For Decades, Matsuda Eyewear Ranked as One of the Most Desirable Luxury Eyewear Brands On The Market. What Happened and Is a Revival in The Works?

Opticians and optometrists can attest that sometimes a good office cleaning can result in discovering buried treasure.

Which is exactly what happened at Urban Optiques recently.

While sorting through some boxes of old stock, we discovered a treasure trove of brand-new Matsuda eye glasses and sunglasses that had been hiding out under a counter in a back corner.  While the “Matsuda” brand may not be familiar to everyone, longtime eyewear aficionados will instantly recognize it: For the better part of three decades “Matsuda” was one of the most sought-after luxury eyewear brands on the market.

The Mitsuhiro Matsuda Legacy: Chic, Cutting Edge, Yet Elegant

Created by legendary Japanese fashion designer Mitsuhiro Matsuda, Matsudas were the “it” eyeglass frames and sunglasses through the ’80s and ’90s. Known for his soft, yet structured design aesthetic, Mitsuhiro Matsuda parlayed his fashion sense into a line of eyewear that became renowned for it’s chic, artsy style combined with precise Japanese engineering.

“I make clothes for people who dream, yet who want to look credible,” Matsuda once said. That same philosophy found its way into Matsuda’s eyewear line, which made expert use of metals like titanium and combined them with an artist’s eye for detail.

The Hollywood Effect

It didn’t hurt that Matsuda eyewear got a boost in the early ’90s from Hollywood, when a pair of Matsuda sunglasses turned up on actress Linda Hamilton in the 1991 blockbuster “Terminator 2.”

And while the T2 Matsudas (also known as the “Sarah Connor Sunglasses”) found a permanent place in pop culture thanks to their Terminator appearance, the brand was already hot, hot, hot with celebrities and fans of luxury eyewear.

In fact, in 1998, Hip-Hop idol Shawn Puffy Combs name dropped Matsuda during a rap video, further sealing the brand’s street and fashion credentials.

All of this sent optical stores rushing to carry Matsuda eyewear, which at the time was being licensed and distributed through Optical Shop International (OSI) and is considered one of OSI’s early flagship successes.

In fact, Urban Optiques (when it was under a previous owner and name) carried an extensive collection of Matsuda eyewear through the ’90s and into the early part of this decade.  To this day, we still feature two framed Matsuda Eyewear promotional campaign posters in the hallway to the exam room. One of them features the Matsuda “Sarah Connor” sunglasses.

Matsuda Eyewear Loses Its Distributor

Somewhere along the line, however, OSI dropped the Matsuda line — and with it — eyewear boutiques lost their sole source of Matsuda eyewear in the U.S.

Once that happened, it became nearly impossible to order new stock.  Demand continued to be high among existing Matsuda fans, but new supply was pinched. Increasingly, Matsuda fans had to turn to the Internet and places like eBay or dead-stock inventories to track down Matsuda’s or even find replacement parts for their existing frames and sunglasses. Even then, it was slim pickings.

A Legend Dies and a Demand for Matsuda Rises

Mitsuhiro Matsuda died in 2008 after a long battle with liver cancer.  He was eulogized by Kenzo Takada, founder of the Japanese Kenzo fashion empire, as one of the most “faithful, honest and sincere” men Kenzo had known.

His label Nicole, which took New York and Paris by storm in the 1980s, continues to be popular in Japan, even if it’s less well known internationally today. A plan by Matsuda to expand his fashion collection into U.S. boutiques in the late ’80s lost its footing, but his distinctive eyewear continues to draw loyal fans even today. Vintage Matsuda fashion designs can fetch nearly $1,000 today, and some of the harder-to-find Matsuda eyeglass frames also command top dollar on the vintage market.

If Internet search traffic is any indication, demand for Matsuda eyewear continues to be high.

Matsuda and Matsuda eyewear-related terms get nearly a quarter-million searches globally according to Google. Yet Matsuda eyewear fans will be disappointed when they discover that most retailers that carried the line no longer have stock.

Reviving Vintage Matsuda at Urban Optiques

So you can understand how excited we were when we found our long-lost box of “new” Matsuda’s at Urban Optiques.

All of our more than 20 Matsuda frames and sunglasses are in mint or near-mint condition and ready to be fitted with prescription lenses.

Since the Matsudas are no longer available in the U.S., we don’t have the usual restrictions on selling the frames online. That means we can sell the Matsudas nationally to Matsuda collectors.  If you are interested in any of the frames, please e-mail us and we can send more detailed information and photos.  Prices for the Matsuda frames vary depending on model and rarity.

We’d like to see nothing short of a full-blown Matsuda revival on par with what we’ve seen in recent years with the Ray-Ban Wayfarer.  Who knows, maybe Matsuda’s Japanese brand “Nicole” will pick up where Mitsuhiro left off and begin producing and distributing these phenomenal eyeglasses again in the U.S.

Until then, we’ve got your vintage Matsudas at Urban Optiques.