Although Zakariás was born in Idaho, United States, he grew up in Pécs, Hungary. In 1988, he was looking for a pair of glasses for himself, but he could not find any nice ones for an affordable price, so he decided to make one for himself. He later admitted that now he realises that it is impossible to produce cheap quality products.

Zakariás made his first frame from one his father’s bakelite records. In 2000, he put his glasses on the market. He used to make ten eyeglasses a month, but he was lucky if he sold three. Now, Tipton Eyeworks produces 12,000 glasses a year.

The glasses take one month to make. The shape is cut out in Pécs, but the finalised products are made in Budapest.

The frames are being polished for 72 hours, assembled by hand and then go through a thorough cleaning process.

The glasses are marketed in Western Europe and the United States.

The prices range from EUR 272 to EUR 465. Since 1999, the business has got several competitors as now there are four businesses in the U.S. and one in Spain who also make glasses from vinyl records. Fortunately, vinyl records are trendy again thanks to the retro fever, so there are plenty of raw materials to use.

Tipton works with used vinyl records and represents the artistic form of recycling. The vinyl records that they use mostly come from England and Germany.

Tipton won the Red Dot Design Award in 2016. A few years ago, the business sold 50 limited edition glasses made from Pink Floyd records. However, the band sued Tipton and demanded royalty which Tipton paid.

Zakariás wanted to work together with Pink Floyd since the glasses were a huge hit, but the band did not want the Tipton brand name to appear on the lenses so the co-operation did not happen.

AC/DC on the other hand contacted Tipton to work together.

Tipton will make glasses from AC/DC’s Back in Black record from 1980. AC/DC is not the only fan of the Hungarian glasses, Robbie Williams, Richard Branson and Elton John all own Tipton glasses.

Featured image: Facebook.com/tiptoneyeworks/

Original source: www.hvg.hu

Source: dailynewshungary.com

Republished with permission