The Real Cost of Your Prada Glasses: It’s Not What You Think

Why are glasses so expensive? The answer has nothing to do with the glass — it has everything to do with a $170 billion monopoly that quietly bought up almost every piece of the eyewear industry over sixty years. In this deep dive, we trace how Leonardo Del Vecchio, an orphan from postwar Milan who started out making metal hinges by hand, built EssilorLuxottica into the most complete monopoly in consumer goods — a company that makes the frames, owns the stores, manufactures the lenses, licenses the names of nearly every fashion house you can think of, and even runs the vision insurance that decides how much you pay. Then we go to Danyang, China — a city of under a million people that most people have never heard of, and that now produces roughly half of every prescription lens made on Earth. We break down how $8 glasses shipped straight from Danyang can match the optical quality of a $250 name-brand pair, why that gap exists in the first place, and how companies like Zenni Optical and Warby Parker are already cutting a hole in a monopoly that took six decades to build. If you've ever looked at a glasses price tag and wondered who decided it should cost that much, this is the video that answers it. #China #Business #Documentary #Money #Glasses #Monopoly #Eyewear #CheapGlasses #RayBan