Akoni and Safilo on the Positive Road Ahead for Eyewear

Sitting out Vision Expo East this year, both Akoni and Safilo eyewear showed in Milan at Mido. While Akoni, which was founded in 2019, is newer to the market, Safilo just marked 90 years in the industry.

Here, each company gives a closer look at how they are navigating the market in the U.S.

Akoni

Akoni Eyewear chief executive officer Rosario Toscano sees the U.S. market primed for the company’s Japanese-made luxury eyewear. “It is the market where most of the trends start, especially in the eyewear segment. It is very reactive on new brands,” he said, adding that the U.S. is the most important market for the brand. “Thirty-five percent of our total revenue globally was done in United States and today it’s still the only market that we have an e-commerce platform directly.” The e-commerce platform has yielded so much success, the CEO said, that they plan to launch it globally in March.

In the last year, rather than grow distribution in the U.S., the CEO is focusing on “the depth” of product they have in each door for a customer that is “really into material and understands quality. With our ceramic nose pad, it’s a very small element. But this detail of attention captures the interest of an American consumer.”

He shared that big acetate eyewear is selling strongly but sees a “very positive trend” in titanium sunglasses. “In general, everything starts from the [business-to-business] platform. So everything starts with the optician. And U.S. opticians take more risk, they’re not afraid to showcase new products.”

Along with its namesake brand, the company manufactures eyewear for Balmain and Valentino. “As far as distribution, 90 to 95 percent of our sales are through the optical channel. With Akoni, we are 50/50, optical and sun; Balmain, we are more into the 60/40, optical and sun. And with Valentino, we are almost 80/20 sun and optical, but also that’s related to the fact that we launched the optical in 2023, so it’s quite new to the market.”

At Mido, Akoni debuted the Crafted Cosmo with a full buffalo horn frame. “It’s customizable, so we have three different colors of the horn, And then you can have the rivets in gold or silver. So, this is only 100 units worldwide,” he said of the style, which retails for $2,500. For Balmain, it launched several new styles, including The Colonial, a large rimless frame “with a lot of elements related to the DNA of the brand without having a logo. So, one of the ideas when we launch a collection like Balmain or Valentino was the idea that we don’t need a logo to explain that this frame is from this brand.”

At Valentino, the news of Alessandro Michele taking the creative helm was “great news for us,” as the designer is “an eyewear lover and he has a clear idea how to develop the collection. It was very exciting for us to have the opportunity,” Toscano said, adding that a big collection is in the works “because Alessandro likes to play a lot with sunglasses. And so we have the largest collection we ever presented in the market.”

Looking ahead, he sees the luxury eyewear segment holding strong in the face of economic uncertainty. “The luxury segment in eyewear does not suffer as other segments, because really we’re looking at the ultra-luxury, especially with our price point. I strongly believe that specialty brands will continue to grow, especially in eyewear because people more and more want the best they can get. The buyers of today are very focused. I mean, even when Akoni was not so famous, we were surprised how many people were trying to buy us. We say, ‘How come someone in Mexico is trying to buy our product? How do they even know about us?’”

The challenge he shared, is thinking long term. “Back in the day you could have a plan for a few years and try to develop brands in a certain way, digitally or marketing. And now, every day there is a new way of promoting yourself and there is new need in the market and the consumer is looking for something different.

“And I know that there is a lot of disruption going on with Meta and everyone trying to come up with something that will replace the traditional way of doing eyewear. But in general for the eyewear industry, that would be very hard to replace the frame itself. I see a lot of changes happening in the lens technology, that’s for sure, because the real technology is in the lens, it is not in the frame itself,” he said.

“When I started this company, my goal was to create a specific product for the eyewear segment that was related to the importance of the engineering. I wanted to create something that is specifically tailored for people that use the eyewear on a daily basis. They’re eyewear lovers, even collectors.”

Safilo

At Safilo, president and chief commercial officer of North America Gabriele Cusani is optimistic about the state of the eyewear industry going into 2025 and sees myriad growth opportunities.

“The industry at the moment is healthy, stable and with a single low- to mid-digit growth prospect,” he said. “This is a very competitive industry where in the past few years we saw a fast acceleration concerning the use of technology both in the creation of product and in the optimization of the industrial processes. Consumers are attracted to the possibility to personalize their final products to better suit their needs. Going forward, consumers will be more engaged, digitally savvy and value driven. That is one of the reasons we have been working on a balanced portfolio, which has the right offerings for all distribution channels, addressing all customer types and is centered on the contemporary segment, where the highest demand for eyewear is.”

Cusani explained Safilo sees the optical category as a major opportunity in 2025 “as eyesight problems will continue to increase due to aging population, myopia caused by increased digital device usage linked to blue light damage and a higher awareness of the importance of sun protection against UV light.”

He also explained that personalization is a growing priority among customers, which Safilo is pushing across its portfolio. The company works with licensing partners like Boss, Carolina Herrera, Etro, Fossil, Marc Jacobs and more.

Cusani also stated that Safilo has worked to increase its sustainability measures this year. The company recently joined the Fashion Pact, the global coalition of companies that are committed to environmental goals like stopping global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting oceans.

“Becoming a signatory of the Fashion Pact is part of Safilo’s purpose led strategy and represents a further step confirming the group’s commitment to develop projects and initiatives that address the global challenges of tomorrow in the areas of climate, oceans and biodiversity, as per the Fashion Pact mission and priorities,” he said.

Additionally this year Safilo is continuing its focus on innovation and working to balance its portfolio between owned brands and licensed brands. It is also planning growth initiatives in its sports category and its digital presence.

“The outlook on 2025 remains positive,” Cusani said. “There will be some uncertainties that will need to be addressed, for example any changes on imported goods will have to be managed, what will be the pace of acquisitions of practices is another question mark, just to mention a few. We are focusing on doing better with regards to strengthening our partnership with opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists, have a solid team both centrally and on the field, improving the visibility of our brands in the market and, of course, opening conversations with large customers for growth opportunities in a win-win approach.”