The story of C-ZONE begins before C-ZONE existed. From the attic of a farmhouse in Den Dungen to a colourful brand that travels the world, and to the day the circle closed.
In the attic of a big Dutch farmhouse, converted into a family home, a travelling sales representative started an eyewear company of his own after ten years on the road across the Netherlands. His son grew up there, between stacks of the little white boxes every frame in this trade is packed in.
Those boxes never went away. Today they are stacked in the C-ZONE warehouse. Same boxes, same trade.
The company grew and export managers joined. One of them was Rob Maas, who took the founder's son along to Silmo and Mido when the boy was about twenty. For Rob it was the start of a career in optics.
After the founder sold his company, Rob struck out on his own and, together with Jeroen Manders, founded The C-Zone in 's-Hertogenbosch: metal frames with a colourful collection, for a broad audience, at an honest mid-market price. Rob's founding rule has decided what ships ever since: however beautiful a frame is, above all it has to be a joy to wear.
Meanwhile the founder's son, Thomas Bulten, took his own route: a love for China and its language, eight years building collections and buying in Asia, then six years designing private-label eyewear with his own company, Mercury Eyewear. At every Silmo and Mido he and Rob crossed paths. A chat at the booth, wanting nothing from each other, the connection never fading.
At a trade fair, Rob sighed that it was time to think about succession. And the answer asked itself.
“Wouldn't that be something for me?”
And so the circle closed. C-ZONE is now carried by a second generation of the same eyewear family, with Mercury Eyewear alongside it as a C-Zone company. Two generations, one trade, and one brand that carries it forward.
Metal frames with a colourful collection. Mid-market, a broad audience leaning slightly older. And one promise in three C's: craft, colour, comfort. From our home in the Netherlands we reach optical stores all over the world, with a whole network of people who represent us and wear our glasses. That fills us with pride, but above all with joy. You can see that joy throughout the collection.
Co-founder. Twenty years of optics, and the rule that comfort comes first.
Co-founder of The C-Zone in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Second generation of the same eyewear family. Leads C-ZONE today and founded Mercury Eyewear, the private-label studio that is now a C-Zone company.
The private-label studio behind fashion labels and emerging optical brands. From first sketch to delivered frame, Mercury designs, develops and produces eyewear collections with the craft backbone of The C-Zone — quietly, under the client's name.