Eyewear isn’t just an accessory for Tommy O’Gara; it’s a medium of storytelling, art, and utility. Tommy is a visionary who redefines what it means to see the world—literally and figuratively. In this interview, we dive into Tommy’s journey as an eyewear designer, exploring how his path began, the inspirations behind his work, and his approach to constantly creating new shapes and designs. Tommy invites us to see the world through his lens—one crafted with precision, passion, and an eye for the extraordinary.
Name: Tommy O’Gara
Instagram: @tommyogara
Website: nativesons-eyewear.com
Title: Eyewear industry veteran
Most recent city visited… Mexico City…before that, Los Angeles
A typical day in my life includes… Waking up, stretching, making breakfast, umm going to the logistic center, going to my studio, um let see… planning dinner, im working in the studio, lots of zoom meetings all time zones, so I might be night time with Europe or early morning with los Angeles, the day time with my factory stuff, hot baths in the winter, medium showers in the summer, if there’s waves I’ll go surfing in the early morning 5 am – 4 am, I ride my motorcycle everyday at the beach, I ride to the logistic center by bike—, alternative days I might get like a Porsche and drive a Porsche to the city, kinda like that.
I was born in… Geddes South Dakota while my dad was building a DAM… and I don’t think I was born in a hospital I think I was born in reservation clinic, my mom complain a lot. But if you want me to complete de sentence I would say I was born to create.
When I was younger, I wanted to be… a creator I wanna make stuff, always wanna make stuff or maybe a guru.. A combination: guru—creator.
My first job was… walking beans working on a farm, because my family also own farms so when we are 12 or 13 we can go cut the weeds in the field or take the corn, in Nebraska in Iowa.
My favorite thing about traveling is… let see, I think experiencing new places, people and food, music, the experience. It’s not the destination is the trip.
I’m currently listening to… its funny because im currently listening to “Hijos del Sol” I really like it, this is my go to driving music. You should tried it, I found them by chance, just scrolling. But I often listen to Shakey Graves or The Saint of Lost Causes, he already past. I like Justin Townes Earle, but the new music that Im listening to is Hijos del Sol.
If I could have dinner with anyone, it would be… alive or dead? Dennis Hopper. I think we had a good conversation.
One thing I cannot travel without… well, iPhone and eyewear.
I’m inspired by… experiences I mean im inspired by discovery of new things, im inspired by people, people are very inspirational. People and mother earth.
If I could change anything in the world, it would be… Pollution and war…and politicians.
How did your journey as a designer start? I started as a little kid I think because my dad was a builder so, you know, some of my early memories are sitting on the floor with him with blue prints and figuring out who to build buildings, I could loose my sketchbooks and draw something, but I can also go to his tool shop and make things, a lot of designers can make things, but it is important to be a creator, but to be able to make thinks that’s why I own factories.
How is the design process of eyewear different form clothing or shoes? Well, for what I know — except for couture, for what I know from clothing designers, they but something and they strip it down, they copy it, a lot of eyewear designers do to, they buy a frame, they photograph it, put it in the illustrator, trace it, things like this, but the different for me is: I would go to a museum and look at motorcycles and cars and photograph details or create inspiration and put music on, think about it, write about it, then I start to draw, so for me the process is completely different but the process is different for everyone. Jun Takahashi was a super free cutter, he could free cut, Alexander McQueen, he was a great cutter.
What is your favorite piece you’ve created? Years ago I was a creative director for a project in Harajuku in Tokyo and I created a building called the Asanaha project, I thinks is still one of my favorite things, I took a building that was in Harajuku and I cut off all the balconies and I made it to monolith from 2001 space odyssey and you’ve walk inside this automatic doors and there was a Japanese house build inside with crossed out movies, Godzilla and stuff planned. I designed it and directed it and work with the construction company that build it, it was 3 floors the second floor was return of Huston and the third floor was on Utropia so it was a scape brand that call homeless downstairs, we had did upstairs in return of Huston and then metropía. In my house, the house I live in I created it too, I really like it, I design it and build it. I contracted it. Im building an open design one floor house for old people. So Yeah, i like creating this stuff and create places is amazing. The house we living now is a three story house, its pretty open, there no doors everything slides, the first floor everybody spends time in the kitchen and community space, that’s the one we kind of hanging you know, when we put music on, open wine and cook, the new one is very open big house plan very long is 8.7 meters by 19.8 meters and yeah its very open with roof trust open all the way to the roof, it will be. I just finish the base design, it’s down in Minamiizu, in the peninsula of Izu.
How do you change your design perspective when designing for a specific brand? You never work on two brands at once you always work on one brand at the time and you put 4-5 days in between starting the next design, so I do the base designs, I gather the inspiration I get the designs done, I hand them to my assistant, I had them putted them in the computer and then we edit and make iteration and when the iteration are done we choose and we 3D print, when the 3D print fit is good we send the design to the factory and we do the blueprint, but only one brand at the time.
What is the hardest part of creating eyewear? It doesn’t seems hard for me anymore, Idk what to say, I am doing sort of new things im taking old things that we are done for example Max Pittion and im revitalizing them with some new materials, new ways. I think I never get design blogs I never get stalked, so I don’t look backwards I always look forward, I don’t feel anything is hard I enjoy it. To manufacture is really interesting because you have all this protocols, and everything going on you’ve got 7 developments moving at once in a circle, it is not really hard. We have like 15 – 16 people in our factory we want more I think the hardest thing is to get passionate people to work in the factory.
Where do you get inspiration from? Everywhere, traveling, well design motorcycles, cars, airplanes, music systems, everything really.
