Smith Sport Optics History

Smith Sport Optics was founded in 1965 by Robert Smith, a dentist and, above all, athlete and very keen skier who, in a bid to achieve supreme visibility on the snow, worked in his laboratory to come up with the first double-lens ski goggles: an extraordinary invention that made the problem of fogging a thing of the past.

The ski goggles immediately proved highly popular in the market and Smith Sport Optics soon became an established in the business and manufacture and distribution of ski goggles.

From 1989 to 1995 Smith Optics developed exclusive polarised lens technologies in addition to numerous international patents.

Smith Optics is headquartered in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA. All work is carried out according to local tradition with regard for a healthy lifestyle, oriented towards physical activity, in full and complete harmony with the environment and values of the mountain community.

Today, Smith's main market area and core business continues to be ski goggles, followed by sunglasses and motocross goggles.

Smith targets active people who are seriously into the hottest sports, such as snowboarding, free style skiing, surfing and mountain biking. Trendy, fashion conscious people with a strong sense of individuality.

Smith goggles represent the top end of the market, with highly aggressive, trendy goggles that are a perfect complement to the universe of freestyle skiing and snowboarding, thought their success also comes from the high technical level achieved through international patents.

Smith sunglasses have developed into two main product families: sport-oriented, which is mainly linked to the pursuit of sports with a technical slant; and fashion-oriented, which exploits the image of the sports world to associate itself with the image of a lifestyle inspired by extreme sports.

The surfing world remains the primary source of inspiration in terms of design and positioning, continuing to draw substantial sponsorship investments with world-leading athletes and events.