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Children need adequate protection against UV rays in the sunshine by wearing sunglasses. In general, sunglasses for children as well as adults should offer 100% UVA and UVB protection. Without proper protection, the eyes can be easily damaged by excessive UV rays. In fact, children need UV protection even more than adults. This is quite understandable because children’s eyes are still under development. 

Some institutes have revealed results of studies focusing on the damage on children’s eyes caused by harmful UV exposure. According to the American Optometric Association, approximately 80% of UV exposure shows up by the age of 18. This accumulation of UV exposure in children can seriously damage the retina. Unfortunately, retinal damage will not appear until an old age. Children and parents are much likely to neglect this damage caused by sunlight. 

An affiliate of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Foundation called the Beverly Hills Vision Center also offers warning signs of UV light. Ophthalmologists from this center point out that a child under 10 years old is significantly more susceptible to retinal damage than an adult. Furthermore, UV exposure is believed to be a leading cause of blindness and other ocular diseases in old people. Conditions such as cataracts and macular degeneration are closely associated with UV overexposure. In serious cases, macular degeneration may lead permanent vision loss. 

With enough awareness of the harmful UV rays, parents should consider sunglasses as a necessity for their children. On the market, there are numerous kids’ sunglasses that come in a wide range of colors, frame shapes, celebrity styles and so forth. With little effort, parents along with their children can choose a right pair. Sunglasses not only offer UV protection, but also serve as an attractive accessory. For those kids who reject sunglasses due to an appearance concern, parents have the responsibility to set up an example by trying on a pair that is attractive.

Some one may think it is crazy that Oakley is going to announce plans for a line of $4,000 sunglasses under such an economic situation. It is a whole line, rather than a single pair. With $4,000, a customer can land a luxurious week in Europe, or get an Armani 100% cashmere overcoat or a diamond ring from Tiffany’s. A common doubt in the industry is that whether these $4,000 sunglasses can attract enough customers. 

Before the availability of the ultra-premium Oakley Elite C Six, the company’s costliest line is the $600 Pit Boss. Another fact is that the new line is going to be the most expensive line in the sunglass industry, estimated by sporting goods gurus and sports marketing experts. Some of them are still wondering that what kind of benefits or quality will be offered by $4,000 sunglasses. 

What’s more confusing to individuals in this field, the company does not expect to make profit on this luxurious line, according to Oakley CEO Colin Baden. On the other hand, the market of luxury products is estimated to be $20 billion, although it is spiraling downturn due to the current economic recession. Statistics from Bain & Co show that luxury-products industry has fell by 8% in 2009. 

Stated by Baden, the firm launches the $4,000 sunglasses line only because it is brand-positive. He also says that Oakley just wants to flex its R&D muscle and thumb its nose at other expensive eyewear markers. It is Oakley being Oakley. 

According to Oakley’s advanced product development chief named Neil Ferrier, special designed and crafted Oakley Elite C Six sunglasses will be worth its price. The frames are more flexible and comfortable for athletes because they are made of approximately 80 layers of costly carbon fiber, which is more commonly used in aerospace and motor sports industries. Neil Ferrier estimates that about 90 hours of machine time are needed for each pair of Oakley Elite C Six sunglasses. 

Oakley will produce at most 200 pairs of Oakley Elite C Six sunglasses over the next year, which will be distributed by its retailers and designer sunglasses boutiques.

Oakley has several new lines for 2009 that are more than mortal. One of the most outstanding product lines from Oakley in this year is the outrageous C SIC sunglasses. This type of glasses is quite an elite line. The most surprising factor is its price that each pair of C SIX sunglasses costs $4,500. This usually unaffordable price enables C SIX line to stay in a high end on the market. 

In addition, C SIX sunglasses in a high price do offer exclusive benefits. The first consideration should be given to the technology of its lenses. Lenses of C SIX glasses use Oakley’s panoply of optical techniques including XYZ lens geometry, iridium coatings as well as hydrophobic or oleophobic surface treatments. The second feature of C SIX glasses is their special frames. These sunglasses are equipped with carbon fiber frame CNC that is machined from a single chunk of composite. 

C SIX line from Oakley uses the carbon fiber in a special way. These sunglasses have diamond-tipped cutting bits slice across the fibers, which design grants them a distinctive look. C SIX glasses also provide titanium hinge assemblies which keep up the high-tech look and feel. Furthermore, the temples are allowed to be slightly flexible. 

The C SIX line also offers a less outrageous version named C SIX Aluminum, which only charges $1,500 each pair. Pit Boss is another elite line option from Oakley. This style uses Oakley’s O Matter moulded frame design. What’s more, Pit Boss glasses cost still $595 per pair. The Pit Boss line applies specially shaped titanium outer plates that perfectly match the rest of the frame.

