Foster Grant launched the first mass-market sunglasses in the United States in 1929. Sam Foster founded the company after adapting plastic products into affordable eyewear for consumers.
The sunglasses were sold to beachgoers in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Their low price and seaside setting helped establish sunglasses as a widely accessible fashion and practical accessory rather than a specialist optical product.
Foster Grant’s history is often mixed up with the broader history of sunglasses. Earlier protective tinted eyewear existed, but Foster Grant is associated with making sunglasses available to a mass American market.
The brand later became famous for advertising and celebrity endorsements, including the slogan “Who’s behind those Foster Grants?” Its early retail strategy helped shape the modern sunglasses market.