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A comment on How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all. Parent comment

Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by mbell on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @02:37PM (#19313492)
I worked at a sunglass hut part time during college. The _vast_ majority of sunglasses I sold were for fashion, not function. People weren't paying $250 for the lens, they are paying $240 for the style and 'real' D&G logo and $10 for the lens. In my time there I would say the only brands you should buy for performance are Maui-Jim (great lens / polarization) or Oakley (impact safety), everything else is junk lens put into fashion frames, including Ray-Ban, though their glass lens were at least passable. EDIT - I mean amongst the brands they carried, I'm sure there are other good lens manufacturers out there.

What I'm mostly saying is that I don't see this as rent seeking, it's just people willing to spend large amounts of money for fashion.

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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by standerman on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @04:25PM (#19314394)
Sunglass Hut is owned by Luxottica and sells their products: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica Yes they do really produce that many different brands.
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by sampo on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @03:09PM (#19313766)
> the only brands you should buy for performance are Maui-Jim (great lens / polarization) or Oakley (impact safety)

Sunglass Hut doesn't sell them, but Serengeti makes some great lenses. Maui Jim might even not make lenses that are both photochromic and polarized, but Serengeti does.

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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by RandomTisk on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @04:40PM (#19314505)
Serengeti with amber lenses are my goto sunglasses for driving since about 2 years ago. I used to wear nothing but Ray Bans but the dark tint inhibits overall visibility slightly where the Serengeti's seem to augment it, while both cut out glare like they should.
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by perfmode on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @02:38PM (#19313508)
are prescription lenses not priced along the lines of the fashion lines?
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by mbell on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @02:48PM (#19313590)
I don't know as much about that side of things but as I recall Luxottica didn't make the prescription lens, they were ordered to spec from a third party. They sold and manufactured the frames and did the fitting work (which does some times require significant work on the lens like reshaping or drilling holes). This was ~10 years ago though so that may have changed.
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by jnsaff2 on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @03:52PM (#19314121)
Luxottica recently merged with Essilor the biggest prescription lens conglomerate so now they are possibly truly integrated and unstoppable.
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by Fins on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @03:54PM (#19314141)
They merged with... Essilor, I think, so they do lenses as well now.
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by dustindiamond on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @02:39PM (#19313524)
It is just the frames, the lenses cost additional.
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Re:How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former indu... by frgtpsswrdlame on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @02:54PM (#19313633)
At the same time if I walk into a sunglass hut thinking that it is a neutral marketplace where many brands compete for my purchase across the dimensions of fashion AND price I am being deceived. sunglass hut and most of the brands inside of a sunglass hut are owned by the same company which is not competing with itself but instead acting as a dominant firm using it's price-setting power to increase how much I'm going to be shelling out when looking for a pair of sunglasses.
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