The cover story

Helio

A traveller and an ex-gamer. Both sensitive to light, both now on screens all day.

Petra, Jordan

Before it was a company, it was a problem.

Hello

Hello, we're the two people behind HELIO^®.

Eyes are personal for both of us.

How it started

Andromeda was born with a weaker eye muscle. In mild sun, her left eye closes on its own. Growing up in the Philippines that meant walking around with one eye shut, and being called Kirat for it. People kept making fun of her.

Burot Tarlac, Philippines

And the other

Yoann gamed for hours a day from a young age, and grew short-sighted for it. He saved for years for the surgery that fixed it. It worked, and left him sensitive to light. The gaming stopped. The sensitivity didn't.

Challans, France

So we've spent our whole lives thinking about our eyes.

Then screens took the rest of the day, between corporate work and founding a business. Our eyes don't get to rest. They stop long before the work does.

Valletta, Malta

We tried many blue light glasses on the market in search of a solution, but the problem?

We found none that could deliver all three things we were looking for: protection, comfort and style.

Modern everyday life is shaped by artificial light, and sunglasses don't target the blue band that matters.

We needed glasses that empowered us, indoors and outdoors.

Paris, France

So HELIO^® was born.

How we make it

Small, and stubborn about it.

Every frame is made in small batches, never mass-produced. We won't drop the quality to drop the price - if the better material costs more, that's the one we use.

We don't like mass production or mass consumption, so we want you to look after your frames. That's why every first order comes with a free maintenance toolkit.

PROMISE

What goes into them

Kinder materials, where we can.

Where there's a real choice, we take the more sustainable one - recycled acetate, responsibly sourced frames, less waste. Not perfect yet - better with every run.

△

small runs

✓

no compromise

♻

kinder materials

For every pair you buy, we plant a tree.

— Andromeda & Yoann