Unlike footwear and clothing, which reflects one’s taste, eyewear actually projects one’s personality.
It’s easy to underestimate the unique power of eyewear to communicate the brand to the market.
Eyewear isn’t just a fashion accessory. It’s an untapped opportunity for brands to expand, differentiate, and elevate their lifestyle showcasing and brand DNA.
The benefits can be huge and truly lucrative, bringing the following benefits to your brand:
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Margin
Eyewear, especially sunglasses, can truly increase margins compared to your current business.
Depending on the category (especially when manufactured at scale) a luxury price tag can command a significant margin. It’s not so easy to move into a new category and learn the ins and outs of, essentially, another business.
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Lifestyle Relevance
Glasses (both optical and sunglasses) are functional as well as fashionable – making them a part of everyday life.
This means constant brand visibility, unlike some fashion categories that are only worn on special occasions or depend on seasonality.
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Universal Appeal
Unlike shoes or apparel, eyewear doesn’t depend as heavily on size ranges.
Sunglasses are universally sellable across many demographics and regions.
The trick is to have well designed eyewear paying close attention to fit.
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Year-Round Market
Sunglasses are an “at-once” business frequently purchased on impulse.
While sunglasses peak in spring/summer, the optical category ensures year-round demand, creating recurring revenue streams.
Conclusion
Whilst the route to market is dominated by a handful of multi nationals with many licensed brands and frequently vertically integrated, there is a great opportunity for independent brands, with their own distribution, to enter this category, providing they have the right expertise to assist them.
Having an end-to-end eyewear partner, like SOLMAR, is essential. From design and development to manufacturing and distribution, the right partner helps fashion and lifestyle brands reclaim their power in this space and unlock the full potential of eyewear as a growth driver.
