About Fortis Eyewear

The Story Behind Fortis Eyewear – Technical Polarised Fishing Eyewear.

Born from bold ideas, creative roots and a genuine love for angling, Fortis Eyewear is the result of two designers who saw an opportunity no one else did — to bring performance, style and technical innovation to fishing eyewear and apparel.

We don’t follow the industry. We're trying to shape a new corner of it.

Rather than give you all the what's, why's and when's (although you can read that further down the page), here's an early interview with Monkey Climber magazine, which summarises our journey perfectly!

THE INTERVIEW

An exert from a Monkey Climber interview with the people behind the brand.

An exert from a Monkey Climber interview with the people behind the brand... we pick up how it all started with Director Darran Goulder...

I still remember getting your email in 2013, about you guys setting up Fortis. To be honest the whole idea sounded pretty cool but the name was a bit strange to me and a lot of Belgians as a then recent bankrupt big bank over here had the same name (did you know that, lol?). Anyway, where did you get the name and idea originally?

Sending out those initial Fortis emails to various people seems like an age away! Thankfully the take up was well received and we’ve made some good friends as a result of it. You too can surely relate to the difficultly of naming a brand… it took us literally months. We went through every English word… and then started going through the latin ones when we run out. Fortis actually derives from Fortuna, and that means “fortune favours the bold” and ‘Fortis’ is Latin for ‘brave’. Which is quite apt for an angler!

Was the idea something that grew naturally, or did you purposely look into something to fill a gap in the angling industry? (I mean: Monkey Climber was just started up without any business plan, nothing, we just created a first mag and saw from there on what happened)

It’s definitely just grown naturally in the way we’ve branched out with clothing and a few accessories, but the whole polarized brand came from a lot of thought. We were heavily involved in iPhone apps at the time, we wanted to start something bigger so we started sampling those portable chargers with a view to marketing them to anglers. At the time, there was just none on the market, but they were coming in way too expensive. Paul was fishing in France, and his girlfriend at the time was taking the piss out of his polaroids saying how “uncool” they were. He text me saying “How about some fashionable fishing glasses?” and it clicked. By the time he’d come back I’d ordered samples and contacted manufacturers, we were both super excited as we knew it had potential. It was niche, but there was a huge gap for it, and it went from there!

You were already active in the angling industry before, with iAngler, can you tell us a bit more about that?

Paul and I met at Art College, before we went off for Uni. iAngler was formed after we’d done our degrees and gained some experience working for agencies in the City. It was just when the app market was talking hold around 2011, and we developed some unique fishing ones at the time, rig apps, weather and moon phase ones etc etc. Along with those, we also built quite a few websites for various brands in the market like Korda, SubSurface, Guru Tackle, Urban Bait, Monkey Climber and Gigantica etc etc. All that funded Fortis.

WHERE IT ALL STARTED

Fortis began long before the first pair of sunglasses ever left our warehouse.

The seeds were planted at Art College, where founders Darran Goulder and Paul Gooch first met. Years later — after degrees, agency work and a deep dive into the early world of mobile apps — their creative partnership evolved into a shared vision.

In 2013, that vision finally had a name.

Not many know this, but the name Fortis stems from “Fortuna” — meaning fortune favours the bold.
Fortis itself is Latin for brave.
For us, it captured everything we believed angling represented: patience, courage, instinct, and the willingness to commit to something bigger than yourself.

THE MOMENT EVERYTHING CLICKED

The idea didn’t come from a boardroom. It came from a moment on the bank...

Paul was in France when his girlfriend made a joke about how uncool his polaroids looked. He sent a text: “What about fashionable fishing glasses?”

That was it. The spark.

By the time he got home, samples were being ordered, manufacturers contacted, ideas sketched and refined.

There was a clear gap in the market:

Anglers needed polarised performance
But no one was offering style, comfort or identity

It was niche, but the potential was there.
This wasn’t about filling a gap — it was about raising the bar.

FROM IANGLER TO INNOVATION

What started in apps helped build the backbone of our design philosophy.

Before Fortis, Darran and Paul built iAngler: rig apps, moon phase trackers, weather tools — all during the early boom of the App Store in 2011.

Alongside that came digital work for some of the biggest names in carp fishing:
Korda, Guru, Subsurface, Urban Bait, Gigantica, Monkey Climber and more.

Those early projects didn’t just sharpen their design and technical skills — they funded the first steps of Fortis.

So by the time the first sunglasses concept was ready, the foundation was solid:
creative expertise + real angling knowledge + a vision that nobody else was chasing.

WHAT FORTIS STANDS FOR TODAY

More than a decade on, the mission remains the same...

Design-Led Performance

Every product — from our polarised lenses to our technical clothing — is built with purpose. Clarity, comfort and confidence come first.

Quietly Confident Identity

We don’t chase trends.
We build products that feel right on the bank and beyond it — understated, authentic, recognisably Fortis.

Evolving With Purpose

From eyewear to outerwear to innovations like Switch Technology and the upcoming Trail Range, the brand continues to grow naturally — the same way it started.