Founded in 1996, ic! berlin is a 100% independently owned an operated eyewear label with headquarters in Berlin, Germany and subsidiaries in New York, Tokyo and Istanbul.
ic! berlin designs and manufactures screwless eyewear in their own production facilities in Berlin, Germany. Design, production, sales, marketing and customer service: everything happens in Berlin, by ic! berlin, from start to finish. ic! berlin eyewear is handmade from 0.5mm spring stainless steel, premium acetate, 3d printed polyamide and often a hybrid combination of these materials.
You could say ic! berlin was one of the original Berlin start-ups. Starting in a small two-room apartment in Berlin-Mitte, the three founding fathers would cut out frames by hand from aluminium sheets and then ride their bikes through Berlin, cold-selling ic! berlin frames. Twenty-one years and 200 employees later, ic! berlin’s production facilities now cover more than 5.200m2 across three locations in Berlin. The ic! berlin Flagship Store at Münzstraße 5 – the Spielplatz – is just 200 metres away from where the very first ic! berlin frames were made, in the heart of what has become Berlin’s hottest shopping district.
At their debut showing at Paris in 1997 ic! berlin took home the Silmo d’Or – the Eyewear Oscar – with their very first frame. In the 20 years since, ic! berlin has won more than twenty design awards, including two more Silmo d’Or, the Red Dot Design Award and several Eyewear of the Year Awards from the IOFT in Tokyo.
Always open to new ideas, ic! berlin has collaborated with some of the most exciting artists and fashion labels from all over the world, including A Bathing Ape, Superfine, Luisa Hecking, George Bamford, Jeremy Tarian, Salon K and Lyle Owerko. ic! berlin frames can be seen on some of the most beautiful and famous noses in the world, including Madonna, Brad Pitt, Bill Gates, Matthew McConnaughey, Heidi Klum, Amber Chia, Timmy Hung, Jojo Goh and two princes: Albert II of Monaco and the Purple Rain singer.
