Ray-Ban is an American-Italian brand of luxury
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 ...
and
eyeglasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples or ...
created in 1936 by
Bausch & Lomb
Bausch + Lomb is an eye health products company based in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of contact lenses, lens care products, pharmaceuticals, intraocular lenses, and other eye surgery products. The compan ...
. The brand is known for its
Wayfarer and
Aviator
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
lines of sunglasses. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold the brand to Italian eyewear conglomerate
Luxottica Group for a reported $640 million.
History
In 1929,
US Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...
Colonel
John A. Macready worked with
Bausch & Lomb
Bausch + Lomb is an eye health products company based in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of contact lenses, lens care products, pharmaceuticals, intraocular lenses, and other eye surgery products. The compan ...
, a Rochester, New York-based medical equipment manufacturer, to create aviation sunglasses that would reduce the distraction for pilots caused by the intense blue and white hues of the sky.
Specifically, MacCready was concerned that pilots' goggles would fog up, greatly reducing visibility at high altitude.
The prototype, created in 1936 and known as "Anti-Glare", had plastic frames and green lenses that could cut out the glare without obscuring vision. The name "Ray-Ban" was hence derived from the ability of these glasses to limit the ingress of either
ultra-violet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiatio ...
or infra-red rays of light.
Impact-resistant lenses were added in 1938.
The sunglasses were redesigned with a metal frame the following year and patented as the Ray-Ban Aviator.
According to the
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...
, the glasses used “Kalichrome lenses designed to sharpen details and minimise haze by filtering out blue light, making them ideal for misty conditions.”
In 1999, the Global Eyewear Division of Bausch & Lomb, including Ray-Ban was acquired by
for US$240 million.
.
models.
During the 1950s, Ray-Ban released the Echelon (Caravan), which had a squarer frame. In 1965, the Olympian I and II were introduced; they became popular when
''.
The company has also produced special edition lines, such as The General in 1987, bearing similarity to the original aviators worn by
.
In the 1980s the Ray-Ban Clubmaster was added to the model line.
and went on to become the third best selling sunglasses style of the 1980s, behind the Wayfarer and Aviator.