Ray-Ban is a brand of luxury

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 ...

and

eyeglasses Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are Visual perception, vision eyewear with clear or tinted lens (optics), lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front ...

created in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb. The brand is best known for its Wayfarer and

Aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

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 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. Specifically, Macready 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 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 2025,

ASAP Rocky Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a member of the hip hop music, hip hop coll ...

was appointed the brand's first-ever

creative director A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...

Product lines

Ray-Ban's most popular sunglasses are the Wayfarer
Erika
and

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

Peter Fonda Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He was a two-time Academy Award nominee, both for acting and screenwriting, and a two-time Golden Globe Award winner for his a ...

wore them in the 1969 film '' Easy Rider''. The company has also produced special edition lines, such as The General in 1987, bearing similarity to the original aviators worn by General Douglas MacArthur during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In the 1980s the Ray-Ban Clubmaster was added to the model line. The Clubmaster has a browline frame and went on to become the third best selling sunglasses style of the 1980s, behind the Wayfarer and

. In 2007, Luxottica Group launched Ray-Ban Youth, a collection of prescription eyewear aimed at children ages eight through twelve. Modeled after popular adult Ray-Bans styles, these hypoallergenic titanium frames featured both neutral and bold colorways as well as sturdy flex hinges. 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. Building on recent trends of wearable technology, the glasses feature a built-in camera and Bluetooth earphones. Like other wearable, camera-equipped tech, Ray-Ban Stories have come under scrutiny for their susceptibility to privacy issues and potential for misuse.

Counterfeits

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 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.

Gallery

File:RayBanAviator.jpg, Ray-Ban 3025 Large Metal Aviator (polarized lenses) File:Ray-Ban Aviator Shooter RB3139-001 3N (G-15 lenses) Size 62 09 160 Lens base 6.jpg, Ray-Ban 3139 Shooter (G-15 lenses) File:Ray-Ban W1663 Outdoorsman B-20 Chromax.jpg, Ray-Ban W163 Outdoorsman (B-20 Chromax lenses) File:B&L Ray-Ban Leathers Outdoorsman II.jpg, Ray-Ban Leathers Outdoorsman II (G-15 lenses) File:1968 Ray Ban Advertisement.jpg, 1968 Ray-Ban Outdoorsman advertisement File:RayBanWayfarer.jpg, Ray-Ban 2132 901L Wayfarer File:Ray-Ban Clubmaster 3016.jpg, Ray-Ban 3016 Clubmaster File:Ray-Ban Round Icons.jpg, Ray-Ban 2447 Round Fleck Icons File:Ray Ban Glasses.jpg, Ray-Ban 5277 prescription eyeglasses frame File:Ray-Ban Clubround Sunglasses.jpg, Ray-Ban 4246 Clubround sunglasses in colours of black and gold

References

External links