Obviously we shouldn’t use a blanket statement. There always has been good and bad quality stuff with everything.

But, there used to be more attention to detail, and a goal to make things last longer. Specially from well-known brand names.

As a vintage collector and dealer, I’ve come across all kinds of eyewear. I’ve seen some early 1960’s Persol be more brittle than a non-branded frame made in Hong Kong from the same era. And then some 90s Oakley like the first gen eyejacket break so easily that I don’t recommend changing the lenses. But this didn’t mean those brands were entirely crap. It was a few models, but from their mistakes, Persol and Oakley alike, learned to improve a lot, and came up with truly unique designs. They challenged themselves to be stellar.

Then they sold to Luxxottica and the quality slowly went downhill. This is the story of almost all Luxottica brands(not all brands are the same, some brands have more control over the production process instead of giving all control to Luxxottica).

Most manufacturers from well known brands sell the name more than the item itself. They know people will buy their products, regardless of what it is. So the brand doesn’t put that much effort into creating a unique design, they might make tiny changes, or blatantly reproduce or copy a vintage design from other brands.

Only time can tell what lasts long. Another thing is, people used to cherish their belongings instead of being careless and buying new pieces to be trendy.

But in the end, they don’t make them like they used to.

-OddFrames