We take our gear seriously at F&S, whether it be for hunting, fishing, or camping. Our selections are based on many factors, like quality, price, and purpose—just to name a few. But sometimes there’s more to a fishing jacket or hunting knife than what you see.
Through my years of covering the best outdoor gear, I’ve discovered some really cool brands with some really cool stories doing some really cool things. In our “Behind the Brand” interview series, we are telling those stories through the words of the founders themselves.
It's hard to put a finger on exactly what makes Al Perkinson so, well, cool. Maybe it's his worldly fishing adventures. Maybe it's the way he so clearly loves the water, the outdoors, the earth, all of it. Or maybe it's how he dreamt of starting a business to "do good"—and actually did it.
We had a chance to sit down with the founder of Bajio Sunglasses and hear his very interesting—and very passionate—story firsthand. Here's how he built Bajio from an inspiration board in his Charleston home to one of the most well-respected sunglass brands in the industry.
Field & Stream: Start at the beginning. How did the idea of Bajio even come to be?
Al Perkinson: My wife and I started it together. She's from Colorado and I'm from North Carolina, so we both grew up outdoors and did a lot of fishing, hunting, all sorts of outdoor activities. Growing up, my three younger brothers and I had a creek behind our house, and we were there from dawn to dusk on the weekends, catching bullfrogs and crawdads and fishing. It's just always been part of our lives.
I've always loved it, and just love nature, too. I'm one of those folks who is pretty emotional. I get moved by seeing beautiful things out in the woods. It's the awe of nature, the trees, the leaves—it's all just beautiful. So there's been a natural desire to want to protect it and see more of it.
Before this, I was with Costa sunglasses before for about 15 years. I got to fish and explore all over the place. It was super fun. We grew it from a really small brand to an international one. When Costa was sold, I decided to leave and went to work for Simms out in Montana.
After doing a lot of fly fishing for a couple of years, we decided to move back to New Smyrna Beach and start a new company—one that reflected our values and used business to do good. So that's what we've been doing for four years now.
How did you come up with your first pair of sunglasses once you decided to do your own thing?
It was interesting because we started this thing in the middle of COVID and literally, we were locked in our house. We were living in Charleston at the time and we had this room up on the top floor up in the trees. We would sit up in that room and just like put stuff on the wall that we would find on the internet or in magazines. It was like an inspiration room. We'd sit up there all day—because we had nothing else to do—and just dream about how we wanted the company to be.
We sketched out what we were looking for and the style of sunglasses we wanted. When we were able to get funding and start building it in earnest, we pulled in a friend of ours who's a really well-known sunglass designer, and he was able to bring our ideas to reality.
What was the first design you released?
The first sunglass style we made was called Bales Beach, and it is still our number one seller.
What would you say makes your sunglasses unique or different than any other brand out there?
We're more performance sunglasses as opposed to fashion sunglasses. Our sunglasses are built to do a job. Part of that job is safety—we want to protect the eyes of people who are out on the water all day like fishing guides. Next is the lens, which is incredibly important. Its purpose is to let you see the fish in the water better. So the lens technology that we have in all of our glasses is probably the biggest differentiator.
Also, our frames are made of plants and everything's sustainable, so that's another a differentiator. But if we ask our customers, the clarity of our lenses and the fact that we take out all the blue light (which no other brands do) to make everything super clear is what sets us apart.
Who are your sunglasses for?
I would say the angler is our core customer. They care more about the performance and they're relying on those sunglasses to do a job every single day. Then their friends and families see their glasses as professional quality and so they're like, hey, if it's good enough for these pro anglers, it's good enough for me. About half of our line is a full wrap really made for on-the-water fishing and the other half is more lifestyle. So it definitely spills over into anyone who's into the outdoors.
If you could pick, what are your three favorite pairs of Bajio sunglasses?
To be fair, my favorite changes a little every year because I get a new favorite whenever we come out with a new style, but the Caballo is the one I wear every day. It's probably my favorite style. I have an ample-sized head, so I like an extra large fit.
When I fish, I usually wear the Vega. It's a full wrap, so it hugs my face and it has wide temples, so it really blocks out all the light coming in from the side. We name all our frames after either places we like to fish or people we like to fish with. Vega is named after Alejandro Vega Cruz, whose nickname is Sands Lee. He lives in Hobos, Mexico, and is basically the king of Yucatan fishing. He's a really cool guy.
