 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1937 |
| Founder | Edwin Land |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Eyewear and sunglasses |
| Owner | Safilo Group S.p.A. |
| Website | www |
Polaroid Eyewear manufactures polarized sunglasses and polarized lenses, as well as optical frames, reading glasses, and clip-on lenses.
Polaroid Eyewear was a part of the StyleMark group and sold to the Safilo Group in November 2011. Polaroid headquarters is located in Padua (Italy).
Edwin Land, born in 1909 in Connecticut, invented Polaroid, the world's first polarizing material for commercial use, in 1929. He founded the Polaroid Corporation in 1937 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [1] The company initially produced Polaroid Day Glasses, the first sunglasses with a polarizing filter. [2]
In 1935 Land negotiated with American Optical Company to produce polarized sunglasses. [3] Such glasses could screen out glare rather than simply darken the landscape. Land and Wheelwright contracted to begin production of Polaroid Day Glasses, a longtime source of revenue for Polaroid. [4]
With venture capital from railroad tycoon W. Averell Harriman and merchant banker and part-time songwriter James P. Warburg, Edwin Land, George Wheelwright, and Julius Silver incorporated Polaroid Corporation on September 13, 1937. Polaroid began the manufacturing of polarizing sheet for windows in railroad observation cars. [5]
In 1939 Day Glasses were the source of most of Polaroid's $35,000 profit, which introduced the first 3D movie glasses that same year. [6] Although sales rose to $1 million in 1941, the company's 1940 losses had reached $100,000, and it was only World War II military contracts that saved Land and his 240 employees. By 1942 the wartime economy has tripled Polaroid's size. A $7 million navy contract to work on the Dove heat-seeking missile project is the largest contract Polaroid has ever had, though the bomb is not used during World War II. [7]
Polaroid produced a number of other products for the Armed Forces, including a device that determined an aircraft's elevation above the horizon, an infrared night viewing device, goggles, lenses, color filters for periscopes, and range finders. [7] At the beginning of its history Polaroid produced polarized sheets to be used for the elimination of automobile headlight glare. For the same reason sunglasses and filters were used by the American Army, especially for aviation, indeed Polaroid glasses were thought to protect aviator from sunlight but also atomic bomb explosions. [8] Cool-Ray was a division of American Optical for the sunglasses. It was the originator of the polarized sunglass as it is known today. It manufactured the lenses using a process that was licensed from Polaroid Corporation. Cool-Ray paid Polaroid a royalty in the early 1940s. [9]
In 1965 Polaroid moved its production to Vale of Leven in Scotland, a few years later in 1972 the production of sunglasses was added. It promotes a number of programs in the community on the health theme. Polaroid is the major sponsor of a series of 10K road races, which take place each June over various courses in west Dunbartonshire. [10] In the next decades other plants were opened in Europe, South America and Far East.
In the 1960s the designer Oleg Cassini collaborated with Cool Ray and his influence is clear in many Polaroid models. In the 1980s, Polaroid launched aviator styles with interchangeable lenses in collaboration with tennis star Boris Becker. Kenneth Grange, renowned designer from Pentagram Design Partner, designed the unique IMAGE style in the 1980s. [11]
The original Polaroid Corporation filed for federal bankruptcy protection on October 11, 2001. The outcome was that within ten months, most of the business (including the "Polaroid" name itself and non-bankrupt foreign subsidiaries) had been sold to Bank One's One Equity Partners (OEP). OEP Imaging Corporation then changed its name to Polaroid Holding Company (PHC). However, this new company operated using the name of its bankrupt predecessor, Polaroid Corporation. [12]
Petters Group Worldwide, the owner of the Polaroid brand at the time, sold Polaroid Eyewear to specialist eyewear company StyleMark in March 2007. [13] StyleMark is a global distributor of fashion, sport, and children's sunglasses.
In 2011, it was acquired by the Italian group Safilo. [14] Following the acquisition, Safilo moved Polaroid Eyewear's production from Scotland to China [6] and the historic Scottish production site in Dumbarton was completely dismantled. [15] In 2023, the brand introduced a new logo. [16]
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses and spectacles, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms, known as temples or temple pieces, that rest over the ears.
A Polaroid synthetic plastic sheet is a brand name product trademarked and produced by the Polaroid Corporation used as a polarizer or polarizing filter. The term “Polaroid” entered the common vocabulary with the early 1960s introduction of patented film and cameras manufactured by the corporation that produced “instant photos”.
Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and the retinex theory of color vision, among other things. His Polaroid instant camera went on sale in late 1948 and made it possible for a picture to be taken and developed in 60 seconds or less.
Sunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can sometimes also function as a visual aid, as variously termed spectacles or glasses exist, featuring lenses that are colored, polarized or darkened. In the early 20th century, they were also known as sun cheaters.
Polaroid Corporation was an American company best known for its instant film and cameras, which now survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of his Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land and Polaroid created the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948.
Photokeratitis or ultraviolet keratitis is a painful eye condition caused by exposure of insufficiently protected eyes to the ultraviolet (UV) rays from either natural or artificial sources. Photokeratitis is akin to a sunburn of the cornea and conjunctiva.
Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian eyewear conglomerate based in Milan. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands all through its own subsidiaries. The company, presently organized as a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica which formed when the Italian conglomerate merged with the French optical firm Essilor, is the world's largest company in its industry, both prior to and after its merger with Essilor.
Ray-Ban is a brand of luxury sunglasses and eyeglasses created in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb. The brand is best known for its Wayfarer and Aviator lines of sunglasses. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold the brand to Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica Group for a reported $640 million.
Mirrored sunglasses are sunglasses with a reflective optical coating on the outside of the lenses to make them appear like small mirrors. The lenses typically give the wearer's vision a brown or grey tint. The mirror coating decreases the amount of light passing through the tinted lens by a further 10–60%, making it especially useful for conditions of sand, water, snow, and higher altitudes. Mirrored sunglasses are one-way mirrors.
Essilor International is an international ophthalmic optics company that designs, manufactures and markets lenses to correct or protect eyesight. Its headquarters is in Charenton-le-Pont, France.
Aviator sunglasses are a style of sunglasses that was developed by a group of American firms. The original Bausch & Lomb design is now commercially marketed as Ray-Ban Aviators, although other manufacturers also produce aviator-style sunglasses.
Eyewear is a term used to refer to all devices worn over both of a person's eyes, or occasionally a single eye, for one or more of a variety of purposes. Though historically used for vision improvement and correction, eyewear has also evolved into eye protection, for fashion and aesthetic purposes, and starting in the late 20th century, computers and virtual reality.
Maui Jim is an American sunglasses manufacturer based in Peoria, Illinois.
Polaroid may refer to:
Safilo Group S.p.A. is an Italian company that designs, produces, and distributes prescription frames, sunglasses, sports eyewear, ski goggles and helmets, and cycling helmets under its own five house brands and 32 licensed brands, including Smith Optics since 1996.
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EssilorLuxottica SA is an Italian-French vertically integrated multinational corporation based in Paris and founded on 1 October 2018 from the merger of the Italian Luxottica with the French Essilor. The eyewear-focused group designs, produces and markets ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment, prescription glasses and sunglasses.
The American Optical Company, also known as AO Eyewear, is a luxury American eyewear and sunglass company based in Vernon Hills, Illinois near Chicago. AO designs and manufactures in the United States.
Bailey Nelson is an Australian multinational optical retail chain, which operates mainly in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. Bailey Nelson is, as of 2021, a privately held company.
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