The Kids are Alright

Entrepreneurs Shiva Shabani and Calvin Yu discuss channelling your inner child and their eyewear brand, Sons + Daughters

- Coco Marett

In June 2015, Shiva Shabani and Calvin Yu received an unusual email. A stylist had chanced upon their children’s eyewear brand, Sons + Daughters, and found the perfect pair of sunglasses for her client’s niece, Majesty, to wear at her elaborate Flintstones-themed first birthday party in Los Angeles. The client was Rihanna.

“We sent the package, but it got stuck in customs,” says Shabani, who at the time was based in Vancouver. “When we explained what happened, her stylist said there was nothing else Rihanna liked for Majesty and asked if there was any way we could get them to Los Angeles in time.”

That’s when Shabani turned to one of her staff and asked what she was doing that night. Within hours, Shabani had her on a flight to Los Angeles to hand-deliver the glasses, making it in time for the party. “The stylist texted us after the party saying, ‘I want you to know that Rihanna is wearing the sunglasses in her hotel room and is asking if they come in a bigger size.’”

It’s a question that Shabani and Yu get a lot from both parents and peers and, in their eyes, serves as validation that they’re achieving what they had set out to do from day one. Adorable as their designs may be, the goal was never just to make something cute for kids.

Instead, as their motto states, their mission is to “protect the vision of the future” and provide crystal clear, 100 per cent UV protection sunglasses for children made with the same precision and quality as those worn by adults.