Guernsey Cove basement home to eye wear company

A husband and wife team are making and marketing custom eye wear from the basement of their home. 

Chris and Sydney Seggie are co-founders of Fellow Earthlings. They both worked in the eye wear industry overseas before returning and setting up their company in Guernsey Cove, P.E.I. 

"A lot of the eye wear that you see in the market is all produced by like a handful of companies internationally and they all actually use the same factories too, so we're trying to produce something here in Canada," said Sydney. 

While Chris oversees the production, Sydney focuses on marketing and branding their products. 

They sell directly to customers online and now are selling wholesale and working for designers.

"Just two weeks ago we had the product here on the table and then last week we watched it go down the runway in New York," said Chris. 

"It's pretty surreal sometimes but it's a privilege to be in Guernsey Cove and to operate out of such a beautiful place." 

Living and working on the Island has provided Chris with opportunities to learn from experienced craftspeople. 

"Two and a half years ago I got the chance to mentor or learn from my mentor, Jon, on the handmade side of things and he's been making glasses for fifty five years."

Sydney said there were eye wear factories in Charlottetown in the late 1980s. 

"For example the leather-covered RayBans and stuff that you see vintage today that are so coveted — they were actually all hand made in P.E.I.," she said. 

The Seggies' plan to continue adding more designs to their website. They also want to build a larger standalone workshop to produce the eye wear.