In a huge, overblown launch party aboard a huge, overblown ferris wheel in Singapore, these brain-wizards released “Ray-Ban Colors”.

If you haven’t seen them yet, “Ray-Ban Colors” are essentially knock-offs of the 1980’s gas station Ray-Ban knock-offs.

You too can look twice as ridiculous now as Cyndi Lauper or Molly Ringwald did when these things were in style. I checked Luxottica’s Sunglass Hut website for pricing, and you’re going to pay $139 for the privilege.

I think they could sell literally dozens of these.

Click here for more images of the party and the Luxottica officials who will be looking for new gigs while the Luxottica warehouse crew tries to find storage space for a potential re-launch in 2019 as “Ray-Ban Brights!”


Nice job guys — and great timing!

The short answer is, I don’t. What I don’t like is the way they do business.

I’m all for efficiency — and sometimes consolidation of businesses can lead to that. Efficiencies, and the associated cost savings, at this level can (and absolutely should) “trickle down” to the consumer. This has quite obviously not been the case with this giant.

The biggest problem I see with Luxottica is that they’re greedy — really, really greedy. They feel a need to run everything and thereby own everything. They pick off the competition one brand or chain at a time with almost no resistance from the flaccid governments around the world — particularly in the United States. Who pays for all of these conquests? You do.

Don’t buy into it — fight back!

Think the outside is swanky? You should see the inside.

For those of you without a calculator, at $200 per pair of glasses (a VERY conservative figure), that works out to 320,000 pairs of LensCrafters eyeglasses worth of boat.

How does your Yacht stack up?

copia e incolla tutto quello scritto su quella pagina per qualunque marchio che tenta di vendere un life style piu’ che un prodotto. che poi prendersela con luxottica che ha rilevato brand americani che erano ne piu e ne meno la stessa cosa, sa taaaaaanto di fuffa anti europeista. se i brand restavano yankee li avrebbero criticato lo stesso? - pm10

Translated by Google: Copy and paste everything written on that page for any brand that is trying to sell a life style more ‘than a product. then blame Luxottica brand that has found that Americans were no more and less the same thing, you know taaaaaanto of fuffa anti-European. if the Yankee brand them have remained the same criticism?

“2009 will be a tough year. On the one hand we are seeing a structural slowdown in consumption, which will last at least six to nine months, on the other, a shorter but very intense period of uncertainty and instability.”

I’ve got another “hand” for you right here, Andrea… How many people, trying to make ends meet during this “intense period of uncertainty”, who FINALLY REALIZE you’ve been screwing them year after year will come back in six months? Six years? I’d guess no one, outside of the mentally ill, would even consider it. 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the tough times at Luxottica are going to be tougher and perhaps perpetual as people have their eyes opened.

Prices will continue to go up — that is unless we hit them where it hurts and force some major changes in this industry. They’ve made billions in profits by taking extreme advantage of our inability to see without eyeglasses. Their one-hour service made it impossible to ignore them especially when it was difficult to afford more than one pair of current-prescription eyeglasses at a time. There is no longer any reason to be stuck in that situation.

Here are a few ways that you can help “stick it back to them“:

1. Become familiar with the Luxottica brands and stores and avoid them entirely.
2. Shop online. Order a spare pair for 1/10 the price of a pair at LensCrafters. Don’t get stuck NEEDING glasses when yours are broken.
3. Share your experiences with your friends — whether they wear glasses or not. Use the internet to chronicle your online purchases. Help make this viral! People NEED TO KNOW that there are options. 

