How Luxottica Dominates Sunglasses

The fashion industry is one of the most romanticized yet ruthless markets out there. Competition is unrelenting, fashion trends are notoriously fleeting, and an impending recession threatens to destabilize an already volatile industry

But there’s one product category that remains immune to these challenges: eyewear. While most other categories in the clothing industry continue to struggle, profit margins across major eyewear brands are fat and healthy, driven by prices that have never been higher.

The reality behind this anomaly lies with one company: Luxottica, a company whose reach is as vast as it is invisible to the average shopper. Today, nearly 1.4 billion people around the world wear Luxottica glasses, many doing so without even knowing it. Over the years, the company has quietly grown to control over 80% of major eyewear brands, from popular labels like Ray-Ban and Oakley to high-end names like Prada, Versace, and Chanel.

So, how is it that one company has managed to amass such a significant grip over its industry? And what were the strategies that the company used in doing so? In this episode, we’ll examine the rise of Luxottica and study the chess moves that its founder orchestrated to establish Luxottica as the uncontested monopoly provider of glasses around the world

Chapters:
00:00 An Invisible Empire
03:19 Crafting a Visual Illusion
09:12 From Turnarouns to Hostile Takeovers
18:25 Stifling Competition