Petrol station chic: Alba Optics’ Delta glasses

Petrol station chic: Alba Optics’ Delta glasses

The Instagram sensation Italian sunnies, inspired by the eighties and jelly snakes

Alba Optics Delta Gear Online Desire sunglasses

It’s midday and the phone already needs charging. Not a single call has been made or received. Settings. Battery usage. “73% Instagram.” Thumbprint concurs. Swipe up. Double tap. 

Instagram has 700 million users. It overtook Twitter ages ago. Trends come. Trends go. But without Instagram we probably wouldn’t have discovered Alba Optics so soon.

About a year ago, Alba Optics was a company still looking for its product. It started visiting frame designers around their base in northern Italy, hoping to find a style that suited them. Then it unearthed the Delta frame, which had been laid dormant since 1988. Trends come. Trends go. Trends evidently come back again.

 

For a brand so young, it’s already making considerable tracks. Its presence on social media, mostly Instagram, has enabled this, as it has for a lot of cycling start-ups recently. 

Alba Optics is already sponsoring a couple of cycling teams: Russian squad Gazprom-RusVelo, and the women’s team Sydney Uni-Staminade – and it’s unlikely to end there. It’s done all this within 12 months, remember? How long did it take Oakley to do that? This was a time before Instagram. And mobile phones were the size of mobile homes. 

The Delta is Alba Optics only design at the moment, but comes in a huge variety of colour combos. The original version from two decades ago looked identical, but this neoteric version has been updated with modern materials. 

Read: Racing in the Alps like you’ve never seen it before

We coined the style to “petrol station chic” when we talked about them on our podcast, and referred to this yellow and lime fade colourway as inspired by jelly snakes. Alba Optics calls it Delta GL RV Beetle.

It does look like a jelly snake, though, doesn’t it?

 

Desire: The Rouleur Collection

Desire: Triumph or tragedy – Met Trenta 3K Carbon

 

The post Petrol station chic: Alba Optics’ Delta glasses appeared first on The world's finest cycling magazine.

Alba Optics Delta Gear Online Desire sunglasses

READ MORE

Demi Vollering 2025

Is FDJ-Suez the team that can help Demi Vollering to Tour de France Femmes redemption?

There are big changes for the Dutch rider in 2025 - will they pay off? Or could leadership issues arise again? 

Read more
Tadej Pogačar to Paris-Roubaix 2025 – Legendary or laughable?

Tadej Pogačar to Paris-Roubaix 2025 – Legendary or laughable?

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider has teased his participation on social media, but is it a legitimate possibility?

Read more
James Knox at the British Road Championships

‘Credit should go to Lefevere for working the market’ - James Knox on Soudal–Quick-Step’s evolution from the cobbles to Tour de France contenders

Now in his sixth year with the Belgian squad, the British rider discusses what has changed following the arrival and performances of Remco Evenepoel

Read more
Portrait of Lukas Nerurkar

‘An altitude camp at the age of seven’ – Lukas Nerurkar on the power of doing things differently

The British rider had a unique upbringing, spending his early childhood in Ethiopia and learning from his marathon runner father – he tells Rouleur about...

Read more

READ RIDE REPEAT

JOIN ROULEUR TODAY

Get closer to the sport than ever before.

Enjoy a digital subscription to Rouleur for just £4 per month and get access to our award-winning magazines.

SUBSCRIBE