OUR STORY

STEPPER EYEWEAR INDIA LLP, has its home at Shailaja, the exclusive supplier, distributor and brand partner to STEPPER EYEWEAR. Shailaja, founded in 1987 by Kirit Doshi, has for more than 25 years, been established in India as the leading importer and supplier of eyewear to the Optometric Profession countrywide.

STEPPER EYEWEAR has been distributed by Shailaja, for almost 12 years and is the ultimate leading eyewear collections with focus on fit and comfort, State-of-the Art materials, lightness and a timeless design.

STEPPER EYEWEAR is the brand in the world of optics that has achieved its merits by its dedication to the creation of outstanding glasses and to the close professional relationship with opticians. 1970 the company was founded in Germany as a joint venture between an expert in plastic moulding technology and Hans Stepper a graduated optician.

Hans Stepper was born in December 1935. His father was an optician with a small shop in Stuttgart, Germany. He became an apprentice as a dispensing optician. During this time he showed a keen interest and passion for design and craftsmanship with optical frames, in 1958 he was invited to design and craft bespoke spectacles in Helsinki, Finland.

In 1961 he returned to Germany and successfully completed his professional training with a final graduation as Master Optician. His mission – instead of following his father’s recommendation – was to manufacture plastic frames by injection moulding and not using the traditional method of cutting from Acetate sheets.

His unique frames were ahead of the times. They were sculptured around the face rather than showing the conventional flat appearance. However plastic frames were not enough to satisfy the global market – metal was the trend from 1993 onwards.

New horizons After merging with ARTS he looked for alternatives to the old-fashioned focus on plastics. He was sure and became determined that STEPPER could be more than a material orientated brand.

Diversification The most important thing was to use all the technology and material available to diversify the collection with combinations of Grilamide (TX5)/ Titanium, full Titanium, and – most successful – rimless Beta-Titanium models.

Our STEPPER team Since 2000 Hans Stepper is living mostly in China, literally in the factory. Hans couldn’t have found a better way for hands-on control over design, research, development, production, quality control, and – last but not least customer service. Hans Stepper is very proud of the team around him and their direct customer orientated manners and of their satisfaction in doing the job right. However, one STEPPER is not enough. His daughter Saskia joined the company mid 2011. She operates from Germany in close cooperation with sales, design, marketing and customer relations.