HEY, WE’RE

JOELSUNGLASSES

OUR MISSION

We are Joel Sunglasses, a queer-owned brand. We could not see ourselves represented by existing brands or are gender inclusive, so we created it for ourselves!

Our mission is to create a safe space and achieve representation and visibility of queer, gender nonconforming, and transgender individuals. All members of the LGBTQIA+ community deserve to see themselves reflected in brands. Everyone is welcome in our community to shop, support and enjoy Joel Sunglasses.

GENDER FLUIDITY SHOPPING

To us, gender fluidity shopping is about discarding all the labels that tell you what you should or should not be like.

Our website does not have “Men’s” or “Women’s” sections. To us, Gender should not define your style. YOU define your style.

We stand for equality! We stand for diversity! Joel Sunglasses embraces uniqueness. Fashion is about beauty, and beauty is all about expressing the real you! As a fashion accessory a pair of sunglasses can help you express yourself, feel comfortable or even make a statement! You choose! Our sunglasses are for everyone! That’s why we wanted to avoid stereotypical categorizations. All of our sunglasses are Unisex. Just pick your favorite pairs of sunglasses and wear them with pride in any occasion! We make sunglasses to fit YOU- not the other way around

Be unique, be yourself. We love you as you are!

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

One of our main goals as a brand is to help and support all the communities in need. For this reason we contribute to three different organisations with a monthly donation from our sales. Our main concern is the LGBTQIA+ community and the issues that it is facing. We are trying our best to raise awareness on this matter and support this family of ours and our sisters and brothers in need. The three organisations we contribute to are: COC Netherlands, ILGA Europe and Aidsfonds. You can read a bit more about these organisations further on.

1. COC Netherlands has been advocating the rights of lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people (LGBT’s) from 1946 on. COC strives for the decriminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity and for equal rights, emancipation and social acceptance of LGBT’s in the Netherlands and all over the world. COC is one of the few LGBT organizations that has a special consultative status with the United Nations. COC Netherlands is involved in many aspects of LGBTI rights, with a focus on youth & school, 50+, safety, culture & religion and international issues. COC supports LGBTI people and groups and empower them to make a change from within their own community or organization.

• COC supports LGBTI organizations in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and South East Asia. This allows them to open their own office, start health and rights programs, build strong communities, organize prides and lobby for better laws.
• COC has a special consultative status with the United Nations which enabled us to contribute to the UN resolutions against the violation of LGBT human rights.
• Every year COC supports dozens of LGBTI activists to lobby for their rights at meetings of organisations such as the United Nations of the African Commission on Human and People’s rights.

Learn more about COC Netherlands 

2. ILGA Europe works for a world in which each and every LGBTI person is free, equal and safe, through resourcing and connecting communities, driving political change, and amplifying voices. ILGA strives to provide a solid foundation for activists and organisations, in particular at times of great adversity. These are some of the topics that ILGA Europe is focusing on:

• BODILY INTEGRITY: Overall, our work to sustain LGBTI people’s bodily integrity revolves around a number of focus areas: sexual and reproductive health and rights, IGM and trans bodily integrity.
• CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS: At ILGA-Europe, we’re committed to ensuring that LGBTI people gain and retain their civil rights and freedom. Overall, we focus on ensuring freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom of expression.
• HEALTH: Overall, our work to improve LGBTI health centres around a few focus areas: equal access to healthcare, LGBTI health, HIV/AIDS and mental health.
• INCLUSION AND EQUALITY: At ILGA-Europe, we strive to extend inclusion and equality to all LGBTI people by focusing on the areas of access to goods and services, education, employment and housing.
• LEGAL PROTECTION: Overall, legal protection for LGBTI people means that their human rights are codified and enforceable. In this respect, our work focuses on family, legal gender recognition, intersex human rights and anti-discrimination.
• SAFETY: When we talk about safety for LGBTI people, we mean ensuring that they’re fully protected from a range of threats to their wellbeing, including bias-motivated speech, bias-motivated violence and gender-based violence.

Learn more about ILGA Europe

3. Aidsfonds is an organisation that helps fight HIV & AIDS. Main focus is on the groups and areas where the problems are greatest. That is exactly what Aidsfonds does by helping those people who are most affected. In the Netherlands and abroad. To end AIDS, they work with local communities, invest in scientific research and ensure that AIDS remains high on the global agenda. Together we will stop AIDS. For the love of all loves.

Your support saves lives
We can stop AIDS! With your donation we can bring the end of AIDS closer:

• you fund scientific research into an HIV medicine
• you make sure people get HIV inhibitors
• thanks to you, there is good information about HIV and AIDS
• with your help, AIDS will remain high on the political agenda

Learn more about Aidsfonds.

SUSTAINABILITY: OUR MATERIALS

The environment is the reason people breathe, move and live. We should respect and love it! This is why we want to minimize any negative impact on the environment by offering eco-friendly options. We carefully choose the materials that our frames are made of. We believe that if we become more considerate with our choices when purchasing goods we can have a great impact on the planet. That also applies to fashion!

The frames are made of environmentally friendly, plant-based and recycled materials like sustainable wood, cellulose acetate, recycled acetate, stainless steel.

We can always go greener!

Read more about the materials we use here

Let us be unique. Let us be fierce. Let us be us !