There's a question Yoshinori Aoyama asks himself when he designs a frame: can a pair of glasses make someone cry?
Not from discomfort. From beauty. From the experience of holding an object so considered, so technically demanding, so thoroughly itself — that it produces an emotional response the way a great painting or a piece of music might.
That's an unusual standard to set for eyewear. Factory900 is an unusual brand.
A factory with a number, not a name
Factory900 was founded in 2000 by Yoshinori Aoyama as the in-house label of Aoyama Optical Co. — a third-generation factory in Sabae, Fukui, the region that produces around 95% of all eyewear frames made in Japan. The "900" isn't a design choice or a marketing concept. It's the government registration number of the factory itself. The brand is named after the building it comes from.
That decision says something. Factory900 has no interest in dressing itself up in abstract identity. The work is the identity. The factory is the brand.
Aoyama's family has been making eyewear in Fukui since his grandfather's time — over 110 years of accumulated knowledge passed from generation to generation, each one building on the last. When Yoshinori launched Factory900, he wasn't starting from scratch. He was redirecting 80 years of in-house manufacturing expertise toward a single question: what happens when you stop making frames for other people's designs and start making exactly what you want?
The answer is what Factory900 has been producing for the past two decades.
Artwork by Koutarou Washizaki x Factory900
What "avant-garde" actually means here
Avant-garde is an overused word in eyewear marketing. It usually means a slightly unusual shape or an unexpected colour. At Factory900 it means something more specific: frames that push acetate to structural places other manufacturers consider impossible, and then do it by hand.
The brand's core material is acetate — derived from natural cotton and wood fibres, dense and workable in ways that synthetic plastics can't match. Most acetate frames are cut from flat sheets into relatively conventional shapes. Factory900 builds frames with deep beveling, layered structures, and three-dimensional curves that require their own proprietary tooling and techniques to achieve. Their five-axis machining technology is, by their own account, unlike anything else in the world. And even then, the most critical stages are done by hand — fine formation, multiple polishing phases, final finishing carried out by craftspeople who have spent years learning exactly this.
The result is frames that function as wearable sculpture. Thick, deeply worked acetate that catches light differently from every angle. Shapes that don't look like other shapes. Objects that are immediately recognisable as Factory900 and nothing else.
Recognition that means something
Factory900 won the Japanese Eyewear Award — Eyewear of the Year — three consecutive times at launch, in 2002, 2003, and 2004. They have since won the Silmo d'Or, the most prestigious award in international eyewear, twice, as well as the iF Design Award. Collaborations with theo, Lexus, and Undercover have brought the brand's aesthetic into dialogue with architecture, automotive design, and fashion.
These aren't participation trophies. The Silmo d'Or is voted on by an international jury of eyewear professionals. Winning it once is significant. Winning it twice, for a small factory in Fukui, means the work speaks for itself in a language that transcends geography.
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Who wears Factory900
Factory900 frames attract a specific kind of person. Not someone looking for something safe or universally flattering — there are plenty of brands for that. Factory900 appeals to people who see eyewear as part of how they present themselves to the world: architects, artists, designers, collectors. People who understand what they're holding when they hold a Factory900 frame, and who appreciate that the shape took as much thought as the structure.
The frames are not subtle. They're not trying to disappear into your face. They're making a case for a particular kind of beauty — precise, uncompromising, rooted in craft — and they invite you to make that case alongside them.
Factory900 at Sun of Japan
We carry Factory900 because it represents what Japanese handmade eyewear looks like when a maker refuses to settle. Not for easier materials, more conventional shapes, or faster production. Every frame that leaves the Aoyama factory does so because it passed a standard that most manufacturers wouldn't set themselves.
We stock both optical frames and sunglasses from Factory900 — each chosen for design integrity and the kind of finish that's immediately apparent the moment you handle them.
If you'd like guidance on which Factory900 model suits you, we're here.
Browse Factory900 eyeglasses → Browse Factory900 sunglasses → View all brands at Sun of Japan →
Factory900 frames are handmade in Sabae, Fukui, Japan by Aoyama Optical Co. — a third-generation factory with over 110 years of eyewear history.
