Four in the morning on a Thursday. The Hast team meets at the Gare de Lyon in Paris to visit our eyewear workshop. A few hours by train later, we arrive at Oyonnax station, a small town in the Ain department, very close to Switzerland. We chose local, French manufacturing to create our first pair of glasses. A visit allowing us to better understand the history and manufacturing stages of made-in-France eyewear, as well as the challenges faced by French industry with reshoring production. A visit we filmed and invite you to discover in this article.
Oyonnax, the cradle of French eyewear
The Oyonnax valley – along with Morez in the Jura – is the historic birthplace of French eyewear. Acetate craft began with the production of combs, which women during the Grand Siècle used to style their hair. But stylistic evolutions and innovations quickly rendered the comb obsolete, prompting regional industries to specialise in eyewear, which relied on the same mastery of the material. Before the successive waves of offshoring in the late 20th century, numerous companies worked in eyewear manufacturing. However, many came under intense cost-cutting pressure and had to compete with Chinese manufacturing. Certain workshops, such as the one we chose to partner with, believed in a revival of made in France, though it was not without its hurdles. The offshoring years were tough, particularly because many brands refused to pay for higher-cost manufacturing… Factories were gradually abandoned and suffered from a lack of orders. Fortunately, today marks a return to appreciating high-quality, local craftsmanship, rewarding those who steadfastly believed in French production. This is certainly true of our workshop, which recently earned the EPV (Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant) label, honouring French companies with excellent artisanal and industrial craftsmanship.
New challenges
Consumers, increasingly attentive to the production conditions of the pieces they buy, are advocating for a return to local, European and French manufacturing. This is naturally great news for French industry! Yet bringing production back to France is not as simple as it seems. First, in terms of costs, as French production is inevitably impacted by the comparative advantages of other countries, especially regarding labour costs. Second, because rising demand leads to bottlenecks in the production lines of human-scale companies like our workshop. Few workshops managed to preserve their craftsmanship, making it difficult at times to recruit skilled staff for specific roles. Made in France thus faces a genuine challenge in training and boosting the appeal of textile and artisanal trades. Saturated schedules and recruitment difficulties are two major hurdles for manufacturing sites, particularly in the eyewear industry. Faced with projected increases in demand – further accelerated by the Covid crisis – some workshops will need to invest heavily to modernise and expand their production lines. This is the case for our workshop, whose manager decided to build custom machinery to ease the strain of certain manual tasks. Cross-training employees across multiple workstations simultaneously also prevents monotony and empowers workers, who steadily build their eyewear expertise. They, in turn, will later be able to train newcomers. Indeed, certain roles require more than a year of apprenticeship before working independently.
The environmental aspect
The appeal of French production also lies in partnering with genuinely mindful makers. In addition to recovering and recycling all unused materials, our workshop is dedicated to keeping its production site as central as possible to facilitate commuting by bicycle or on foot. For those who need to drive, the company's entire vehicle fleet is electric, and charging stations are available for employees outside the factory.
Made in France can therefore only thrive through a collective effort built on trust, between brands choosing to produce as locally as possible, and workshops working tirelessly to revive their unique craftsmanship. This is precisely the path we took for our first eyewear collection!
Three pairs of French sunglasses: one in grey tortoiseshell, one in brown tortoiseshell, and one in black. The frames are crafted from Italian acetate, fitted with category 3 UV protection lenses, and feature hand-mounted rivets. High-end designs to add the finishing touch to an impeccable summer look.
