Bidules

The Bidules team loves hunting for old stock in attics or cellars to find vintage frames. They also ask retired opticians and search for closed-down factories to find unique and remarkable deadstock frames.

Once they find suitable frames, the Bidules team restores and repairs these glasses in-house to give them a second life. This concept fits perfectly in the circular mindset and prevents these glasses from going to waste! 

Since the beginning of 2019, 1% of Bidules’ turnover has been used to support La Plateforme Citoyenne de Support aux Réfugiés. This Belgian platform aims to build concrete solidarity for all refugees. Instead of offering end-of-year sales, Bidules provides a direct reduction of 15% or a 25€ gift card to anyone who brings warm clothes and winter accessories to the store (sleeping bags, sports clothes, pants, sweaters, jackets, sneakers, hats etc.) 

The Bidules team constantly looks for high-quality, made-in-Europe eyewear alternatives and sells them at affordable prices. You can already find a perfect pair for around 59 euros at Bidules for non-corrective glasses.

Since the frames at Bidules come from various places, they contain different materials. But because they were saved from going to waste, they are already much more sustainable than a new pair of glasses.

For their lenses, Bidules uses two materials: CR39 and Polycarbonate. CR-39, or allyl diglycol carbonate (ADC), is a type of plastic often used to manufacture eyeglass lenses. These lenses are thinner, lighter and less expensive than ordinary lenses. In addition, they have good resistance to scratches and impact and can be tinted in any colour. Polycarbonate is a thermoplastically enhanced version of organic glass with excellent temperature and impact resistance.

At Bidules, they ensure the water used during the lens edging and the finishing process is recycled, cleaned and free from particles thanks to a closed-circuit and double-filtering system. 

Your glasses just broke, or you lost a screw? Don’t panic! Bidules is happy to help you find a solution. It doesn’t matter whether your glasses come from Bidules or elsewhere – your grandmother or any flea market. Also good to know is that glasses bought at Bidules have a two-year warranty against product fault. This way, they want you to enjoy your glasses as long as possible. Super circular, right?! 

The entire production process is conducted in-house in Belgium, and the materials are sourced from within Europe, keeping the chain short.

They do not use any animal materials.

Some of the eyewear frames at Bidules are 80 years old. That’s pretty cool if you ask us! Did you know that almost 100% of European glasses produced before the 1990s were of excellent quality? The materials and processes were way better, and the glasses were built to resist. That’s why we think choosing vintage eyewear is a great idea.

The glass hunting of Bidules results is a unique collection of high-quality vintage eyewear frames, and thanks to the specialised team of optometrists, all frames can be turned into sunnies, prescriptions or blue-light filter glasses.

Do you still have questions? The Bidules team is happy to answer them transparently. Contact them through their website or visit them at their store in Brussels.