KIMO: Vintage Revival

Kimo is a vintage revival Korean streetwear eyewear brand from 1992. The name KIMO is inspired from the combination of KIM & O

Kim: The last name of Chang Kim, the owner of Kims Optical.

O: Optical

1979, Licensed Optician: Mr. Kim becomes a licensed optician.

1983-1985, Mobile Optician: In-home private eyewear consultations.

1985-1990, Showroom: Pre-Kims Optical, retail showroom inside his basement.

1990-Today, Kims Optical: First official optical location at 5645 Yonge St. Toronto, Canada.

1992, KIMO: The creation of KIMO.

Shortly after opening his retail location, Mr. Kim found that he was not able to buy Korean fashion eyewear styles in the North American market. He looked for Canadian and American eyewear distributors/brands but none had the style, craftsmanship and price that he had seen in Korea. So he began his quest to design his own brand of eyewear called KIMO. He took inspiration from Korean street fashion, manufactured in Korea and brought it back to the Canadian market.

After 3 seasons, it became increasingly difficult to focus on both retail and Project KIMO, so it was left on the back burner with slow releases of new models. In recent years, with the increase of popularity of Korean eyewear brands , Mr. Kim has brought out vintage KIMO frames from the archive vault. Kims Optical is the sole retailer of KIMO and specializes in custom lens tints and mirror coatings.