Ochis Story 06: Looking For The Ochis Material
This is a story about how the solution to a problem is often right under our noses.
When Ochis founder Max was finally sure that eyewear was his life's work, the experimentation period began. His firm belief that platic causes irreparable harm to the planet made him go nosedeep into searching for an environmentally friendly material. And it wasn’t easy.
In his early attempts to create an alternative to plastic, Max used a combination of cellulose acetate and cork. These frames looked cool, but they still lacked the spark that makes inventors shout "Eureka!" He still wanted to achieve something more unique.
Then Max figured out that natural raw materials might suit his purposes — something daily and simple could get a new lease on life. Moreover, a natural material would make production even more sustainable. There were long months of pressing everything that caught his eye at home and in supermarkets — parsley, rice, cinnamon, turmeric, rosemary, various seeds...
Some of the materials turned out to be unsuitable for creating frames, some were kind of okay, but one insoluble problem remained: all these resources could be used for cooking instead of being "wasted" on glasses. The ideal material had to be a by-product, something unusable — and then glasses would give a new life to otherwise useless waste.
Creatively, this was tough. Max still couldn't put the puzzle pieces together, although it seemed that the answer should be absolutely obvious. After a couple of weeks of fruitless reflections, when it seemed that the solution would never come, an incredible thing happened: Max's girlfriend at the time came to his workshop and suggested trying coffee grounds.
It was an incredible feeling of joy, inspiration and motivation at the same time! All the stars finally aligned: yes, the glasses definitely had to be made from used coffee. It's a free natural by-product that smells good, looks great in black color and has thousands of fans all over.
Feeling elated, Max began the endless pressings and improvements. It took him 300 test plates to make a base sturdy enough for cutting out the frames, and even then, the first samples of glasses crumbled in his hands. But persistence and a sense of purpose pushed him forward, and six months later, the first prototype of the future Ochis was created.
Everything that surrounds us was once just an idea in someone's sparkling eyes. Now we can’t imagine Ochis without coffee, but it is always important to remember that only tireless work can create a unique product from an idea.