Artwork by Koutarou Washizaki @koutarou_washizaki x FACTORY900
Factory900: the most radical eyewear coming out of Japan
There's a question Yoshinori Aoyama asks himself when he designs a frame: can a pair of glasses make someone cry?
Not from discomfort. From beauty. From the experience of holding an object so considered, so technically demanding, so thoroughly itself — that it produces an emotional response the way a great painting or a piece of music might.
That's an unusual standard to set for eyewear. Factory900 is an unusual brand.
A factory with a number, not a name
Factory900 was founded in 2000 by Yoshinori Aoyama as the in-house label of Aoyama Optical Co. — a third-generation factory in Sabae, Fukui, the region that produces around 95% of all eyewear frames made in Japan. The "900" isn't a design choice or a marketing concept. It's the government registration number of the factory itself. The brand is named after the building it comes from.
That decision says something. Factory900 has no interest in dressing itself up in abstract identity. The work is the identity. The factory is the brand.
Aoyama's family has been making eyewear in Fukui since his grandfather's time — over 110 years of accumulated knowledge passed from generation to generation, each one building on the last. When Yoshinori launched Factory900, he wasn't starting from scratch. He was redirecting 80 years of in-house manufacturing expertise toward a single question: what happens when you stop making frames for other people's designs and start making exactly what you want?
The answer is what Factory900 has been producing for the past two decades.
Artwork by Koutarou Washizaki x Factory900
What "avant-garde" actually means here
Avant-garde is an overused word in eyewear marketing. It usually means a slightly unusual shape or an unexpected colour. At Factory900 it means something more specific: frames that push acetate to structural places other manufacturers consider impossible, and then do it by hand.
The brand's core material is acetate — derived from natural cotton and wood fibres, dense and workable in ways that synthetic plastics can't match. Most acetate frames are cut from flat sheets into relatively conventional shapes. Factory900 builds frames with deep beveling, layered structures, and three-dimensional curves that require their own proprietary tooling and techniques to achieve. Their five-axis machining technology is, by their own account, unlike anything else in the world. And even then, the most critical stages are done by hand — fine formation, multiple polishing phases, final finishing carried out by craftspeople who have spent years learning exactly this.
The result is frames that function as wearable sculpture. Thick, deeply worked acetate that catches light differently from every angle. Shapes that don't look like other shapes. Objects that are immediately recognisable as Factory900 and nothing else.
Recognition that means something
Factory900 won the Japanese Eyewear Award — Eyewear of the Year — three consecutive times at launch, in 2002, 2003, and 2004. They have since won the Silmo d'Or, the most prestigious award in international eyewear, twice, as well as the iF Design Award. Collaborations with theo, Lexus, and Undercover have brought the brand's aesthetic into dialogue with architecture, automotive design, and fashion.
These aren't participation trophies. The Silmo d'Or is voted on by an international jury of eyewear professionals. Winning it once is significant. Winning it twice, for a small factory in Fukui, means the work speaks for itself in a language that transcends geography.
Who wears Factory900
Factory900 frames attract a specific kind of person. Not someone looking for something safe or universally flattering — there are plenty of brands for that. Factory900 appeals to people who see eyewear as part of how they present themselves to the world: architects, artists, designers, collectors. People who understand what they're holding when they hold a Factory900 frame, and who appreciate that the shape took as much thought as the structure.
The frames are not subtle. They're not trying to disappear into your face. They're making a case for a particular kind of beauty — precise, uncompromising, rooted in craft — and they invite you to make that case alongside them.
Factory900 at Sun of Japan
We carry Factory900 because it represents what Japanese handmade eyewear looks like when a maker refuses to settle. Not for easier materials, more conventional shapes, or faster production. Every frame that leaves the Aoyama factory does so because it passed a standard that most manufacturers wouldn't set themselves.
We stock both optical frames and sunglasses from Factory900 — each chosen for design integrity and the kind of finish that's immediately apparent the moment you handle them.
If you'd like guidance on which Factory900 model suits you, we're here.
Browse Factory900 eyeglasses → Browse Factory900 sunglasses → View all brands at Sun of Japan →
Factory900 frames are handmade in Sabae, Fukui, Japan by Aoyama Optical Co. — a third-generation factory with over 110 years of eyewear history.
Artwork by Koutarou Washizaki @koutarou_washizaki x FACTORY900