Gold Coast Longboards have built a brand around the laid-back atmosphere of the famous Queensland community and are now ensuring the enviable lifestyle is also sustainable.

Featuring distinctive minimalist designs and wheels in signature pastel shades, their hardwood longboards are a common sight carving along beachside pathways and suburban streets between Paradise Point and Coolangatta.

The brand was founded in 2015 by Gold Coast couple Leigh Warner and Steph Newbold, who were both working as high school teachers at the time.

Warner said he used to spend staff meetings doodling skateboard designs in his notebook and realised he needed to get his ideas off paper and make them a reality.

Their first batch of 100 boards sold out within weeks and what started as a side hustle has now grown into an established brand, with their longboards sold worldwide and stocked in Australia’s biggest surf/skate retailer, City Beach.

Gold Coast Longboards has now branched out into a range of sunglasses created from the recycled and repurposed off-cuts of their skateboards.

“After stumbling across a few international eyewear brands that made timber sunglasses, we thought what a great idea it would be to use our skateboard timber to make eyewear and add another element to our brand,” said Warner.

“We have to manage our skateboard timber off-cuts as is, so why not get two birds with one stone and minimise our waste as well as creating an amazing product?”

Made from durable bamboo and hardwoods such as maple, ebony and walnut, the frames are laser cut from the waste wood, sanded into shape and finished by hand.

Just like their range of skateboards, the sunnies are infused with a sense of fun, style and quality design.

Each pair has a completely unique grain pattern and no two pairs are identical.

Warner said the inspiration for all of the brand’s designs is their love of travel, love of the Gold Coast, the ocean, and the surf skate lifestyle.

The 12 styles in the range are each named after an iconic Gold Coast beach.

“They are incredibly lightweight, comfortable, fitted with polarised lenses and of course great for our environment rather than the typical plastic frames you find,” Leigh said.

Gold Coast Longboards is one of many Gold Coast labels finding more sustainable ways of doing business as consumers steer away from fast fashion and look for more eco-conscious alternatives.

An eco-conscious approach has been embraced by Boomerang Bags, who hand sew fabric bags to replace plastic ones, and high-end swimwear label Peony that creates bathers from fabrics made from abandoned fishing nets and nylon waste.

“In this day and age sustainability should be a given… if you can, then why wouldn’t you?” Warner said.