I think 12 South is just really cool. It's a retro-looking frame with a keyhole in the middle. It's kind of 70s-esque and I was born in the 70s, so I'm partial to that.
Another one I like is Clink, which is a big metal frame. I asked the designers to give me something that was a cross between a Porsche Carrera and Elvis Presley and Clink is what they came up with. I think it pretty much fits the bill.
What's next for Bajio?
There's always a ton of stuff going on. We've got a whole new collection of hats, which have really taken off. Marguerite designs them with our artist, Casey Anderson, a tattoo artist by trade who does all the drawings for our hats. We've got four new fishing frame styles that are coming out that are really fun. They're a little bit edgier and younger. We're just getting the prototypes in this week and everybody's freaking out. They love them.
What about conservation efforts? What are you all doing next on that front?
One of the reasons we started the company was to have a way to fund all of the the mission-based conservation stuff we love to do. So we're working on a couple of really cool projects this year. One is that we found a way to turn sargassum—which is like a seaweed that's out of control on beaches down in Mexico and other places—into bricks. We'll use those bricks to build homes for people who don't have homes, along with schools.
Then we've got projects where we sell products to plant coral reefs, to plant mangroves, to clean up beaches—anything to help solve all the issues that are facing the flats. We're super excited about those things as well.
On your website, you wrote that you think that fishing can change the world. What do you mean by that?
It sounds like a kind of an audacious expression, but it's really true. Fishing is different than any other sport—like golf or football—for a couple of reasons. First, you're interacting really closely with nature. A big part of being successful at fishing is learning about nature and connecting to the earth in a more powerful way.
Then when you are connected to it, you want to protect it. These days, protecting the world is kind of saving the world because we're facing a lot of issues out there. If you're a fisherman, you want to have a whole bunch of fish, and you want the fish to be healthy. Then the water has to be healthy, too, and if you want to make the water healthy, all the things that affect water quality—like the areas around rivers or oceans—have to be taken care of as well. You have to protect the whole ecosystem.
Do you have a favorite fishing trip that sticks out in your memory?
Yes. I started a foundation called IndiFly a few years ago that helps indigenous people have sustainable livelihoods through fishing—we help them start fishing lodges or outfitting types of companies. The first one we did was down in Guyana, South America. It's a little tiny village way out in the middle of the rainforest. To get there, you fly for a few hours on a little tiny plane and land on a little dirt runway. Then you get in a boat and you go 2 or 3 hours up the river to this little village in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by an incredible rainforest. It's like a little Garden of Eden out there.
During the last trip, Marguerite and I fished for this fish called arapaima. They measure the length by how many people it takes to hold it. Some of these things could be 8 to 10 feet long. They're back in these little ponds and you fish in a dugout canoe. When you see these fish rolling, it looks like a Loch Ness monster. Marguerite had not caught an arapaima before—actually no woman had ever caught one on a fly. It's really, really, really difficult, and I watched her with the guides get a little bit closer every day until finally the last day, she caught one. We had a scientist there who tagged it, and it was a really cool experience. It was a very special week and a very special day when she did that.
What's your favorite species to fish?
Permit. You just get hooked on trying to catch those. It's really difficult, and some people will go their whole life without catching one. I've been fortunate enough to catch a dozen or so over the years. It's the whole process of hunting the fish and then seeing their fins stick up out of the water when they're eating. Your heart stops—even the best anglers and casters get all nervous. It's definitely my favorite.
But barracuda would be second. It's my wife's favorite. I think barracuda is the unsung hero of the flats. They're so fast, and they're just spectacular fighters.
What do you love most about the outdoors, if you could sum it up?
I love the beauty of it. My favorite time on the water is super early in the morning. Let's say we're down in Mexico or Belize or the Bahamas. You're going to go out fishing for the day, so you show up and you hop in a boat and talk to the local guys. Everybody's all excited, there's the anticipation of the day ahead. Then we get in the boat—usually I'm with Marguerite and we've come off a busy work week—and we we run out to the flats first thing in the morning. The sun's coming up, the moon's setting, and you see the whole water come to life. You see fish rolling and bait fish popping and birds coming in and eating. Just that whole scene of the world waking up on the water is beautiful.
