Adventure Magazine December 2019/January 2020

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URBAN 

BUSINESS 

DRAGON 

THROUGH THE LENS 

Dragon Eyewear will roll-out of their proprietary 

Lumalens lens technology into the brand’s line of performance 

sunglasses. All new and key carryover sunglass styles will 

be produced using the brand’s latest innovative lens offering. 

Already used throughout Dragon’s snow goggles since 2016, 

Lumalens brings Dragon’s sunglass collection to life in high 

definition through intensely vivid colour optimisation, razorsharp 

clarity, and remarkable depth perception. By filtering 

out light attributed to haze and glare while amplifying the 

light that intensifies clarity. 

Additionally, all of Dragon’s new and key carryover 

injected sunglasses (and ophthalmic frames) will be produced 

using a bio-based resin made from castor bean oil. 

“As a leader in the performance and lifestyle eyewear 

category, the expansion of our exclusive Lumalens technology 

into our sunglass collection allows us to take another 

major step forward to enhance our offering across multiple 

categories,” said Lauren Makofske, Global Brand Director 

of Dragon Alliance. “At the same time that we introduce 

Lumalens to our injected sun offering, this is also the 

first season these frames will be produced with our new 

eco-friendly, plant-based resin material, simultaneously 

asserting the brand’s commitment to innovation and social 

responsibility to bring more sustainable practices to the 

brand’s eyewear business.” 

We caught up with Dragon Alliance Director / Retail 

Division, Mark Hudson about the new Lumalens technology, 

roll out plans and the key drivers of the bio-resin line. 

Will the new bio-resin line be limited to certain styles? All 

of the base material of our frames, going forward will come 

from the plant-based resin. It’s something the R&D team have 

been working towards for quite awhile, and it’s not limited to 

any certain colours, it’s across the entire line. 

Was the shift to plant based resin something which 

was consumer driven or athlete driven? There’s definitely a 

movement, as you’ve reported in previous ASB articles that 

referenced Patagonia and those consumer insights (Read 

‘Green is The Bottom Line – Not The Top Dressing‘) and 

consumer preferences based on the values of those companies. 

At a global level, Marchon have taken the initiative looking at 

a number of their brands to make sure that there’s continual 

improvement in our supply chain and environmental aspects, 

importantly the materials we are using. 

Perhaps the most exciting part of the bio-resin line is 

Marchon working with a specific group based out of India 

(the Pragati Project) Dragon sources its castor beans from 

Pragati Project farmers. The Pragati Project is a program 

aimed at improving the quality of life and increasing incomes 

for farmers by teaching them how to produce higher yields 

and preserve the environment through water and soil 

conservation. 

How long has this been in the production pipeline? I get 

the feeling this wasn’t something that happened overnight. 

Absolutely. It’s been over 2 years and it’s something the 

company wanted to make sure was a long-term ongoing play, 

as opposed to isolating a certain brand or portfolio. It began 

with the supply chain initiatives but we also want to ensure 

that the quality of the product was maintained, whilst looking 

at sustainable farming practices and the overall change in 

production process. 

What can we expect from a marketing standpoint? There’s 

a number of elements in the go-to-market around the new 

line. Central to that is the product, so we’ve got a lot of call 

outs and logo lockups for the bio resin line. That will be clearly 

identifiable in the cabinet, and easy for retail staff to distinguish 

between the products. Importantly, we’ve got a print campaign 

and VM throughout all the stores, as well as video assets that 

will be rolled out this month. 

Are you passing on any of the costs associated with these 

supply chain initiatives to the customer? No there isn’t, Dragon 

is absorbing the cost of this new production method and 

therefore it’s not being passed on to the customer. Which is 

fantastic, but also for retailers as well. We’ve had phenomenal 

feedback so far and we’re ensuring this is communicated to staff 

on the floor. Separate to that, we’ve got a new lens technology 

(Lumalens) which will see a AUD$10 price increment. But with 

the introduction of the bio-resin line, no there is no increase in 

price. Specifically, around the Lumalens campaign we wanted 

that associated with Mick, which is really important for our 

market. 

Can you tell us what the green leaf symbolises? All the new 

products will feature the green leaf logo and is indicative of 

new life and it’ll appear on point of sale items and POP that is 

being shipped to our core surf channel retailers now. The image 

also reflects that of two surfboards. That messaging began on 

September 1 and will appear on our social channels throughout 

the month. 

Dragon recently became involved with Lipped Podcast 

too. Tom Wright has been integral to that project with Lipped 

podcast. The important thing about that partnership was we 

wanted an authentic channel to continue the mental health 

message and conversation we started with Dragon’s Mental 

Challenge last year. We wanted to continually reinforce that 

message and the guys at Lipped have done a really good job at 

that. 

Anything else? Lumalens is an important initiative, all of 

the new product line will transition to that light optimisation 

technology. Its had phenomenal feedback from retailers and 

consumers, so it’s great to be able to offer that new addition 

to the sunglass business as well. We had a staggered release 

in the lens colours in snow and we’ll be doing the same across 

sunglasses. 

We’re launching our new website, which went live at the 

time of the launch of Lumalens. There are a few events in the 

USA to kick off the new line, around the third PMI which is the 

launch of the Rob Machado Collection, in Southern California 

later this month. 

74//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#217

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Adventure Magazine December 2019/January 2020

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