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

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...

based in

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach is a coastal resort city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. Located on the East Coast of the United States, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropo ...

No longer in Daytona Beach. Luxottica closed the facility when they purchased the brand. , Florida. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of

EssilorLuxottica EssilorLuxottica SA is a Franco-Italian Vertical integration, vertically integrated multinational corporation, multinational holding company registered in Charenton-Le-Pont and headquartered in nearby Paris. It designs, produces and markets opht ...

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

Summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

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 occupational fishing activities done for profit; or subsistence fishing, ...

and

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

. 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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for "coast of the sea". The company was acquired by

Essilor Essilor International is a French multinational corporation specialized in the design, manufacture and sale of ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment and instruments. It is the world's largest manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. Founded in 197 ...

in 2013, which itself merged with

Luxottica Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian glasses, eyewear multinational corporation headquartered in Milan. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands through its own subsidiaries ...

to form

in 2018; Costa was placed under the control of the Luxottica division.

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 is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

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 sports video game released by Epyx for the Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1987. Branching from their ''Summer Games (video game), Summer Games'' and ''Winter Games'' series, this game is a collection of outdoor sports pu ...

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

Austin Dillon Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet ZL1 and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet ...

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 factory 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 organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

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) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

dedicated to protect ocean wildlife. In 2018, Costa launched their ''Untangled Collection''. This collection is a partnership with Bureo to reduce

plastic waste Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...

from fishing nets in the ocean. Bureo collects the fishing nets and turns them into plastic pellets, which Costa uses to create 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