In addition, the Oakley family still provides more fashionable options, such as Monster Dog and Straight Jacket.

As Luxottica’s once proud retail chain, LensCrafters was considered as the jewel in Luxottica’s optical crown. However, LensCrafters is on the downturn in many aspects now, such as sales, customer number, quality personnel, Eyenet as well as moral. Some people think that the training that all LensCrafters people go through is a joke. They skip over anything important concerning the how and why of optics. 

The current M.B.E training is particularly considered as a joke that the LensCrafters executives require the associates to stand to sell the lenses to customers. A similar requirement is to take mirrors from the areas where the staff sits, in order to accelerate the process. Another stupid idea from the executives is that the associates are required to tell everyone entering to sign in. What’s more serious, LensCrafters resells returned frames. 

There are many things Luxottica can do if the company wants to turn things around. First Luxottica should return to basics by stopping all the cutesy ads. Some people do not buy at chains now but LensCrafters should do what chains do best. Chains including LensCrafters should always give customers a great deal. 

Products from LensCrafters are thought to charge over prices with old technology. Polarized and photochromic lenses at LensCrafters are also over prices now. In particular, their progressive lenses are extremely subpar. It is time for LensCrafters to lower its prices. 

LensCrafters’ staff actually needs proper training because most of them can not answer a basic optical question at all. They do not know how progressive lenses work. There are many more basic aspects of lenses that should be acquired by LensCrafters’ associates. 

Executives of LensCrafters are advised to get rid of M.B.E, which is believed to be an insult towards customers. Customers should be free to shop around. Chain stores of LensCrafters should bring in better products. Currently, many products in these stores are  outdated such as Vogue. 

Other suggestions for Luxottica include offering an ensured warranty, increasing the salary of associates as well as changing the LensCrafters executives.

From: www.eyeoverheard.com

Silmo Optical Exhibition was held from 17 Sept to 20 Sept in Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Recently the Silmo organization released the attendence report, stating a 20% decrease of attendees. The reason of the decline can be attributable to the downturn of world economy and new H1N1 flu. Among the  total 32000 visitors, 49% from France and 51% from other parts of the world. The percentage ratio remained unchanged comparing with that of 2008.

Silmo Optical Exhibition is the big gathering of exhibitors and visitors from the entire optical-eye correction industry. Exhibitors include parts manufacturers, finished goods manufacturers and retail brands of eyeglasses, sunglasses, lenses, contact lenses amd other related products. Visitors include optical industry manufacturers, importers and exporters, traders and general public.

From: www.eyeoverheard.com

According to the Orange County Business Journal, Scott Olivet has resigned from the CEO of Oakley, after four years of service in this position. Prior to Oakley, Olivet has served several companies. From 1998 to 2001, Olivet was the Senior Vice President of the Gap Inc.,  esponsible for the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands. After that, Olivet stayed as the Vice President of Nike Inc. until October 2005. In Nike, he led, developed and executed the firm’s multi-brand strategy. 

During the service as CEO of Oakley since 2005, Olivet helped broker the sale of Oakley to the Italian company Luxottica, which involved totally $2.1 billion. Initial signs after the sale showed that Oakley got manufacturing facilities from Luxottica, in order to further produce and market the Oakley brand. However, there is now negative result that Oakley has lost parts of influence in making notable products. Olivet has been accused of excessively following the boss, Luxottica. 

After the resignation, Olivet is still positive about his future. During an interview with the Orange County Business Journal, Olivet said he would keep good relationship with Oakley and Colin, who was president of the firm and serves as the new CEO now. Olivet also claims that he will also play a personal role in the development of Oakley. 

In fact, Olivet has started an investment concern involving apparel and other consumer companies. His possible roles include investor, active board member and executive. In addition, Olivet also maintains close relationship with Jim Jannard, the founder of Oakley. Olivet plans to contribute to a digital movie camera maker named Red Digital Cinema Camera, which is Jim’s latest venture.

As the retail parent of lensCrafter and Pearle Vision, Luxottica Retail has recently joined a boycott against the Glenn Beck program belonging to Fox News Channel. The campaign launched by ColorChange.org is to some extent a combination of political and commercial issues. 

All controversies originate from the attack against the US president Barack Obama by a Fox News Channel host several weeks ago. The host charged Obama with a racist that has a deep-seated hatred for white people. This subjective attack caused unpleasant reaction from the public, resulting in the current resistance to Beck. 

