Sunglasses may date back to over 2,000 years ago when Inuit tribes used walrus bones, driftwood, or caribou bones over their eyes to protect them from the bright light of the sun reflecting from the snow.

Also in 12th-century China, smoked quartz lens panes similar to sunglasses were used by magistrate judges to prevent people reading their expressions.

However, modern sunglasses, as we know them, came to mass market in the 20th century. Foster Grant initially sold sunglasses at a stand on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in New Jersey to guard against the summer sun.