Wooden Sunglasses

Meet Luke, the British adventurer that created eco-friendly wooden sunglasses and accessories.

Originally from the UK, Luke grew up in various countries including New Zealand and Hong Kong, Luks’s been an avid traveler and explorer ever since. After doing a long stint of travelling after university, he finally settled down into a career of digital advertising in London.

About 7 years ago he moved to Dubai to work for a large digital media agency. In fact, Luke really just wanted to get away from the miserable grey weather of London and live a more sporty and outdoors based lifestyle full of sunshine.

So we asked Luke what inspired him to start Wild Wood

The Arabian Sunshine and his love for sport and adventure inspired him to launch an outdoors and adventure community for the UAE and Oman called Wild Arabia. It’s all about inspiring people to discover and explore the beautiful landscape that the UAE and Oman have to offer and to encourage people to get outdoors more.

Looking to diversify and expand the brand, he wanted to create a store on the Wild Arabia site. Naturally, he wanted it to tie into the values that Wild Arabia conveys of sport, outdoors and nature. He initially thought about water sports equipment but eventually decided on handmade wooden sunglasses that are also eco-friendly.

“His love for sport and adventure inspired him to launch his Brand of Wooden Sunglasses”

Then he released ” the concept tied in perfectly to the outdoors and nature theme however would also appeal to a much wider mass audience. So then Wild Wood was born! ”

Are you wondering what’s so special about these Wild Products?

You will enjoy unique and stylish pieces handcrafted by talented craftsmen using reclaimed and recycled materials. All products are named after an endangered or critically endangered species from the WWF list to raise awareness about wildlife preservation.

Keeping the concept of sustainability in mind, all items are made with eco-friendly materials. Also, when you buy a product from Wild Wood, the team will pant a tree to help protect and conserve forests worldwide.

A heart-to-heart Q&A

– Where do you get your inspiration to be creative from?

Mainly from traveling and exploring new places. Nature and the outdoors has so much to offer it’s hard to resist getting your camera out and think of new ideas when you’re surrounded by such inspiration.

– Who do you have in mind when preparing your collection?

My girlfriend, Claire, mainly. I use her to model in pretty much all my photos. She’s not really an exhibitionist type person and doesn’t really come naturally to her so I spend a lot of time pushing her into it!

– Where do you source your materials?

The design and branding is all done here in Dubai but we source the materials from Asia.

– What’s the best thing about setting up your own brand?

The freedom to position and drive it to be exactly how you envisage it to be. At the end of the day it’s your baby and you’re solely responsible for it’s success, so it’s amazing how your motivation to make it succeed sky rockets and at times you’ll be doing super late nights to get things done without even thinking about it.

–  What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?

I actually haven’t faced too many hiccups or notable challenges with Wild Wood yet but for other business ideas I’ve tried to set up in the past I’ve faced many. Probably writing this a bit too early and next week I’ll be faced with numerous challenges with Wild Wood!

– Tell us 5 words to describe yourself.

Adventurous, Pragmatic, Determined, Outdoorsy, Sporty