I would hate to think I am missing something at the Expo.
I plan to outfit the contact lens fitting room with about 150 pair of sunglasses.
I was just wondering what ya'll feel are some must haves in sunwear?
Are the Optiboarders going to meet in Vegas?
James
I think Ralph Lauren has a great line for women at a reasonable price point.Originally Posted by James Herman
Ray Ban!!!
serengeti:cheers:
To find out what,s happening in the UK optical market:
http://theOptom.com
Do not buy Luxottica product! If you do you are supporting Lens Crafters.
Lately I have done well with Bolle. Talk about a Sun frames that have done a real 180. The quality and look as really improved.
Oakley, Maui Jims, Raybans are a pretty safe bets. For something a little more extravagant try Christian Roth. They are pricey, but way more stylish than the cookie cutter designer stuff coming from the big boys. Oliver Peoples core line and their new line Mosley Tribes are really good movers too. Make sure when you stock up, you really assess who your clientele is. No sense in buying a reps best sellers if it doesn't fit into your demographics. Another thing to consider, is to keep the non-RX suns at a lower overall percentage of the total, for example 75% of the frames are RXable 25% are not. I wouldn't advise going over 40% non-RX, unless they are flying of the shelves.
I'm not sure what happend to posts 2,5,, thanks for the feed back . I'll keep an eye out.
I'm being paid back for not telling my friend where the fish were bitting.
Anyone like Nautica?
Costa Del Mar's do really well. And ditto on Maui Jim and Ray-Ban.
Costa Del Mar works very well for us in the fishing arena. Maui Jims are our next best in the casual arena. Both have name brand recognition which folks have have heard of and are usually prepared to for the price.
I personally prefer the Costa line since they recognize the ophthalmic industry has patients with unique needs and therefore offer their product as complete or frame only which enables the optical professional to use their judgement when it comes to using the most appropriate lens options.
Don't hate me, just hear me and move on.
#1 maui jims..
but of course in our area....desginer labels seem to be the rage....
Gucci, Diesel, Fendi, Dior, Chanel, Kate Spade
Low end... Ralph Lauren, Polo Sport
I understand the logic from the despensing point of view. The counter point, from a high quality polarized lens and frame company such as ICE-TECH, is that we want to supply the prescription from our factory lab for quality control. Here is what can happen and did happen in our initial testing of an Rx program over 4 years ago. The optical outlet takes an ICE-TECH frame and to add an Rx they tint a CR-39 to the correct Rx and deliver to the customer. The customer viewed a retail plano ICE-TECH for $199.00 as an example and the customer was sold an Rx sunlens in an ICE-TECH frame for over $300. The problem is the despenser was enriched improperly. The customer assumed they were getting the ICE-TECH Advanced Polarized lens technology and they did not. The retailer paid very little for the lenses and wrongfully used the ICE-TECH brand to create a margin. This creates a negative for the brand ICE-TECH as the consumer if they find out does not know or think that the retail optical dispenser did this. They assume that the product was purchased from ICE-TECH and ICE-TECH is the one that provided an inferior lens. I am certainly not saying all optical retailer would or did do this but there was enough concern over the quality that we decided to retreat from any further attempt to sell Rx product that we did create.PAkev states
I personally prefer the Costa line since they recognize the ophthalmic industry has patients with unique needs and therefore offer their product as complete or frame only which enables the optical professional to use their judgement when it comes to using the most appropriate lens options.
As a result of this testing we developed and invested a great deal of money to be able to offer an ICE-TECH lens in any of our frames in almost any Rx with a mirror coating if applicable that is the same color and tone as our plano offering the customer selected from. We have also been able to match the frame curve to the lens curve so they don't look like a prescription RX stuck into a plano frame.
My number one male line Oakley followed by Maui Jim. My ladies number one is Ralph Lauren followed distantly by Saks and Misc others.
Great idea for a thread.
Don't overlook the low ends. You can find some really good low end polarized that have the same quality or better, but w/out the smoke and mirrors of the marketing hype. We carry all the big names, but I'd just as soon sell a few pairs of cheapies and get(much) a better mark-up
Our people start out showing the Maui Jims and work their way down to our eventual low end ($39-$19). We sell a ton of suns, and I am constantly preaching, "Everybody MUST buy suns!"
Well even rx suns. We do a lot of Tommy, Guess, Harley suns in RX.
I asked for it, and I got it....
Lots of good info here. I will try and find a good low end line of polarized suns while at Expo.
I think the only one I'm missing is Maui Jim. Anyone know much about Kaenon product?
Ditto to Oakley and MJ. Ditto to Ralph: lots of style for the buck.
Here's an opinion: Nike is now very competitive with Oakley, design-wise. They use Sola lenses, as well. Don't know how difficult it is to deal with Marchon on the sun, but it can't be any worse than dealing with Oakley. Plus, carrying Nike Ophthalmic is better than Oakley Opthalmic, which they twist your arm to carry.
Maui Jim has lost some of it's competitive edge IMO, with polarized lenses now being available in soooo many sunglasses. Is the day of "premium" sunwear over? I hear, though, at Sunglass Hut they are #2.
Last edited by drk; 08-22-2005 at 03:49 PM.
Drk:
Great point on the NIKE suns. The Oakley web site drive a lot of bikers in, but they've been leaving w/ Nikes. (We can usually get away w/ getting uncuts and doing them in-house for better profit and much better turn-around.
Johns
I'm glad that's true, Johns. I'm still phasing out Oakley before making the minimum Nike order. Sadly, my Oakley rep just sent me (unsolicited) three more Oakley styles. Can you say "call tag"?
Does Maui Jim still have the swagger it used to?
Maui Jims!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1:)
Revo has been my number one Sunglass. 2nd is Ralph and Dior for women.
Before Vision Expo West you were asking about sunglass brands, I would like to know what brands you purchased. Since it sounds like sunglasse is a new catagory for you, let us know how you are doing with these. I would like to know what percentage are Rx and what percentage are plano?
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