My son Finn is four years old and he is, by any objective measure, extremely hard on sunglasses. He has sat on them, dropped them from a moving buggy, left them on a beach, and on one memorable occasion thrown them into a fountain because he wanted to see what would happen. We have been through three pairs of cheap sunglasses in two summers, and each time I have told myself that buying cheap was the sensible approach because they were just going to get destroyed anyway.
My name is Rosie Alderton. I am a freelance copywriter from Brighton, and last spring I decided to test the theory that buying better might actually work out cheaper in the long run. I also wanted something that I felt good about buying, not just in terms of quality but in terms of where it came from and what it was made of.
Why I Finally Spent More on Kids Sunglasses
The third pair of cheap sunglasses lasted eleven days. They snapped at the hinge on a Tuesday morning when Finn put them on slightly too enthusiastically, and I stood in the kitchen holding two pieces of plastic and doing the maths. Three pairs at roughly six to eight pounds each over two summers. About twenty pounds spent on sunglasses that had provided a combined total of perhaps four months of actual use, most of which had been inadequate UV protection from thin lenses that I was never entirely confident about.
I decided to buy one good pair and see what happened. I also decided that if I was going to spend more, I wanted to spend it on something that aligned with the values I was trying to teach Finn, specifically that the things we buy have an impact on the world and that choosing carefully matters.
I started looking for kids sunglasses made from sustainable materials with proper UV protection and a frame robust enough to survive a four-year-old. That is a specific brief, and it led me fairly quickly to Babiators.
Why the Babiators Eco Navigator
The Babiators Kids Eco Navigator Sunglasses in Pacific Blue ticked every box. The frames are made from 100% recycled ocean-bound plastic, which means plastic that would otherwise have entered the ocean has been intercepted and turned into something useful. Each pair prevents 5.5 lbs of plastic waste from entering ecosystems. That is a specific, meaningful claim, not vague sustainability language.
The UV protection is reliable, which is the non-negotiable for me. The navigator shape is classic and works well on small faces without looking oversized. The Pacific Blue colourway is a proper, confident blue that Finn immediately approved of, which matters because a four-year-old who does not like his sunglasses will not wear them. Each pair comes with a recycled polyester storage bag that doubles as a cleaning cloth, which is a practical detail I appreciated.
At £28, they were more than I had been spending. They were also, I calculated, less than I had spent on the three cheap pairs combined. I ordered them on a Wednesday. They arrived Friday, just in time for a weekend trip to the coast.
The First Weekend
Finn wore them on the beach on Saturday. He wore them in the car. He wore them at the ice cream place. He wore them at the playground on Sunday. He did not sit on them, drop them, or throw them into anything. He did, at one point, bury them briefly in the sand, which I discovered when I found them by the handle of the storage bag sticking out. They cleaned up perfectly.
The frames felt solid in a way that the cheap pairs never had. The hinges moved smoothly and did not feel like they were one enthusiastic opening away from snapping. The lenses were clear and properly tinted, not the slightly greenish tint you sometimes get from budget kids eyewear.
I drove home on Sunday evening feeling, for the first time in two summers, like I had made a good decision about sunglasses.
A Full Summer On
The Babiators Eco Navigators survived the entire summer. Beach trips, park days, a week in Cornwall where they were worn every day, a festival where they were dropped twice and stepped on once by someone who was not Finn. They are still intact. The frames have not warped. The lenses have not scratched. The hinges are as smooth as they were in April.
Finn has also, unprompted, told several people that his sunglasses are made from ocean plastic. He explains this with the authority of someone who has given the matter considerable thought. At a birthday party last month he informed another child's parent that buying things made from recycled materials is important because it helps the fish. I consider this a parenting win of the highest order.
The storage bag has been used consistently and has held up well. It lives in my bag and the sunglasses go in it every time they come off, which has probably contributed significantly to their survival rate.
Two friends with children of similar ages have bought them after seeing Finn wearing his. One of them messaged me last week to say her daughter had worn them every day for six weeks and they still looked new. That tracks entirely with my experience.
The Verdict
If you have been buying cheap kids sunglasses and replacing them every few months, do the maths and then buy the Babiators. They are better made, better for the planet, and they will last. The Pacific Blue is a brilliant colour for children who have opinions about what they wear, which in my experience is all of them.
Find the Babiators Kids Eco Navigator Sunglasses in Pacific Blue at ALTOE. Listed in Latest Products, Apparel & Accessories, Clothing Accessories, and Sunglasses.
Buy the good ones. They will survive. And your child will tell everyone about the fish.
— Rosie Alderton, Brighton
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