The eyewear industry is an interesting industry, to say the least. With lots of big players in the market, why are sunglasses so expensive? Shouldn’t the vast number of competitors drive down the price for sunglasses? You would think so, its basic economics, right?!...
With sunglasses, you really have 2 options, the “high end” sunglasses (these would be your well-known brands and designer sunglasses). The second option would be your more “affordable” brands (the budget brands offering lifetime warranty replacements, but at a steep price). With this, you would be interested to know that the sunglasses market is dominated by a single company that controls the market. This single company has roughly 70% of the market share, and they tout this by selling their hundreds of brands and licensed eye wear products in their own stores, making you believe you have options, but in reality, you are only buying from them. Any guesses on what store this may be? I will give you a hint, it ends with “Hut”…..
By controlling the market in a way that they own the majority of brands and licenses from top designer brands, they are able to jack up prices on sunglasses, knowing full and well that they are, for many, the only option available to purchase sunglasses from. They are able to control pricing in this way, thus charging an arm and a leg for it. Think of it as company walking the fine line of something resembling a monopoly.
So what does this mean for the consumer? It means one thing; you can expect to pay outrageous prices for subpar quality. Subpar quality that includes plastic frames that morphs in high temperatures, metal so thin that it bends as you put them on, or cheap lenses that makes everything look foggy.
For this reason, lots of brands have spurred up in recent years, trying to diversify the options available for consumers. Many brands have done this by offering low cost sunglasses whose quality matches the price point, and others have one this by offering the same type of cheaper quality at a higher price point with added perks. At Omaggio, we bring the best of both worlds, high quality sunglasses, at a lower price point, as we believe that anyone should be able to afford a good looking and high quality pair of sunglasses!