• Luxottica was founded in 1961 by Leonardo Del Vecchio.
• Luxottica is an Italian company.
• Leonardo Del Veccchio is 72 years old.
• Leonardo Del Vecchio is the Chairman of Luxottica Group S.p.A.
• Luxottica had revenue estimated at €5.7Billion in 2007 (that’s well over $7Billion USD).
• Luxottica has roughly 62,000 employees worldwide. 
• Leonardo Del Vecchio is the 77th richest person in the world.
• Leonardo Del Vecchio has a fortune in excess of $10Billion.
• Leonardo Del Vecchio owns a ship — not a boat — a 203ft yacht named “MONEIKOS”
• Luxottica bought Ray Ban in 1999.
• Luxottica bought Oakley in 2007 (for $2.1Billion).
• Luxottica owns the pseudo eye-insurance brand EyeMed.
• Leonardo Del Vecchio’s son Claudio owns Brooks Brothers.
• Luxottica has approximately 6,500 retail outlets in the United States.

Think I’m exaggerating? Take a look at the ever-growing list of Luxottica Brands from manufacturing (Oakley, Ray-Ban…), retail (LensCrafters, Pearle, Target…) and insurance (EyeMed).

Looking beyond the hand-crafted-by-Swiss-eunuchs type frames that appear in the couture eyeglasses shops of the major cities, the typical eyeglasses frame is little more than a few dollars worth of plastic, metal and tiny hardware with a few moments of human manufacturing and packaging time. Then why when I walk into a LensCrafters do these fancy plastic tags and diminutive stickers carry such outrageous prices? There are only a couple of reasons but the most important one is greed – more on that over here. (the others are that worthless brand name, the store’s fancy carpeting and lights, and the salary of that guy over there in the white lab coat — oh and the lab coats themselves).

A few of the ways Luxottica hurts us:

• They make us hesitant to keep our prescriptions current – every time we get our eyes checked we know there is a $300 or $400 “new eyeglasses fee” attached to it. This keeps us in that old, outdated prescription longer — if the single pair of glasses we own holds up, that is. When it doesn’t we’re forced back into their little game, unless you’re handy and patient — or informed.
• They’ve duped us into thinking that $400 is “reasonable” for glasses — all of the optical stores have benefited from this. I’ve watched prices creep up from $100 to $400 in 20 years (twice the rate of inflation during that timeframe. All of this increase is for what? Most of these framesa are made at nearly slave wages in China.
• Massively overpriced lenses and coatings — More than half of the expense in a pair of glasses is in the lenses, and that’s as it should be. The frame is little more than the mediocre bread in the vision correction sandwich. The problem is, they’re charging aged prosciutto rates for bologna. Featherwates? Please. I was (over)sold on the hi-index thing for years. I have a moderate prescription (-4.00ish) and I haven’t gone with hi-index lenses on a modern, or plastic frames in two years. There is no need on smaller lenses.
• Their “insurance” is becoming more and more pervasive and it’s costing you — like most optical insurance, there really isn’t much to it. Essentially, EyeMed is little more than a marketing organization pointing you at specific retailers. They tell you that you’re going to get a “deal”, but it’s really only the beginning of a big bait and switch in which you get to choose between two less than great options.

Much more to come.

These are the brands to avoid if you’d like to pay a reasonable amount for eyeglasses in the future.

(as of October 26, 2008)

Luxottica’s Stores (or places NOT TO SPEND MONEY)

• LensCrafters
• Sears Optical
• Target Optical
• Pearle Opticians
• Pearle Vision
• Cole Vision Care
• Sunglass Hut International
• OPSM
• Laubman & Pank
• Budget Eyewear
• Surfeyes
• WatchStation
• ILORI

Luxottica’s House Brands

• Ray-Ban
• Oakley
• Revo
• Arnette
• Killer Loop
• Persol
• Vogue
• Luxottica
• Sferoflex

Luxottica also makes sunglasses sold under designer labels such as:

• Chanel
• Prada
• Dolce & Gabbana
• Versace
• Bulgari
• Miu Miu
• Salvatore Ferragamo
• Donna Karan
• DKNY
• Genny
• Byblos
• Brooks Brothers
• Sergio Tacchini
• Anne Klein
• Versus
• Ralph Lauren
• Polo
• Chaps
• Ralph
• Oliver Peoples
• Adrienne Vittadini
• Tiffany & Co.

Luxottica also runs one of the leading (and crappiest) vision “insurance” plans:

• EyeMed Vision Care