Who Actually Made All Those Brand Name Sunglasses?

With lots of brands of shades available today, you’d think that the market for sunglasses is a healthy and competitive one – but you’d be wrong. Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal writes:

Do you prefer the "quality" of Ray-Ban to Oakley? Do you think Bulgari is better than Dolce & Gabbana, or Salvatore Ferragamo is better than Prada? Wake up. They’re all made by one company, Italian manufacturer Luxottica–one of the biggest consumer companies that consumers have never heard of. Luxottica also makes sunglasses branded Burberry, Chanel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith, Stella McCartney, Tiffany, Versace, Vogue, Persol, Miu Miu, Tory Burch and Donna Karan.

"We manufacture about 70% of those brands in our factories in Italy, and the balance in America and China," says Luxottica spokesman Luca Biondolillo. "We do the design, the manufacturing, and the marketing," he adds. The company makes most of those brands under license, working closely with designers at the relevant fashion houses. But it owns several brands itself, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples and REVO. [...]

In many cases, the same company is also selling you the glasses. Luxottica also owns LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and Sunglass Hut. This is extreme vertical integration. The eye doctor telling you that you need a new pair of glasses, the sales people helping you choose them and the people who design and make the glasses all work for the same company.

(via neatorama)

 

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I completely agree that the quality of all of the above brands are similar, but that is to say that they are high quality. And the difference does lie somewhat in the design. If you prefer a cetain size or shape of glasses - especially ones that are very trendy at present - you will likely pay more than if you just want UV protection for your eyes.

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