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NUNAVUT - Four buddies in Baltimore launched a new line of facial fashion accessories modelled after traditional Inuit snow goggles earlier this month.

Called Slanties, the fat wooden eyewear features thin slits to block the sun, much like traditional Inuit goggles carved from bone. Slanties were created by a team of artists who work day jobs.

A model dons Slanties, wooden eyewear based on traditional Inuit goggles. The designers have sold 70 pairs so far, however the project is more about fun than profit. - photo courtesy of Nancy Froehlich of graysignal.com

"It was directly pulled from Inuit culture," said co-designer Ben Turner, a cake decorator. "One of us stumbled across (an image of Inuit snow goggles) online."

They searched for Inuit goggles on google image search then created their own versions from mahogany, walnut, maple and padauk wood.

The goggles are finished with a layer of fibreglass on the back and enamel on the front. The wood is sanded to a rough finish to provide a natural-looking texture. They are held in place with an elastic strap.

Slanties are marketed as beachwear and club couture.

Inuit reaction

Graphic artist Jessica Patterson moved to Yellowknife, NWT, from Iqaluit at age six. Her mother, Marie Uviluq, lives in Iglulik and she has two brothers and a sister in the territory who she visits twice a year. She is fluent in Inuktitut and designs contemporary textile art from seal fur.

Patterson viewed the Slanties website for the first time last week.

"Hey those are cool," she exclaimed. "But the name is terrible."

Many visitors to the website have shared Patterson's reaction. Bloggers and a few print media journalists have questioned the appropriateness of the goggles' name, as well.

"We decided to leave (the name) and bring up the dialogue that surrounds it," Turner said, adding that they only plan to distribute Slanties until the end of the summer.

The artists posted the online debates and media articles on the website. Bloggers discuss the word "slanties" and its interpretation as a term that can be offensive to Inuit people.

A statement on the website reads in part: "To those of you who perceive Slanties as offensive to Asian and Inuit culture, we did not in any way intend to reference racial or cultural elements of Inuit or Asian population with the name of the product. Our sincerest apologies go out to those who feel offended by our zero periphery project."

Patterson did not temper her criticism after reading the statement.

"They take a traditional Inuit concept and they modernize it, and I'm cool with that. They're white dudes. They're in the city. They don't have bones," Patterson said. "But, if you are going to be bold enough to have a name like 'Slanties' then that sentence should be on the front page of your website."

Slanties' designers plan to meet this week to discuss Patterson's concerns. It was the first time the designers received any feedback from an Inuk.

Despite Patterson's misgivings about the name of the goggles, she remains impressed by their design.

"I am going to purchase a pair because I think they're really cool," she said.

Upon hearing about Patterson's criticism, Turner said he and his friends are "definitely considering" putting the statement on the front page of their website.

He said the name of the goggles was not meant as a reference to people but to people's perception.

"It was born from the term of the slanted story, like the slanted news media," he explained. "When you wear the goggles you have a limited visual spectrum."

Fellow Slanties designer Erin Barry-Dutro, a book conservationist by day, describes Slanties as more of a project than a product.

"Instead of simply selling them as glasses we see it as performance art," she said, adding that the project illustrates some of the reactionary tendencies of the Internet.

"When we received hate messages in our in box we needed to step back and rethink what we were wanting to do," she continued. "It seems like a number of people thought we were a larger company than we were. We're just four people doing this thing for fun."

Barry-Dutro said she hopes people in the North will visit the site and share their own stories about Inuit goggles.

"After knowing how long it takes us to create ours I would love to have original stories about how they're made in Inuit culture and how they function there," she said. "The original goggles are more futuristic-looking than Slanties. We appreciate the innovation and the amazing aesthetic. I would love to know what people there think."

Elizabeth Gelb owns North Star Inuit Gallery, an online distributor of authentic Inuit snow goggles carved from caribou antler by Pangnirtung elder Pauloosie Nauyuq.

"When you go out on a sunny winter day they really work," she said. "They're ingenious. Today we marvel at it as a piece of art. The Inuit are one of the most resourceful people in the world."

The Slanties website can be viewed at www.slanties.com. Nauyuq's authentic Inuit snow goggles can be seen online at www.northstarinuitgallery.com.