Sunglasses don’t have a single “birthday,” but they evolved in stages over thousands of years, from simple glare‑cutting goggles to modern UV‑blocking fashion accessories.

Quick Scoop

  • Very early glare protection: Arctic peoples like the Inuit used slit “goggles” made from bone or ivory to cut snow glare, likely many centuries (around 2,000 years) ago.
  • Ancient elites: Roman accounts say Emperor Nero watched gladiator games through polished emeralds, though historians debate how accurate that is.
  • First “sunglasses‑like” lenses: By the 12th century in China, judges wore flat panes of smoky quartz to hide their eyes and reduce glare—these are often cited as the first recognizable ancestors of sunglasses.
  • Tinted medical glasses: In the mid‑1700s, English optician James Ayscough experimented with blue and green tinted lenses, mainly to help vision problems, not specifically for sun protection.
  • Modern mass‑market sunglasses: In 1929, American entrepreneur Sam Foster began selling cheap, celluloid sunglasses under the Foster Grant name on the boardwalk in Atlantic City; this is when sunglasses really entered everyday mainstream use.
  • Polarized sunglasses: Also in 1929, Edwin Land (future founder of Polaroid) developed polarizing filter material; by 1935, the first polarized sunglasses were produced commercially.

So, when were sunglasses “invented”?

It depends what you mean by “sunglasses”:

  1. If you mean any kind of tool to protect eyes from bright light or glare:
    • Roughly 2,000 years ago or more (Inuit snow goggles, early Roman and other ancient practices).
  1. If you mean glasses with dark or tinted lenses worn on the face:
    • 12th‑century China with smoky quartz “smoke‑colored glasses.”
  1. If you mean modern, affordable fashion/UV‑protection sunglasses sold to the public:
    • 1929, with Sam Foster’s mass‑produced sunglasses in the United States.

Tiny timeline snapshot

  • Prehistory / ancient: Inuit slit goggles, possible emerald viewing by Nero, other simple glare protection.
  • 1100s (Song dynasty China): Smoky quartz “sunglasses” for judges.
  • 1700s: James Ayscough’s blue/green tinted lenses in Europe.
  • 1900s–1930s: UV‑blocking lenses (Crookes glass), Sam Foster’s mass‑market shades, early aviator styles and polarized lenses.

In short, the idea of sunglasses is ancient, but the kind you’d recognize on a beach today really date from the late 1920s and 1930s.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.