Julbo is launching its first line of corrective sports and sunglasses in a partnership with Intercast Europe and the surfacing laboratory of Shamir in Portugal. Launched at the Mido show in Milan last week, the line uses Intercast's latest line of shock-absorbing NXT lenses with photochromic and other properties. They are surfaced by Shamir through its sophisticated free-form technology.

Named Falcon NXT, the new lenses supplied by Intercast are the first to use its new technology, already previewed last year, where the photochromic and polarizing properties are embedded in the lens, allowing better surfacing of the Trivex material on the back side, with the base curve extended up to 8. A more sophisticated version due to be released by Julbo at the end of the year, will react to visible light behind the windshield of a car.

Intercast and Julbo have been interacting on various projects in the past year. Shamir, which has been working on the project with Intercast and Julbo for half a year, will use here its eye-point prescription technology to adapt the lens to each specific wearer, recalculating the individual's prescription for the curved frame of the glass. It will produce single-vision and progressive lenses for Julbo's new program at its Portuguese laboratory, which has been enlarged to 6,000 m² and employs 200 people.

Using anti-reflective and oil-repellent coatings, the new lenses will be fitted into Julbo's new RXTrem line of sports and sunglasses. The line is divided into three segments, featuring different properties for different types of sport: RXTrem Zebra for mountain biking, trail running and climbing; RXTrem Camaleon for use in mountain and desert environments; and RXTrem Octopus for water sports.

The company, founded in 1888 and based in the Jura region of France, has been experiencing annual average growth of 13 percent in the last few years, but remains a small specialist in the sports eyewear sector. Its sales grew last year by 12 percent sales to €20 million , with growth of 17 percent in eyewear and helmets. Its products are made in France, Romania and the Far East.