Ray-Ban: Көзілдіріктер брендінің тарихы мен қауіпсіздігі

Eyewear company

Ray Ban is a brand of luxury sunglasses and eyeglasses created in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb. The brand is best known for its Wayfarer and Aviator lines of sunglasses. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold the brand to Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica Group for a reported $640 million.

In 1929, US Army Air Corps Colonel John A. Macready worked with Bausch & Lomb, 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. In 2009, Luxottica released the Ray Ban Tech collection, which included the Carbon Fibre line. This line of sunglasses were factory stress tested and designed to be durable and lightweight, and featured polarized lenses of polycarbonate or crystal. On the brand's website, Ray Ban also offers the option to customize and purchase individual pairs of many of their popular styles, giving buyers express choice between frames, lenses, and engraving, among other options. In 2021, Ray Ban commercialized a model of smart glasses that they developed with Facebook Reality Labs called Ray Ban Stories. Like other wearable, camera equipped tech, Ray Ban Stories have come under scrutiny for their susceptibility to privacy issues and potential for misuse.

Like other luxury brands, Ray Ban has been a notable target for retail counterfeiters. The advertisement of Ray Bans for unrealistically low prices has been consistently linked to fraudulent websites peddling counterfeit products. Studies have shown that one of every four ads for discounted luxury products on Facebook links users to such sites. Ray Bans are often involved in international seizures of counterfeit designer goods. For one example, in 2016, law enforcement in Thailand seized an alleged import of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit sunglasses including Ray Bans and Oakleys (also owned by Luxottica Group). Counterfeiters were said to have applied tags and stickers to the fakes to deceive consumers about their authenticity. Luxottica has taken measures to thwart the trade of counterfeit products, such as converting the India Ray Ban website from a reference site to a functional e commerce platform, and pursuing legal action against online retailers that market fake Ray Ban products. In 2016, Luxottica introduced a "Minimum Advertised Price (MAP)" policy for Ray Ban in contracts with their wholesale customers. While the policy does not name a specific minimum price point, it forbids the advertisement of Ray Ban products at extreme discounts, as well as any advertising that could otherwise devalue the products.