Challenging ageism in fashion: Tim Parr on building an authentic lifestyle brand with Caddis eyewear

Most of us have a fear of ageing. But in a time when centenarians are the fastest-growing age demographic, Tim Parr, the visionary founder and CEO of eyewear brand Caddis, decided to challenge this norm by taking the unusual step of focusing his brand on the over 50s.

The eyewear concept initially came from Tim’s personal experience: “I needed reading glasses, and the current options were terrible. Looking deeper into the category, it’s a product that 90% of people over 40 will need, and they will put this on their face. At the time, there were no culturally driven lifestyle brands in this category, so it all seemed ripe for disruption.” 

Further research convinced Tim that the apparel industry’s relentless focus on youth was a missed opportunity, particularly given the spending power of over 50s. In particular, companies are failing to spot the nuances between different age brackets, who could be of entirely different generations. "Brands spend a lot of time and money defining the 20-28 year-old customer, but are quick to label older markets as a large generalised bucket called ‘50+’, which is a mistake. Future brands will focus on the unique segmentations beyond age 50,” he predicts.

Ironically, one of the first challenges Caddis faced was ageism. "It was very difficult to get funding in the early days because of my age (I was 50) , and I wasn’t the 'normal' entrepreneur sitting across the table,” says Tim, who founded his business in 2016. “This actually helped inform me about the job ahead. The world needed this ‘Age’ conversation to be reframed in a way that entered modern culture."

An overlooked demographic 

Milestones in Tim's career to date include working closely with Yvon Chouinard at Patagonia and, taking inspiration from that experience, Tim has adopted a radical approach to business and what it can achieve. Having already founded the successful bike brand Swobo, he drew on his experience to develop in Caddis a lifestyle brand that was so compelling, investors couldn’t ignore it. The business has thrived, generating a buzz of media coverage after Gwyneth Paltrow was revealed to be a customer and raising significant funding in 2022 with a Series B round amounting to $16.7million. 

Certainly, he has answered the early critics who could not imagine backing a 50+ brand run by a 50+ founder. Moving forward, Tim hopes that kind of prejudice will reduce. "Investors should be looking for founding teams that truly believe in what they're doing.  Products can be copied quickly and distributed globally, but ideas and brands will endure. If a product creates a category, to me, that's a pretty exciting place to start." And when it comes to the 'Age' category, Tim is certainly owning it.

Visit their website: https://caddislife.com/