I have always been a fan of Ray Bans, though I’m using the word “fan” extremely liberally here. Ray Bans have seemed to me to be the best quality for the lowest price (though that price is not that low). But now I’ve started to notice something- the price is not lining up with the quality, and I’m not so sure it ever did.
I’ve had sunglasses purchased on a whim in a gas station, and the quality does vary by just how cheap they are, but sometimes their quality is actually comparable to my $150 to $200 ray bans. If I’m spending that much on a product, I want it to be significantly better than the cheap knock off junk I can buy for $5-$10. But rather than being twice or three times as comfortable or nice, oftentimes the difference is more marginal.
My mom recently got me a pair of Ray Bans for Christmas, and I’ve already stopped wearing them. Why? Because of the nice little scratch on one of the lenses I’ve already managed to get. Don’t bother asking, I’ve no clue where it came from, but for context, it is May as I’m writing this and it’s already been months since I stopped wearing them. I don’t know how much this particular pair of sunglasses was, but I would guess $150. For the price, your lenses shouldn’t scratch like that.
But it’s not just this pair. I have another pair I bought myself last year sometime, again the price was probably between $150 to $200, and it’s got a small ding on one of the lenses that’s just large enough to be noticeable and irritating, but small enough that I usually forget about it in between wearing them. Outside of that, these really don’t feel like a high quality product. They feel cheap and flimsy, made from the lowest quality materials they could get away with using before it becomes noticeable that they are cheeping out.
I don’t know if this is just me, but I don’t think you should need to spend $300+ for a quality pair of sunglasses. And what’s more, I’m not so sure that even buying a more expensive pair would necessarily indicate the sunglasses are higher quality. Am I spending hundreds extra because these are going to last me years into the future, or because the Chinese factory that produced them glued a Versace label to the side?
Apparently, Ray Bans is owned by a company called Luxottica, which if you go to their website and look at the brands they own, you’re gonna notice something. They all look like the brands you can get at Sunglass Hut. Then, if you can believe it, when you check who the owner of Sunglass Hut is, what will you see? Wow, it’s Luxottica!
Sunglass Hut is not the store that sells a bunch of different brands of sunglasses, it is the store for selling Luxottica sunglasses. The shades are not competing with each other, every single pair of sunglasses sold goes to the same place. It’s a veneer of competition. It’s the ghost kitchen of sunglasses.
I promise you, the $500 Prada sunglasses (yes, Prada sunglasses are a Luxottica brand) are made in the same factory as the $150 Ray Bans, and I’m sure made from the exact same material.
I don’t have a solution here, but if anyone can recommend me a sunglasses brand that won’t break the bank and isn’t owned by Luxottica, I’d be thrilled to check them out.
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