Erik Lindmark, Co-Founder of EOE Eyewear, grew up in the far north of Sweden, where the winters stretch on and the forests seem to go on forever. Life there moves at its own rhythm, and people learn early that how you treat what’s around you matters; the materials you work with, the objects you care for, and the way that you spend your days.
“I was adopted from Sri Lanka to Sweden when I was three weeks old,” he says. “So, in a way, the north is the only place I really know as a home from my childhood. It’s where I learned how people approach life and work. Everything is practical, but there’s a kind of unique care in it. I guess you don’t really think about it when you’re young, but it shapes you in ways you can only understand later on.”
People often talk about the north as cold and harsh, Lindmark explains. And it can be. The winters are long, and the darkness lingers in a way that can take some getting used to. But there’s warmth too; in the way people support each other, and in all the traditions and care that goes into the local everyday life.
“People think of it as just cold and dark,” he says. “But living here teaches you to notice things, to be attentive - to take care. That kind of care becomes part of the way you think about both work and day to day life.”
Craftsmanship is woven into that way of thinking. Objects are made to last, and to be respected.
“When I was growing up, you’d see people just taking the time to do things properly,” he says. “Not to show off or to make them beautiful; but to simply do them well. And that leaves an impression.”
For much of his life, he also carried another place with him, one he had left too early to remember.
“I had this vague image of Sri Lanka in my head for forty years,” he says. “It was a place I came from but didn’t know. I thought I understood it, but coming there with my family was completely different. It wasn’t about the colors or the landscapes, at least not for me. It was more about noticing the way people approach their life, the care that’s just built into what they do, so similar to how it is in the north.”
Returning to the island after so many years brought something unexpected.
“What struck me was how grounded it all felt,” he says. “There’s patience in how things are done, a confidence that comes from knowing your craft. You see it in people’s hands, in the way they move through their days. It feels natural, like it belongs to the place. It’s a very different environment to northern Sweden, but there’s a clear connection between the two that I didn’t anticipate.”
That connection became a part of his work at EOE Eyewear. The SS26 Resort Collection, “Sri Lanka,” is a quiet homage to that experience and to Lindmarks’ Sri Lankan heritage.
“The collection isn’t about trying to recreate Sri Lanka,” he says. “It’s about acknowledging that part of my story and connecting it to the way we think about craft at EOE. The care we put into materials, the time it takes to do things properly - that’s something that I recognize in both places, and that I wanted to come through in these designs. 2026 is a year where we celebrate heritage within the company; My wife and partner (Emilia Lindmark, CEO and CO-Founder) and I met and grew up in the North, so this year is all about celebrating our roots; Umeå and Lapland where she is born and where we started the company, and my (and our children's) Sri Lankan lineage.”
The collection reflects the respect for materials and details, qualities he first learned in the forests and winters of the Swedish north and later recognized on the island of his birth.
“Some connections don’t disappear,” he says. “They’re just waiting. And when you notice them, they make sense in a way you couldn’t have understood before.”