World Junior Champion Plunges Life Savings Into Luxury Sunglasses Brand

Being a professional competitive surfer’s a great lifestyle, but no matter how seriously you take it, there’s still ample down time. 

This down time—couple hours here and there between travel, gym, various treatments—has birthed numerous interesting ventures over the years, and California’s (and 2023 World Junior Champion) Jett Shilling’s luxury eyewear offering Sloen is just the latest.

We caught up with Jett to find out about his glass brand, get an update on his season-altering injury, and find out how his new sensei Pat Tenore is influencing his game. 

“I was in South Africa and I was doing a backside air on like a one foot wave and I came down wrong, over rotated and yeah, my knee and my ankle went the other way and it just kind of blew out like that,” Jett says of the injury that’s had him out of the water for the past three months. 

Contest-wise it hasn’t been ideal, as the timing of Jett’s injury has made it near impossible to qualify for the CT this year—“I’d have to probably win two events back to back to even have a chance,” Jett says—however, it did offer up other options. One of which is Sloen, Jetts’s new eyewear brand, the seeds of which were planted when Jett modelled for French Luxury Fashion House Celine.

“I just really loved the fashionable sunglasses, and it’s always been something I’ve really wanted to do,” Jett explains. “Like, ‘Imagine if I started a high end sunglass company that I would love to wear…’”

Jett enlisted the help of his cousin Shane Reagan, who used to be senior in Adidas’ design dept, and with a little help from his old man, launched Sloen. Named after Jett’s construction-working father (Sloan), with a spelling tweak to get past US copyright laws. 

“We searched up a bunch of manufacturers and ended up finding this one in Rome,” Jett explains. “So we went to Rome, and all we made sure all our products are hand finished and hand designed. I’d say our stuff is kind of like a Jacques Marie, but a little edgier.”

It’s a very honest approach: have an idea, then work backwards towards how to get it done. And, Jett’s had a good mentor in all things grassroots brand building in his (relatively new) main sponsor Tenore’s founder Pat Tenore. 

“I’ve been learning a lot from Pat Tenore and get good advice from him,” Jett says. “Just as a human being, having a positive outlook.”

Sloen’s live and kicking online, with six styles offered. There’s something for all face shapes, definitely leaning toward a more fashion-forward approach, but still highly wearable. Jett says that the idea of Sloen is to steer clear of any obvious surf-associations (no surf shops will sell them), and the quality of materials (and therefore the price) is a focus. 

“I know people trip out on the price point, but you definitely get your what you pay for,” Jett says of the sunglasses that hover around the $500 USD mark. “They’re definitely some of the best sunglasses out there on the market, people will trip out on the price, but then they’ll buy the product and be like, ‘These are really the best we’ve ever had.’”

More than anything, Jett says Sloen has been a welcome outlet for him to keep learning and progressing whilst injured, giving him something different other than boards, rehab and sand banks to focus on. 

“It’s been definitely a big learning curve, because I’m normally just surfing all day,” Jett explains. “It’s always cool to learn something else and learn different perspectives, I’m just trying to promote it as much as possible, reach out to a bunch of people, send product out, have them post it on their stories, and try to get like connections with salespeople to get them into stores.”

It’s not the most usual outlet for a young professional surfer to plunge his savings into, but it’s far more interesting than Bitcoin or real estate. After all, Jett’s only 22, life is long, and if the flame of the entrepreneur burns inside, why ignore it? 

“I was actually thinking of going into crypto, but I was like, ‘fuck it, like, why not have like control of my own destiny?’” Jett says. “Whether this goes right or goes wrong, I’m taking a huge risk. But I just said, ‘fuck it, let’s do it, let’s go.’ ”

Treat yourself, here.