Ray Ban Wayfarer Gets Back Into Fashion

Founded 1937, Ray Ban sunglasses have been globally recognized as some of the best high-end sunglasses in the world. Bausch and Lomb did well in expanding and bringing out the brand with extremely good reputation in the eyewear fashion. Ray Ban was able to produce different eyewear styles and one of the most best-selling designs is the Ray Ban Wayfarer.

Ray Ban Wayfarer started in 1952 from which it became far-reaching and popular during the time. It was designed by Raymond Stegeman with amazing contours combining the mid-century and the classic eyewear designs. It was fabricated with a trapezoidal frame that makes it look attractive that confers a masculine guise. Wayfarer is the design that first applies plastic technology on Ray Ban eyewear that marks the evolution of metal frames into plastic frames. Its popularity lows down in the 1970s but it makes a comeback for revival after a decade.

Wayfarer is supposed to be banked for suspension due to low sales in the year 1981 but it boost up in 1982 when Ray Ban signed a $50,000-a-year contract with Unique Product Placement making Ray Ban Sunglasses visible on movies and television segments. From 1982 up to 1987 Ray Ban was able to render their sunglasses on 60 movies and TV shows every year. Even the following years, Ray Ban products still astounds through 2007 were Wayfarers became a decades sunglass of choice. The movie, Risky Business in 1983 sets the launch of Wayfarers Phenomenon which was fronted by Tom Cruise as he wears the sunglass on the movie. Ray Ban was able to sell 360, 000 pairs of Wayfarers. A big break follows in 1986 when Wayfarers gets 1.5 Million sales after it appears in Miami Vice, The Breakfast Club and Moonlighting. Its popularity furthers to several popular music artists and celebrities such as Madonna, Micheal Jackson, Debbie Harry, Elvis Costello, Ana Wintour and Jack Nicholson. From the 2 models of Wayfarer in 1981, Ray Ban was able to spread about 40 models all through 1989 but it became unpopular again in the 1990s.

It was 2001 when Ray Ban Wayfarer took a remarkable revamp. Acetate frames were replaced with lighter injected plastics and the shape was made smaller and become a bit rounded. It was moved back again into fashion as Ray Ban Wayfarers with vintage frames gets good sales demand on the market. And in the year 2007, Ray Ban responded the demand of Wayfarer from its original style down to its new Wayfarers where it became the third best-selling style of the Luxottica Group. In 2008, Wayfarers were made available with more models and colors and gained a 40% increase on its sales. Ray Ban later made several designs to Wayfarers such as the Ray Ban Myth and the Ray Ban Meteor. Now, there are a lot of sunglasses from other manufacturers that are inspired by Ray Bans products. A lot of Wayfarer-inspired sunglasses have been released in 2008 such as Oakleys Poolside and Jupiter.