Product type | Eyewear, sportswear |
---|---|
Owner | Sporoptic Pouilloux |
Country | France |
Introduced | 1961 |
Markets | World |
Website | http://www.vuarnet.com/ |
Vuarnet (French pronunciation: [vyaʁnɛ]) is an eyewear brand, owned and manufactured by Sporoptic Pouilloux, S.A. based in France. The brand was developed from the invention of the Skilynx lens in 1957 by French opticians Roger Pouilloux and Joseph Hatchiguian. The sunglasses were originally marketed under the name Skilynx Acier, and were provided to the French Ski Team.
After alpine ski racer Jean Vuarnet of France won the gold medal in the Downhill at the 1960 Winter Olympics, an agreement was reached in 1961 to market the sunglasses using his last name as the brand name. Vuarnet later became an official corporate sponsor of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.