Costa Del Mar or simply Costa is an American manufacturer of polarized

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names below) are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can s ...

based in

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

, Florida. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of

EssilorLuxottica EssilorLuxottica SA is a French vertically integrated multinational corporation based in Paris and founded on 1 October 2018 from the merger of the Italian Luxottica with the French Essilor. The group designs, produces and markets ophthalmic lens ...

. Their sunglasses are popular in the sport sunglasses market, and are considered good for outdoor sports practicing, such as

Summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

activities,

recreational fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing ...

and

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

. Costa's Baffin Sunglasses won Best of Show: Eyewear at ICAST 2018. "Costa Del Mar" is

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

for "coast of the sea".

History

Costa Del Mar was founded in 1983 by Ray Ferguson in Daytona Beach. By 1986, it was the official gear of the Stars & Stripes team in

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

yacht racing contest and quickly became popular among surfers and recreational fishermen due to its sun glare protection. The brand made an appearance in the 1987 video game

California Games ''California Games'' is a 1987 sports video game originally released by Epyx for the Apple II and Commodore 64, and ported to other home computers and video game consoles. Branching from their '' Summer Games'' and ''Winter Games'' series, this ...

as one of the sponsors. The brand was acquired by Essilor in 2013 for approximately $270 million. In 2017, Costa partnered with NASCAR driver

Austin Dillon Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver and reality TV show actor. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing. ...

to create a limited quantity of special edition sunglasses. Dillon won the 2018 Daytona 500. In August 2017, a new vice-president of marketing by the name of TJ McMeniman was nominated. The company was involved in a series of lawsuits for "deceptive trade practices". These lawsuits were based on the warranty, which claimed that glasses would either be replaced or repaired for "a nominal fee". The class action lawsuit alleged that the "nominal fee" was just shy of the actual price of a new pair of glasses. In August 2019 the CEO, Holly Rush, was let go and all department heads report directly to Luxottica. In December 2019, it was announced that operations in Daytona Beach would cease by February 7, 2020 and the rest of the layoffs would be complete by September 2020. Most of the production of sunglasses will be manufactured at Luxottica's plant in Foothill Ranch, California.

Social responsibility

Costa has a charity campaign called ''#OneCoast'' that helps victims of natural disasters by raising funds for the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

hurricane relief program. They also have a campaign called ''Costa+OCEARCH'', as a result with a partnership with OCEARCH, also intended to raise funds to the

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

dedicated to protect ocean wildlife. In 2018, Costa launched their ''Untangled Collection''. This collection is a partnership with Bureo to reduce plastic waste from fishing nets in the ocean. Bureo collects the fishing nets and turns them into plastic pellets, which Costa uses to created these frames.https://www.costadelmar.com/us/en/inside-costa/protect/untangle-our-oceans

References

{{reflist Manufacturing companies established in 1983 American companies established in 1983 1983 establishments in Florida Eyewear companies of the United States Eyewear brands of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Florida Companies based in Volusia County, Florida Daytona Beach, Florida Sunglasses 2013 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies