Running and fashion creator Lucy came to us with a finished frame, a first drop in production, and a gap she’d spotted mid-run in the Cape Town heat. She wanted running sunglasses that people actually want to keep wearing once the run is over.

The category was split in two. Performance shades were sleek, techy and over-engineered: great on the track, weird at the pub. Fashion frames looked the part but slipped and bounced the moment you picked up the pace. Lucy already had a loyal audience of style-led, run-club-loving Londoners. Sonny needed a brand that could launch e-commerce only, sell out its first drop, and eventually stand on its own, beyond its founder’s feed.

We positioned Sonny squarely at the intersection of sport and style: Built for motion. Born for sunshine. We swapped the category’s cold tech codes for warm, vintage holiday nostalgia. That meant a sun-faded palette of Sand Sprint, Coffee Run, Sunrise Glow, Sky Blue and Sunset Orange. It meant a chunky wordmark with a hidden “It’s always Sonny” lockup, a bouncy squiggle icon, and a kit of retro badges, sports straps and grid textures. The verbal identity is upbeat, playful and effortless, with lines like “PB / Pub” and “These shades won’t make you faster. But you will look better trying.”

The result is a brand built for the Saturday long run, the Saturday afternoon beer garden, and everything sunny in between. Serious shades for sunny people.