'Sunglasses that shine, without the huge price tag': Northern Ireland mum, wife and nurse launches eyewear business to brighten up your day!

Sonny Eyewear Co. launched December 1 2024, in the middle of winter, yes! My name is Bethany, I am a mum of two little ones, wife, and a nurse in Belfast. Sunglasses have always been my favourite accessory to wear and I wear them all year round because I have sensitive eyes.

When choosing sunglasses, I tend to lean towards the style/frame and colour of the glasses to go with my outfits. I have had a couple of high end pairs of sunglasses over the years and the UV protection is noticeably better. However, like most people, the cost was big and this made it harder to keep up with trends and styles.

This is when I decided that I wanted to create a business that bridged that gap between terrible UV protection sunglasses and high end pricey sunglasses and create a brand that embodied ‘stylish everyday eyewear’...in other words sunglasses that shine, without the huge price tag!

Two weeks after giving birth to my little girl Heidi, during a night feed my creative juices always came alive and the name ‘Sonny’ came to me. The play on words with ‘sunny’ made sense to me and I also loved ‘Sonny’ for a little boy’s name.

I started to do a lot of in-depth research into the importance of eye health, protecting our eyes long term and general health benefits with different UV and polarised protection. As a nurse, I loved this side of things and getting to pair that along with my creative side, building the brand has been incredibly enjoyable so far.

Sustainability is a big thing for me and finding the right wholesaler, printers, and other local businesses to work with along the way has been great. Starting a business and building a brand requires a lot of time, effort and money of course, so for me, I want it to always be a reflection of me as a brand and my standards. Each pair of glasses are subtly named after family, friends, places or things that are meaningful to me.

As we come into the brighter months now, Sonny is really taking off. We are attending our first market at Brownlow House with Cohen and Co. Seasonal market on Saturday, March 29. After that we also have an evening mini market at Só Soy on Friday, April 4.

Our second collection of sunglasses launching this week, Wednesday, March 26. This will bring our entire shop collection to 16 different styles. In our next collection we are launching our first men’s sunglasses, blue light glasses and bridal to add a variety for all of our customers.

Our unique selling point is that each pair of sunglasses provides UV 400 protection. An amazing feature that provides nearly 100% protection from harmful ultraviolet light rays, blocking wavelengths up to 400 nanometers, including UVA and UVB rays.

Four of our glasses; ‘The Julia, The Rae, The James and The Aussie’ are polarised which means they have a special coating that helps eliminate or reduce glare from sunlight and light reflecting off the surface of water and other horizontal surfaces.

Looking ahead, I am so thankful and excited to keep sharing and promoting the importance of wearing sunglasses with UV 400 protection. At Sonny, we have created an affordable product to help our customers have a sense of style with their everyday sunglasses. We can’t wait to grow and share more on this journey. I am excited to keep growing this brand and keep on top of the latest trends too…the future really does look bright and I’m delighted!