Moves to change the branding and price direction at eyewear brand Sito Shades was an easy decision for management.
Marketing swapped out what The Leisure Collective Inc. Americas President Eric Carlson described as a grunge-like aesthetic the brand launched with in 2022 in favor of cheerier imagery set against bright pops of color and sunlight.
“We kind of joke, but sunglasses are for wearing outdoors and that’s what we wanted to showcase,” Carlson said of the new branding. “To sell sunglasses, you need to show people having a good time, smiling out in the sun. Showing dark, dreary images is not an attractive approach, so we changed that.”
The about-face also comes with Sito’s rollback in pricing, dropping retail prices by roughly $20. The entire collection of polar and standard lenses is now priced between $49.95 and $69.95.
Last year proved a wake-up call for the young brand, which is now in about 190 doors.
Across the board, whether that be core surf or women’s boutiques, premium eyewear at $500 and above still performed. Anything else priced between the very high end and the $50 to $60 range saw a slowdown, Carlson noted.
“That $75 to $175 range was really struggling,” Carlson said. “When you get down into the $20 to $60 range, there’s some high interest at the consumer level.”
The Leisure Collective thought bringing Sito’s collection down to the $40 to $60 range was a long-term business move that didn’t sacrifice quality.
“There’s definitely products that are selling at $20 or $30, but we don’t feel that’s really a sustainable business,” Carlson said. “That’s not our strength. We don’t deal in the mass market; it’s much more specialty. So that $40 to $60 sweet spot – which has been there for a long time –with the economic pressures and quite frankly the quality you’re able to get at $40 to $60, is meeting the consumers’ expectations much more than it was a couple years ago.”
Examples of the relaunched branding for Sito. Photo courtesy of Sito.
Eyewear Landscape
There’s a confluence of factors at play in eyewear and they’re not short-term occurrences.
Carlson sees the demand for lower price points within the category a mid- to long-term trend.
And, while some might point to the rise of lower-priced sunglass brands, such as I-Sea, as impacting the overall market Carlson pointed out value-priced lines have always been around.
“This is not an overnight reaction or trend based on the last year and a half of the economy,” he said. “There have always been multiple brands in that $30 to $60 range for decades and each brand that had its era of success, they really hit the mark on price, quality, design, and distribution. Today, I-Sea is absolutely getting that visibility. For 10 or 15 years it was Suncloud. There are always other brands out there competing for the space, and that value consumer has not and will not shift from that price range.”
Historically, Carlson said, that consumer that’s gravitated to those value brands have milled around the $50 price.
“The $75 to $175 range is kind of no man’s land for the next couple of years,” he said.
San Clemente-based I-Sea has been on a tear of late, initially breaking into the market with an easy to remember pricing strategy for its polarized shades of $28, $38, and $48. It’s done well in the core but has also been able to prove it can transition seamlessly into fashion and chains. That includes Free People and Anthropologie, where I-Sea’s been able to successfully sell at a higher price point of $68.
Navigating a Rocky Patch
When Sito first launched, the idea was to make it a complementary brand to Otis. It’s no accident Sito is Otis spelled backwards, further solidifying the yin-and-yang concept behind the two brands.
While Sito attracts the 17- to 25-year-old, Otis is aimed at 27- to 45-year-olds with price points averaging $240 to $260.
Eric Carlson of The Leisure Collective at Outdoor Retailer in 2022. SES file photo.
While Carlson is upbeat about the outlook for The Leisure Collective’s eyewear business (it’s also the exclusive Americas and Caribbean distributor for Creatures of Leisure and Layday), he’s realistic about the tough year the businesses are emerging from.
“I think 2023 in the United States was a challenging year for the eyewear business. There was a lot of consumer fatigue, a lot of promotional activity for all brands all year long,” Carlson said. “There were too many options and not enough consumer demand, so it led to a flat, in some ways, boring year for eyewear.”
Carlson, a veteran in the eyewear industry having worked in the space for more than 25 years, said there’s “a race to the bottom” occurring in the market with promotions. Only those brands with a distinct point of view in the consumers’ eyes will thrive, he said.
The Sito team thinks the brand can be one of those that rides out the current hurdles, aided by the relaunch.
“I’m very optimistic because we’ve been so under distributed and we’re getting more and more significant doors,” Carlson said of how he’s looking at this year. “We’re also addressing price escalation, whether it’s brand led or economy led. Both of our (eyewear) brands are bringing significant lower price offerings that we feel are going to really affect the retail sell through. Most brands would never reduce price on a product and for us to take such a significant move on Sito specifically, we want the retailer and hopefully the consumer to recognize the new price value proposition, drive turn, and sell it.”
