They are now 85 years old, out of style, but selling for hundreds of thousands this summer. The famous Aviator glasses, signed by Ray-Ban, will continue to experience an increase in sales.
In the UK, the model has been one of the best-selling models since the start of the summer, David Clulow Group, one of the country’s largest retailers, confirmed to Bloomberg.
In fact, since its inception in 1937, the Aviator has never disappeared from shop windows with regular sales spikes making the frame almost timeless.
But this success is due in part to those who have put on the glasses. From US military like General Macarthur in World War II to Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp.
But if there’s one person who gets these glasses stuck on his nose, it’s Tom Cruise. Thanks to the success of Top Gun, in 1986, he completely relaunched sales of the Aviators worn by the hero of the iconic film.
Better yet, the actor saved the American firm Bausch & Lomb, which manufactures the brand. all thanks to the movie risky business, launched in 1983. Ray-Ban went out of fashion then, so sales became almost anecdotal. Bankruptcy is not far off for the American company.
Until the arrival of this film, then, which revealed Tom Cruise to the general public. The actor plays a young high school student who falls in love with a prostitute. He wears the Wayfarers model, launched in 1952.
Sales are exploding. We sold 111,000 copies a year in 1982. It will sell three million in 1988 after appearing in hundreds of movies after risky business. Same trajectory for the Aviators after top gun.
And it’s not about product placements. The artist “just likes our products,” the brand’s boss said in 1988. The actor is then so associated with the brand that the director of rain manBarry Levinson insisted that I change it. Unsuccessful, he will wear Ray-Ban Clubmaster in the film.
Of course, you will make some deviations: Persol in Cocktailoakley in Mission: Impossible 2… But invariably, he will return to his first love, especially for the second part of Top Gun: Maverickreleased this year.
Glasses that keep on the nose outside of any fashion effect. At the movie premiere. Star Trek: Into the DarkIn 2013, a journalist asked him if the glasses he was wearing allowed him to see the film in 3D. “No man, they’re Ray-Bans,” he replied.
Source: BFM TV