Before the entry of Luxottica, along with other five companies including Aegon, Ashley Furniture, Humana, United States Postal Service and Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, there are already 56 companies who have been in the campaign. Those companies include Airware Inc., Allergan (maker of Restasis), Ally Bank (a unit of GMAC Financial Services), Ancestry.com, Applebee’s, AT&T, Bank of America, Best Buy, Blaine Labs Inc., Broadview Security, Campbell Soup Company, ConAgra, Clorox, CVS, DirecTv, Ditech, The Elations Company etc. 

The only action advocated by ColorChange.org is to cut off or entirely pull back advertisements on Beck. Many firms have made formal contact with FOX through email. The Postal Service’s Advertising Department stopped its ads on Beck immediately when the issue occurred. Through email, Aegon and Ashley Furniture have also required Beck to remove its ads on the program. Other companies including Humana and Luxottica simply take a similar reaction through a phone conversation. Luxottica Retail takes a rapid action of pulling ads and claims that it has no plans to air more ads on Beck. 

Besides persuading other companies, ColorOfChange.org has still launched a signed petition among its members, which has attracted as many as 180,000 people. The petition aims at urging corporation to reduce advertisements on Beck.

There is currently an environmental move from Revo owned by Luxottica. The company has long been one of the industry-leading brands in manufacturing polarized lenses and lightweight frame material. News shows that Revo is quite less than satisfied with its current contribution. 

Customers may notice that there are new styles of Revo Re-Use eyeglasses in Sunglass Hut stores, which feature the latest Revo Re-Use technology. Through this August, Revo brand ambassadors Alexandra and Jimmy advocated these new products nationwide. It testifies that there is a new generation of environmental and social program advocates around the world. 

In detail, these green eyeglasses from Revo feature a lot both in the lenses and frames. Revo lenses are shatter-resistant, because their materials are the purest form of polycarbonate, Serilium. There are still three types of coatings on Revo Re-Use lenses, namely a selective wavelength attenuation coating, an anti-reflective coating and the Revo’s exclusive Element Shed. The first coating allows usable light and blocks glare and the third coating can reject dust, sand and water. Molded into a single layer, Revo lenses also minimize eyestrain. 

Frames of recycled Revo eyeglasses also provide commitment to environment. In essence, the recycling property results from the material of the frame. All Revo Re-Use eyeglass frames are made from 100% recycled pre-consumer nylon plastics, bringing little impact on the environment. 

Besides these material features, Revo Re-Use eyeglasses also provide particular comfort. Using its Apatented Motion Fit system, Revo produces sunglasses maximizing comfort and minimizing disappointing pressure points on the nose and ears. This is a significant step of fit improvement. 

In addition to environmental concerns, Revo also pays enough attention to the style and design of its recycled glasses. As one of the largest in the circle worldwide, its Revo Re-Use line offers eyeglasses in five stylish frames with eleven colors.

Believe it or not, the online optical stores are booming. You can see from the hot group discussions in Ira’s GlassyEyes.com. According to my rough statistics, only ZenniOptical, the biggest online eyeglasses reatiler so far, takes about 2500 pairs of orders throughout the country EVERY DAY from their website, this is almost 1% of the total consumption of all the prescription eyeglasses in US (suppose the annual total sales of 75 million pairs).

No one can say 1% of the whole country’s business is small business! I remember about a month ago, Essilor called on all the ECPs in US to embrace the new technology to let part of their business online, or there will be further headaches.

CNET’s author Rich Broida wrote about Zenni earlier this year, is this good for country’s optical industry? Rich’s article is here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10219745-58.html

What do you think?

My thinking: being earlier aware of the matter, taking earlier action, the better!

In USA, statistics about Eye Care Professionals are as follow.

According to the Dept of Labor, as of May 2004, there are about 17000 ophthalmologists, 66000 opticians in the United States. As of 2007, there are 35000 optometrists who are the members of American Optometric Association.

Among the 66000 opticians, which is the biggest group within the ECPs, about 33% working on the optical chain store like Pearle Vision and LensCrafters, 30% working in the optometrist’s offices, 10% in the ophthalmologists’ offices and about 6% working on their own independent business, and the balance 21% working in the optical dept of the dept stores, superstores, warehouse club, and general merchandise stores.

Based on the survey conducted by VisionWatch in 2006, the lenses sold throughout US with the following composition: about 51% of the lenses are the basic single vision lenses, for either distance or reading purpose, 26.7% of the lenses are progressive lenses for people over 40, 22.5% of the lenses are the bifocal or multifocal lenses which is also for older people.

For the tricky add-ons, 22% of patients choose AR coating (Anti-reflective coating), 14% of the eyeglasses wearers select photochromic lenses which automatically darkens in the outdoor, which are refered as prescription sunglasses.

Asos Chicos