Local optics company shares the heartfelt mission of always spreading good days

Good Day Optics is an Edmonton outdoor eyewear company whose branding goes deeper than just a pair of ski goggles.

Jared Szuch’s company revolves around always having good days and having durable eyewear built for adventure while also honouring his late mother.

“I knew in April I wanted to do something on my own, so April 2022. And then when my mom passed away in July, it kind of just like kickstarted it,” said Jared Szuch, owner and founder of Good Day Optics.

Jared’s mom was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer, and she passed away just 17 days later.

“My mom passed away in July (2022) and then started the idea of like, hey, these were some of my worst days. Let’s create a company that can focus on good days,” said Szuch.

While his mom was in the hospital, Jared would make origami elephants. Each one of them was filled with positive affirmations and notes of love and encouragement to find a light in the dark times. The elephants symbolize the optimism and strength he gave to his mom during her battle.

“When my mom was battling cancer, she said, I don’t think I can get through this cancer. And I said, you know, it’s one day at a time. And then she made the joke. Well, how do you eat an elephant? Which is one bite at a time,” said Jared.

After her passing, Jared kickstarted his business, changing the outlook on it to always having good days, saying, “Not every day can be great, but they all can be good if you just look.” He continues to push this in his business, making every product with heart.

Every one of Jared’s products is named after the women in his life who motivated and inspired him to chase adventures and chase those good days. The flagship sunglasses, “The Melissa,” are named after his mom, paying tribute to the legacy of hard work, play, and joy that she left behind.

“Originally, I was going to have all our male products named after women and all our women’s products named after men. And then I kind of came to the conclusion that people’s faces aren’t always defined by gender. So, I made them all unisex and just describe how they fit. Big size, small size, medium size. The outdoor space and just society in general, men already get a lot of recognition. So I wanted to give women more recognition.“

Good Day optics by Abby Cunningham

Jared continues to chase good days as he grows the business, making more products. He teams up with local artists to design the goggle straps. The artists can display their work and get a commission through it. Artists are able to submit designs on a template the size of the goggle strap. The designs get displayed on Good Day’s Instagram page to help market them, and then they are released for purchase. People are able to buy singular straps and swap them out to showcase various local artists’ work.

Szuch is also focused on building a strong local community for skiers and snowboarders called “The Herd” from the ground up in honour of his mom.

 Szuch has been in the ski and snowboard community for over ten years. He has built multiple different ski/snowboard groups, both through university and outside of it, always with the goal of bringing people together in a relaxed and friendly environment.

“Why most people go to communities and myself no different is, you look for that sense of belonging. So I found it and then got super involved with it and then just like to give back,” said Jared.

• While he was at University, Jared built the largest campus ski club in the world, with 2,400 students on a campus size of 11,000. 
• After graduating, he created and ran a new local “shred group” for both post-secondary students and people who graduated who were trying to find that sense of community again, and he called it Apres Society. The group had weekly meetups at local hills. He also arranged trips to the mountains, building the largest off-campus ski and snowboard group in Edmonton.

• In April of 2022, after Apres Society had started to dissolve and run its course, and that’s when he first had the idea of Good Day Optics.
• He wanted to create a company that would keep him connected to the ski and snowboard community. Good quality goggles are an expensive piece of gear while skiing, and one hard fall can break them. Szuch wanted people to be able to shred as hard as they could and still have a good day. Even if they took a hard fall and broke their gear.

The lifetime warranty on all of his eyewear continues to push the idea of having good days. Even if you break a product. At the end of the day, you know you get a 100 per cent free replacement and continue to have good days.

“I think a lot of people believe you can’t always have good days. I believe that’s completely false because watching my mom pass away in 17 days… I would never describe as good days. But there was good in there. Like I got to spend the last 17 days with my mom. I built a company to remember her, and I’m closer with my family than I ever have been. So there is good that comes out of bad.”

Szuch continues to build his company, packaging all the products with love by hand, honouring his mother with every product sent out and every good day had.

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