re: Sun glasses : knock off vs. Name brand

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The reason sunglasses are so expensive is because one company has a monopoly on the whole industry. This sixty minutes piece is a bit dated, but Luxottica has only acquired more companies since then.

60 minutes on why sunglasses are so expensive

It is literally an illusion of choice and most of the same materials going into the Ray Ban and Oakley sunglasses are being used on target optical.

Sure they are better than the 10 dollar Chinese plastic, but 300 dollars is just pure profit.

Costco is the second largest seller of eyewear, and they make Italian made sunglasses that sell for less than 30 dollars. Anyone who has owned a pair of Kirkland sunglasses will tell you their quality is on par with the big names.

Luxottica owns all these companies, they force sellers to only carry their brands or they refuse to stock them. If you are selling sunglasses and are not selling Luxottica brands you are probably going out of business. So no one has any incentive to come up with a comparable brand.

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I've mentioned Luxottica whenever I see a sunglasses/glasses thread pop up. It's one of the biggest retail scams out there. I always lose my sunglasses, became fed up with losing $200+ shades, so I started buying cheapo Chinese. I tried a pair of the Kirkland signature shades, and loved them. I've probably bought 5-6 pairs in the last year.

I've been buying the Italian glasses. They have a Japanese pair that look very similar, but have a really thin temples, and a springed hinge, but Bucky the same lenses. They are identical quality as I've seen from any name brand.