There’s certainly little doubt that the sport eyewear market is growing in popularity, numbers and influence on the whole eyewear and sunwear arena. More than 90 percent of independent optical locations that dispense eyeglasses now also dispense some type of sport eyewear. This number is up significantly from 86 percent last year, according to Jobson Optical Research, who recently conducted a follow-up MarketPulse study for 20/20 surveying 174 respondents at independent optical locations. This sector of the optical industry is becoming mainstream as a source of enhanced vision options with an indicative trend situation that could provide value to consumers and optical dispensers.

As vision patients become more active, dispensers should take action to providing them with the sport eyewear as delivered in a variety of specialized activities requiring a range of vision enhancement properties.