Raised on the Isle of Tiree, Ben Larg has gone from surfing Scotland’s wild coastline to taking on some of the biggest waves in the world. Now Scotland’s first professional surfer, Ben competes Internationally throughout the year and has become a key figure in the Scottish surf scene. Read our full Q&A with Ben below on how this Tens collaboration came about, the inspiration behind the new Bandit frame, and plans for the Summer ahead.
How did this collaboration with Ben come about?
Steve:
Well, obviously we've been aware of Ben for a long time. He's one of Scotland's top surfers, we followed him on Instagram, he's a really cool guy, and someone we've wanted to do stuff with for a while. Then we were filming something at Lost Shore surf resort, and I think it was our marketing manager, Izzy, that bumped into Ben, chased him down and got him in a pair of Tens. I think after that we just kept bumping into Ben and his family. We did an interview with his parents for the Meander Apparel magazine and we thought we've got to do something here, and came up with the idea of creating Ben's perfect sunglasses and doing something together.
Ben, tell us about the time you first tried Tens?
Ben:
Well I actually I saw Tens for the first time quite a while ago. I think I first saw the brand through a friend mutual friend of ours, Jacob Mellish, when he had a set on. I saw the glasses and I thought oh those are super cool and then someone from the brand sent us a load of the glasses to try out. I had a few cool sets but all my mates were stealing the glasses and I managed to keep one set for myself that I wore for two years... then I think they got stolen by a mate as well.
How have you guys found the design process?
Ben:
Yeah it's been really exciting for me, I've never really been involved in kind of making my own branded glasses from scratch or anything like that so, you know, I've really enjoyed the design part of it along with the Tens guys. Yeah it's been fun.
Steve:
Yeah, I'd say Ben has been really involved, it's not just putting Ben's name on a pair of sunglasses and using him in all the imagery. We had our first meeting where we brought Ben's favourite sunglasses and a few from the Tens range together, and I'd say Ben's got a really good eye for detail. He picked up on things like the front angle of the
sunglasses and came up with the idea for some pearlescent under the arm that looks cool when you put the glasses up to the light. Then when we've been trying on the prototypes, Ben picks up on these small things around how it's sitting on the nose and for someone who doesn't have a design background, I'd say you've got that real eye, something you could probably do after surfing I reckon.
Ben, what's bringing the Good Vibes this summer?
Ben:
What's bringing the good vibes? Wow, well, I'm going away to Indonesia so I'm excited about that, I'm definitely going to need my glasses there. Then also Tyree Music Festival in July, I'm excited for that, that'll be good fun and I think you guys are going to join us there.
And finally, what are the new frames named after?
Ben:
Well the new sunglasses, it was actually my mum that thought of the name I think the guys, my mum and dad, they've always called us bandits since I was a kid, I don't know why but it's been like my nickname so the glasses are called the bandits now so that was my mother's doing.
Shop the Bandit frame: click here
