Brand Profile: LiP Sunglasses – Performance Eyewear for Water Sports
LiP Sunglasses is a performance-driven eyewear brand specializing in technical sunglasses for water sports. Founded in 2012, the company combines expert design with premium materials to deliver products built for extreme conditions and lasting comfort.
What’s the background story of LiP Sunglasses?
LiP Sunglasses was conceived on the beaches of Boracay Island in the Philippines. Born out of frustration from losing too many sunglasses while windsurfing and kiteboarding in the searing tropical sun, our founders Dirk Michielson and Li Chen joined forces in 2012 to pioneer fit-for-purpose watersports eyewear that could survive the elements, stay comfortably locked in place, and deliver crystal clear vision.
At the time, Li was a passionate entrepreneur living in Taiwan who had just sold her business and was looking for a new challenge, while Dirk was a seasoned eyewear designer with over 25 years of industry experience. From their home base in Taiwan, at the crossroads of tropical waters and high-end manufacturing, the concept of our flagship Typhoon model began to take shape and their holiday home and the waters of Boracay offered the perfect real-world testing ground for the first prototypes.
What are your key brand values?
At the product level, our values have remained the same since day one: function, quality and style. Our sunglasses are engineered to perform in especially demanding environments, with premium materials, robust retention systems, and optics you can count on. But there’s more to LiP than our eyewear. As individuals and as a brand, we’re grounded in balance – in how we work, how we play, and how we live. At the heart of LiP is the belief that we become what we choose to pursue – that nothing is out of reach so long as we remain true to our core values. That’s the energy we bring into every product we design, every partnership we build, and every day we spend on the water.
LiP is known for producing sunglasses tailored for water sports, what sets your eyewear apart from typical sunglasses?
Typical sunglasses offer style and tint but not much in the way of bespoke functionality. Our sunglasses are engineered for water, with failsafe retention systems, high tech coatings, fog resistance, and glare-cutting optics. Every LiP Sunglasses model is purpose-built to ensure it is fit for the purpose it is intended to be used for.
How does LiP approach sustainability in product design, materials, or packaging?
We don’t claim to have it all figured out, but we make conscious decisions where they matter – starting with the core components: lenses and frames.
For our lenses, we co-brand with ZEISS, a global leader in optics that shares our commitment to quality and environmental responsibility. Our nylon lenses are manufactured using 39% renewable material sourced from municipal and industrial bio-based waste, and are produced using 100% renewable electricity.
Our frames are made from TR90, a petroleum-based material that is recyclable. While we continue to evaluate bio-based alternatives, we’ve found that most still fall short when it comes to durability – a critical factor in saltwater and high UV environments. Instead of building eyewear that needs replacing every season, we’ve focused on longevity. We’ve built sustainability into our product lifespan through a modular design, offering replacement parts for frames and lenses to keep our sunglasses in use for as long as possible.
How important is community feedback and athlete collaboration in shaping your products?
Community feedback is foundational. It guides how we refine and update our frames, our lenses, and the approach we take to new designs. Our athletes push our products to the limit, and our customers often know exactly what’s working and what could be better. We listen to both and we take pride in honest, human customer service that reflects our belief that this is a shared journey. Every session, every conversation, and every bit of feedback helps us evolve.
What challenges do you face as a smaller brand in an industry dominated by larger, global eyewear manufacturers?
Being a smaller, independent sunglasses brand in a market dominated by multinational giants definitely comes with challenges, especially when it comes to visibility, buying power, and shelf space. What we offer is genuine product expertise in a niche that we’ve helped to define. We make one thing – technical watersports eyewear – and we make it well. That means our time and resources are channelled into product refinement, customer service, and rider-led innovation.
Any upcoming projects or products you can share?
This autumn, we’re launching the ‘Tide’. The Tide delivers the same high-level performance we demand from all our watersports eyewear. It’s purpose-built for women, youth, and riders with smaller faces. It’s the result of an extended period of development, testing, and rider feedback, and we’re incredibly proud of what it represents – both in terms of product performance and brand legacy.
How important is design and aesthetics alongside performance in your sunglasses?
Watersports sunglasses are, by their very nature, more functional than regular sunglasses. They need to handle wind, salt, spray, glare, wipeouts, immersion, and constant movement. So yes, performance is always the first consideration as our designs are inevitably led by functional needs. But within those technical constraints, aesthetics still matter deeply to us. We believe that equipment should not only excel – it should look and feel good too. A great piece of gear inspires confidence when it looks cohesive, clean, and dialled in. While style isn’t the driver, it’s absolutely part of our DNA.
