Tannereye Ltd is the first company in the world to produce leather covered sunglasses.. It was established in 1976 by Peter and Maureen Leunes on
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...
.
Tannereye was the first company to adhere very thin leather to optical frames.
History
In the early 70s Peter Leunes had the idea of putting leather onto eyeglass frames. It took several years to make this concept a reality. They used a process that immersed the plastic frame in an acetone solution, activating the plastic surface to allow the leather to adhere permanently. Tannereye
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren, ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his co ...
's Polo was one of the first companies retail this product. The company's major client for many years was
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 ...
, where leather was applied to
Wayfarers 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 ...
frames. In 22 years, Tannereye produced over five million leather covered glasses. In the later years of the company also produced leather appliques on apparel, screens and leather covered sculptures.
Because of the steady Bausch & Lomb orders, Tannereye was a major
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...
employer through the 1980s but dependence on a single product for revenue was a challenge for long term stability. To address this, Peter Leunes, with employees Frank Hale and Carl Drew, developed and marketed new products mostly in the decorative accessory line.
Closure
The Leunes family eventually sold their interests in the company to a group of employees who developed the new products further and who operated it successfully in areas of leather covered sculptures for several years. Loss of the annual order from Bausch & Lomb, and the arrival of new competitors in Japan eroded the financial stability which the company had enjoyed and the company was closed.
See also
*
Browline glasses
Browline glasses are a style of eyeglass frames where the "bold" upper part holding the lenses resembles eyebrows framing the eyes. They were very popular during the 1950s and 1960s, especially in the United States of America. The glasses were ...
*
Horn-rimmed glasses
Horn-rimmed glasses are a type of eyeglasses. Originally made out of either horn or tortoise shell, for most of their history they have actually been constructed out of thick plastics designed to imitate those materials. They are characterized by ...
*
Rimless eyeglasses
Rimless eyeglasses are a type of eyeglasses in which the lenses are mounted directly to the bridge and/or temples. The style is divided into two subtypes: three-piece glasses are composed of lenses mounted to a bridge and two separate temple arms ...
References
{{reflist
Companies based in Prince Edward Island
Manufacturing companies established in 1976
1976 establishments in Prince Edward Island