Eyewear, the Largest Number of Licenses Goes to Italy

According to the latest world survey on the licensed brands in the eyewear sector, Italy leads the way with 301 licenses, almost double the number granted to French producers, and only slightly less than three times the number that goes to the US.

Commenting on this data, Carlo Pambianco, president of Pambianco Strategie di Impresa, said 'it is immediately obvious that the number one producer for quality is Italy, where there is a big industry in top-level eyewear.'

The worldwide analysis of the sector shows that in Italy there is a strong presence of designer brands and eyewear industries and the tendency is to entrust production and distribution to external specialists (the licensees) rather than handle them directly: a reversal of the situation in other fashion areas, such as leatherwear and clothing, where key brands tend to call in licenses and to produce the goods themselves.

If eyewear houses tend to rely on external companies, it's because producing and distributing for this sector requires very specific expertise, not to mention the necessity for major investments in production technologies, which can be amortized only by licensees with several brands in their portfolio.