Updated:
Readtime: 4 min
Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here.
- Shady Rays and Pappy & Co. have created a limited-edition pair of bourbon-inspired sunglasses, with only 999 individually numbered pairs available.
- The Pappy & Co. Special Reserve uses Smoke Tortoise acetate, amber polarised lenses and details borrowed from the Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year label.
- The sunglasses launch online at 12:00 am AEST on 1 October 2026 for USD$250 (roughly AUD$350).
A Kentucky bourbon of this stature making sunglasses might seem like a hard left turn, toward a completely different end of the liquor store. But once you break it all down: Whiskey. Sun. Glasses. Maybe Pappy Van Winkle and Shady Rays are onto something after all.
The result is the Pappy & Co. Special Reserve, a limited-edition pair of sunglasses created with Shady Rays and inspired by the Van Winkle family’s bourbon heritage. Named after bourbon pioneer Julian P. “Pappy” Van Winkle Sr., the family’s bottles have become some of the rarest and most sought-after whiskeys around, with annual allocations disappearing quickly and collectors paying absurd money to get their hands on them.
So that’s the whiskey, handled. What about those sunglasses? Hold them up to the light, and the Smoke Tortoise acetate and matching polarised lenses shine with the same deep amber colour as the bourbon sitting in a glass. Even the rounded temple tips look a little like a drop of whiskey caught mid-pour.
1/9Only 999 Pairs, With Plenty of Pappy in the Details
Shady Rays has packed plenty of Pappy into these whiskey sunglasses. Running through the temples is a gold core wire engraved with filigree metalwork taken directly from the Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year label. Open the arms, and you’ll catch another little Easter egg hiding in the hinge: the Pappy & Co. three-key mark.
The Van Winkle branding continues around the frame with custom pins set into the front and another mark on the temple tips. And in case you forgot how exclusive these sunnies are, each pair is also etched with its individual number out of 999, making this the first individually numbered edition Shady Rays has produced.
Those amber polarised lenses have 10 per cent visible light transmission, with Shady Rays claiming full UV protection. The frames are made from premium Smoke Tortoise acetate, with Shady Rays saying no two pairs are “quite the same.”
Naturally, a pair of Pappy sunglasses also needs appropriately excessive packaging. Each set arrives with a collector’s box featuring the same Pappy image you’ve seen on the bottles, a red velvet pouch, a magnetic case and an outer shipping case modelled after the cases used to transport Old Rip Van Winkle bottles to retailers.
The sunglasses also arrive alongside the Van Winkle family’s famously hard-to-find annual whiskey range, which spans six expressions from the 10-year-old Old Rip Van Winkle through to the 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve.
1/4Price and Availability
But you’d better start preparing to smash the add to cart button when they go live. Shady Rays says there will be no second production run once the 999 pairs are gone.
It might still be spring in Australia, but we may just have found our next pair for summer. If we can get our hands on a pair, that is. The Pappy & Co. Special Reserve sunglasses launch online at 12:00 am AEST on 1 October 2026 for USD$250 (roughly AUD$350), with all 999 pairs individually numbered.
Comments
We love hearing from you. or to leave a comment.