Orange 21 Inc., a newly public company out of Carlsbad, Calif., unveiled Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s signature sunglasses. The signature style, deemed “E Eyewear,” is actually the brainchild of Earnhardt himself. The driver of the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet worked throughout the entire design process to dream up even the most minor details of the glasses. “I’ve worked with companies in the past a little bit on design,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I wanted kind of like a Steve McQueen style, retro. The glass itself is inset a little bit, kind of like the headlight of a ‘70s-era hot rod. There’s some sharp corners and angles. They wrap a little bit too because I like sunglasses that wrap tight to your face. My head’s not quite as big as Boris (Said)’s. I didn’t know exactly how much input I was going to have, but it was more than I expected. I was able to basically build the sunglasses from the ground up. It was a lot of fun to do, and to see it come to a head and here it is in my hands, it’s pretty amazing. It’s a really good feeling.”

On the process of designing his signature sunglasses: “We made revisions. They would get a mold to me, and me and Boris would kind of talk about it, and then would take back the things we’d like to see different. That took about two or three times. It’s always kind of a work in progress up until the final version. What I wanted was something that you could wear with a suit to the banquet if you wanted to, or here at the racetrack in jeans and a t-shirt. It’s kind of versatile. It kind of transcended from if you’re on the lake in shorts and a t-shirt or if you’ve got a formal engagement. We’re going to come out with a pair each year, keep designing different pairs, different styles. Not necessarily just a revision of this, we’re going to build from the ground up each year.”

(California Speedway site)

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