Who is behind Ray-Ban?
Shows documented founders, leaders, board members, funders and owners.
Not who made decisions, or why.
A connection is not evidence of wrongdoing.
On the record
Sourced links that no one presents as their own account, as recorded so far. Others may exist.
Founded by
-
Bausch & Lomb
founded
1937
Scholarship & press
1
As a brand, renamed from the Anti-Glare sunglasses.
Owners
Going further
Proof 2 sources
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Do aviators wear aviators?, Slate, May 2009.
Scholarship & press
Bausch & Lomb rebranded the Anti-Glares as Ray-Ban sunglasses (so-called because they banish rays) in 1937 and started selling them to the general public.
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B&L eyewear brands sale completed, Rochester Business Journal, 28 Jun 1999.
Scholarship & press
Bausch & Lomb Inc. and Luxottica SpA today completed Luxottica’s cash purchase of Bausch & Lomb’s sunglass business for $640 million.
The transaction includes all of Bausch & Lomb’s lines of sunglasses, including Ray Ban, Revo, Arnette and Killer Loop brands.
How this answer is built
Lines on the record come first: sourced links that no one presents as their own account, each with its strongest source. Then every account recorded here gets its own column, A to Z, none ranked above another. A column quotes only that account's own words and shows the strength of its own sources. Disputed lines are listed apart, with the reason, and lines still being verified come last. Neither is counted. Withdrawn lines are never shown.
When a list is longer than the page shows, the links the public methodology ranks strongest stay (methodology 0.3), and the rest open in the explorer.
Know a source we are missing? Propose it with a pull request to content/entities/org/ra/ray-ban.md.