Liquid Death and Pit Viper just released new sunglasses … but they’re for after you die

The most famous dead person to ever wear sunglasses just might be Bernie Lomax. Until now. That’s because the namesake of 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 it is 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 being pitched as a product for the afterlife. In February, the brand dropped a $495 urn with Spotify that features 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,” Pearson said. “It’s funny to make adult diapers that are made of pleather so you don’t have to go to the bathroom at a rock 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.

First is the Liquid Death universe filter. Murphy said that at the core of every collaboration is a simple creative question: “If you take another brand or celebrity into the Liquid Death universe, what is the one right answer?”

Second is mutual business value. Does collaborating with other brands offer specific business advantages that working with individual celebrities does not? “We find a lot of brands that are interested in our unique audience value, our creativity,” he said. “We do everything in-house—film, produce, direct—so we’re seen as a bit of an agency and production company. Partners see that value, and then we’ll find brands that will cover some production hard costs and allow us to extend our marketing budget, bringing what they do best to the table.”

And the third pillar is quality and quantity. Going back to what Pearson said about actually “making the thing” is what makes it funny—then making something of quality makes the joke even better. In terms of quantity, limited runs have been successful in driving demand and awareness, with each collab often having between 200 and 500 pieces available. “We want to do enough that people can have them, but we also realize some of these very specific things have become more collectible when they’re not a mass product,” Murphy said. “Many things that we do, they sell out in less than a day, and you see them on eBay immediately.”

While always amusing, these collabs serve to bring Liquid Death to a broader audience, whether it’s Pit Viper shades, Spotify, or E.l.f. beauty. In exchange for Liquid Death’s creative muscle, collaborating brands typically invest in the production costs and media spend behind it.

With Spotify, for example, it custom-programmed the Eternal Urn playlist on its platform, tapping into users’ Spotify history and likes. That not only customizes it for each user, but gets Liquid Death on Spotify in a way it never could on its own.

First we get an urn, and now a pair of shades. What could be next for Liquid Death’s “deceased” demographic? Maybe a collab with Ring on a coffin cam, or Scott’s Miracle-Gro on composting yourself, or maybe a Hugo Boss “Last Suit You’ll Ever Wear.” The possibilities may never die.