The most famous dead person to ever wear sunglasses just might be Bernie Lomax. Until now. Because the namesake for the 1989 hit comedy Weekend at Bernie’s was a fictional character, but you dear reader, you are very real.
Liquid Death just announced its newest collab, this time with sunglasses brand Pit Viper, to make what its calling “Sunglasses for Dead People.” According to Liquid Death, 87% of people who have near-death experiences report seeing a blinding bright light. That’s not an exact science, but the canned water brand isn’t letting that get in the way of a good bit.
Available on Pit Viper’s site for $119, the limited-edition shades feature shatterproof, durable lenses with 100% UVA/UVB protection, and every pair comes with what the brand calls a 100% after-lifetime guarantee: if the sunglasses break or fail to protect your eyes from the light that (allegedly) awaits us all, Pit Viper will replace them, no questions asked.
The shades, which may or may not make you look like a cool outfielder, are just the latest mortality-themed project from Liquid Death that is pitched as a product for the afterlife. In February, the brand dropped a $495 urn with Spotify that featured an internal Bluetooth speaker in order to play your ashes an “eternal playlist.”
Both ridiculous products perfectly embody Liquid Death’s overall brand collaboration strategy, that above all, values comedy you can touch and feel. At the Fast Company Grill at SXSW in March, Liquid Death’s vice-president of creative Andy Pearson told me, “It’s not funny to say, ‘Hey, what if we made something.’ It’s funny to make the thing,” said Pearson. “It’s funny to make adult diapers that are made of pleather so you don’t have to go to the bathroom at a concert, or a Bluetooth-enabled urn so you can play music into your ashes forever. It only becomes truly funny when it actually exists in the world. So we’ve put a lot of stock into making real things.”
The brand’s entertainment-driven, social media-focused approach has been credited for its strong appeal among young consumers, amassing more than 14.5 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. In 2024, new funding valued Liquid Death at $1.4 billion, and last year the brand expanded into iced tea and energy drink categories.
Deadly collab strategy
When I spoke to Liquid Death’s vice-president of marketing Dan Murphy about the Spotify urn, he outlined three key pillars of the brand’s overall collab strategy.
