NATHAN EYES

STYLISH AND FUNCTIONAL RUNNING EYEWEAR

August 2018

4 months

Co-op with United Sports Brands and Nathan

Nathan

Nathan Sports is first and foremost a brand for runners by runners. Their brand has a huge focus on helping runners achieve their goals. Their slogan, “We Run With You” is truly their state of mind when making their products.

During the first third of 2018 I had earned the opportunity to research and design several new products within unexplored areas that Nathan Sports was interested in expanding into. During this time I had two projects that I was working on for Nathan. Nathan Eyes is my solo-project focused on eyewear for runners, in-line with the ideals found throughout Nathan Sports.

Research began by understanding Nathan as a brand. This meant looking at their current catalog of products, their community, and their mission. I was given the opportunity to get an in depth look at Nathan’s current products giving me an insight to their design direction and aesthetics. To begin to understand the community around the company I had conducted interviews with those who have used or would use their products. This included both online surveys and personal interviews. Lastly, I was able to talk extensively with some employees of Nathan gaining knowledge of their mission as a company, to help runners be the best they can be.

After having a basic understand and laying the groundwork of the company and it’s community it was time to dive deeply into sunglasses and the culture surrounding them. I quickly came to realize how much of a challenge this design would be since there is not necessarily a “problem” to solve. This is where things got complicated, questions arose that had answers that were spread across a wide spectrum.

1. Why do people where sunglasses? (Function, Fashion, Emotion)

2. What makes sunglasses attractive? (Shape, Style, History)

3. How can this product adapt to be placed within the culture Nathan has cultivated?

4. Who wears sunglasses? (Age, Status, Interests)

5. What do people value in sunglasses (Price, Durability, Features)

When considering these questions and continuing with a wider selection of interviewees I had come to the conclusion that sunglasses are, in general, a very distinct and tricky design problem. Creating a wearable, functional product that also followed fashion trends is a tall order. In order to ground the problem into something more solve-able I focused on the user.

During my research I noticed Nathan had a somewhat untapped market of young adults and teens. During interviews most interviewees who considered themselves active had not heard of Nathan as a brand. Some even had Nathan products, mainly water bottles, but still did not know the brand or what products they make. This presented an interesting opportunity to target this age group since an active lifestyle is highly promoted among the younger generation.

After many more surveys and interviews targeted specifically at the younger generation I had found that many (13% of people surveyed) felt they could not afford branded sunglasses. About 3/4 of people surveyed would also rather spend money on an experience rather than a product. My research lead me into trying to understand what a younger generation would value in a pair of sunglasses, what would be exciting, and how that would effect the physical form the product would eventually take. I chose to pursue two different avenues to try and solve this problem, Community and Self-Expression

Refinement

In the refinement phase my main goal was to give the ideas I had created in ideation a form that matched with Nathan’s brand language. Thankfully since I had done a lot of research on style trends, color trends, frame trends, and the community surrounding Nathan I was able to start thinking of bringing what would be popular for the target audience to what would be well received by Nathan and its community. This had lead to many different designs of varying shapes and sizes. Something I had found striking was a idea that came through during the creation of the “cubs sunglasses”.

The ability for a runner to use their peripherals was something a lot of cheaper sunglasses did not allow. In this design there would be a lens on the arms of the sunglasses, allowing for a complete protection of the eye and use of peripheral vision as well.