassador and British driver Alexander Sims, as well as Mahindra Racing in Formula E.

“To expand this work into Extreme E is a real honour. The conversations surrounding the environmental missions at the Desert X Prix have been so refreshing to hear and we’re delighted to play a part in the latest event in Senegal, an event that will go a long way to highlighting the need for strong, sustained ocean conservation.”