SunMer performance sun care began with a simple contradiction: the people who spend the most time outside were protecting themselves with products made for lying still.
Corsica, after a long ride. We were sitting in what little shade we could find, recovering, when the conversation turned to sun protection, or rather the lack of it. Not just for the ride or the run, but for everyday life and the hours of recovery afterwards. It was properly hot. Shade was almost non-existent and the light was fierce. Real conditions. And our skin showed it: dry, tight and sun-beaten.
Somewhere on that trip, I realised why I so rarely reached for sun cream. Greasy hands on the bars. Sweat carrying it into my eyes. A bottle too bulky for a jersey pocket. So, like almost everyone I ride and run with, I skipped the reapply and kept going.
That's the quiet contradiction in endurance culture. We plan nutrition to the gram, tyre pressures to the decimal, splits to the second. Then we spend five, six, seven hours under open sky with protection designed for an afternoon by the pool.
Built for stillness
Most sun care falls into familiar categories: the beach holiday, the family bottle, the cosmetic SPF, and the sport sunscreen that works on paper but feels like an afterthought on skin. None of it was built for how we actually move. Not for sweat, salt, wind and glare. Not for the café stop, the second climb or the long way home.
I'm Guillaume. A cyclist and a lover of the outdoors, always looking for an escape and, now and then, a little adrenaline. Whether it's thirty minutes or many hours in the saddle, on gravel, on dirt or on the ride into town, being outside matters. It clears the body and the mind. It keeps me sane. I started SunMer because I wanted sun care that belonged in my kit, not in a beach bag, and sun care that the people who need it most would use all year round.
The answer isn't retreat
The best hours happen outside. Early starts. Exposed roads. Winter sun that's lower and sharper than you expect. Evening light on the ride home. Exposure is part of the deal.
Staying inside was never the answer. Neither was pretending the sun doesn't matter because the day started cloudy. The answer is better protection, designed for movement, for distance and for changing conditions, and for people who keep going.
What we set out to make
We began with a short brief. SunMer had to:
- Keep pace: hold up across long hours, sweat and shifting weather.
- Wear clean: feel like nothing on skin and stay out of the way of the effort.
- Travel light: fit a pocket, a pack, a race bag or a glove compartment.
- Reapply fast: be easy to use mid-ride or mid-run, without breaking rhythm.
- Belong: look and feel at home among the kit people care about.
The first answer is the Day Shield Sun Stick SPF50: 100% mineral, broad-spectrum UVA/UVB protection in a stick small enough for a jersey pocket, for the places that catch the most sun: nose, cheeks, ears, neck and face. Around it sits a small range of face care for before and after time outside, from the Day Shield Moisturiser - Fragrance Free for everyday wear to the Ultralight Hydration Performance Gel for skin that's had a long day in the wind.
Every formula is COSMOS Natural certified. Every one is designed to disappear into your routine.
Where we're going
SunMer is a European brand, shaped by the cultures of cycling, running and outdoor life, where performance is expected, design is disciplined and every detail earns its place. We started in Amsterdam, but SunMer is made for people who move, travel and explore, across Europe and far beyond.
Our ambition is simple to say and hard to earn: to be the sun care people pack as automatically as a bottle or a spare tube. We'll get there the way endurance communities have always built trust, out on the road or trail. That means riding and running with clubs in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Berlin and beyond, testing in real conditions, and telling those stories here, honestly, including what didn't work.
There is more to come. More formats and formulas are in development, each one mapped to a real moment in a day spent outside.
I want everyone who chooses to be outside to have the products and tools to enjoy every hour of it, and to recover well. And I hope SunMer helps fuel that passion for the outdoors, wherever it takes you.
So you can stay out longer. Go further. Keep your pace.
Move in the light.
Guillaume Furminger, founder, SunMer
