In 1990, shipments of ophthalmic goods totaled $2.27 billion, having risen from $1.28 billion in 1982, though with a slight downturn in the mid-1980s.
Through the 1990s, sales continuously improved, attributable in part to the increasing popularity of designer sunglasses and to technological innovations in the development of contact lenses.
increased demand for ophthalmic products elevated the production and sales levels of manufacturers to an unprecedented high.
These companies generated about $4.45 billion in 2001 shipment values for products covered in this industry classification.
Contact lenses, by far the dominant ophthalmic goods product in the 2000s, accounted for more than 43 percent of the total shipments delivered by the industry, with soft contact lenses representing 95 percent of the contact lens product share.
sales dropped during the early and mid-1990s, due to factors such as animal rights campaigns, warm winters, and a glut in the international fur market
The industry relies heavily on consumer advertising for retail sales, spending $517 million on such advertising in 1998, up 8 percent from 1997.
The canned foods industry generated more than $14.5 billion in sales in the late 1990s
Shipments for ophthalmic goods totaled approximately $4.35 billion in 2001, up slightly from approximately $4.32 billion the previous year.
Wholesale billings for the overall optical industry increased from $400 million in 1959 to $900 million by 1969, and then doubled to nearly $2 billion by the end of the 1970s.
For example, the leading company in the industry, Bausch and Lomb Inc., garnered more than two-thirds of its sales in 1999 from health care products.
Bra sales rose by 50 percent in the last half of the 1990s, compared with 20 percent for the apparel industry as a whole. The introduction of new lines of sports bras contributed to this increase.
Showing only modest gains in the early 1990s, industry sales hit $1.73 billion in 1994 but then drew back to $1.67 billion in 1995, when manufacturers reported sluggish retail sales. By 1997, sales were back up to $1.8 billion