Outdoor Sport Meets Precision Lenses



Outdoor sports athletes perform in extreme conditions with a need to protect themselves from the sun’s powerful UV rays, especially on days when it’s glaring off a lake or glistening off the snow. Whether you’re biking, hiking, skiing, or riding, quality sport-eyewear can make a good day - great. Having a solid set of lenses is the trick and Julbo has been helping athletes and outdoorists operate since its inception.

In the early 20th century, in a tiny town near Geneva, France, Jules Beaud, Julbo’s founder and namesake, began his innovative journey to design optical eyewear. At the request of Chamonix crystal hunters, he designed the first Cristalliers sunglasses for crystal hunters who lacked proper sun protection for their eyes when out in the elements. As Julbo continued to innovate its revolutionary glasses, they introduced the “Vermont” which propelled mountaineers into new heights allowing them to ascend summits with the proper eye protection they’ve needed to execute these expeditions. Picture the iconic Mount Everest photo with a mountaineer sporting sunglasses with leather siding that blocks the sunlight–that’s Julbo.

Julbo has since evolved into an outdoor sports eyewear company that creates high-quality photochromic technical eyewear. They focus on action sports like cycling, running, skiing, climbing mountains, and any other outdoor sports in need of optical sun protection. These sunglasses are not your ordinary gas station throw-away shades. Instead, Julbo manufactures premium Trivex lenses that can take up to 18 hours to make.

The quality products that Julbo produces is how it sets itself apart from other companies. Inside their private office in Hula, they’ve split their working space in half so that one side functions as their working space with 7 standing desks, and the other half showcases their hundreds of sunglasses and goggles. Hula tenants can take a stroll to their office to see and try them on and maybe even take them for a spin around Hula’s campus.

Finding the balance between work and play is one of the pillars Hula prides itself on, and Julbo embraces it fully by taking advantage of the close proximity to the bike path on lunch breaks and after work hours. Hula’s idyllic location allows for flexible transportation for its tenants. According to Tyler Cohen, Julbo’s Sports Marketing Manager, the showers at Hula are nice to take advantage of after a sweaty ride to work. Cohen continues, “I have the latitude to work from home but choose to come here because there’s good bike riding around and people to ride with.” Cohen even says he’s yet to see an office with a larger fleet of dogs, which, to many people, is an obvious pull to come into the office.

Coworking within the Hula community is energizing because there is no shortage of people functioning at the same level as you whether that’s work- or play-related. “The vibe of what people are doing around you when you’re working is pretty contagious and the vibe here feels pretty right,” Cohen finishes. Hula offers an invigorating space that allows everyone to succeed and Julbo is finding its stride within this welcoming community of outdoor sports enthusiasts.
From the start of Julbo’s optical sun protection journey in France to its present-day outdoor spirit amongst the eyewear market in Vermont, Julbo embodies the work-play balance Hula hopes its tenants would embrace to its fullest.