Overland Park ? Bolle, an elite eyewear brand familiar to skiers around the globe, is now owned by a company in suburban Kansas City, a good 10-hour drive across prairie flats to the nearest real slope.

Bolle, whose ski goggles were worn at the 2002 Olympics by freestyler Jonny Moseley and snowboarder Chris Klug, was started in France more than a century ago. The company, which also manufactures sport sunglasses, went through a series of sales in the ’90s until Bushnell Performance Optics bought it in 2000 for $5.25 a share, or about $85 million.

The move gave Bushnell ” long known for more Midwestern products like binoculars and hunting scopes ” a chance to get in on the $2.1 billion sunglass industry where more than 200 companies compete.

Philip J. Gyori, vice president for marketing at Bushnell, says he’s not concerned about Bolle losing any of its cachet now that it’s owned by a company based in a suburban office park. Most of the sunglasses are, after all, still made in Bolle’s factory in France.

“We’re not trying to be the company in southern California that taps into every trend and tries to find out what the 15-year-old skateboarder wants,” Gyori said. “We’re about performance, not trends.”

But some industry insiders say Bushnell may have to market Bolle more aggressively if it wants to even approach the figures of companies like Luxoticca and Oakley, which together have about half the U.S. sunglass market.

“(Bolle) changed hands a lot and had not been cared for,” said Henry Lane, chairman of marketing for the Sunglass Association of America. “Bushnell has tried to organize things and settle them down and do some marketing. They haven’t brought a lot of new product development to the market place.”

Jim Spring, president of Leisure Trends Group, a market research strategy company in Boulder, Colo., said Bolle has good name recognition, but that won’t last forever.

Philip Gyori, vice president for marketing for Bushnell Performance Optics, stands with a display of Bolle sunglasses and goggles at the company's facility in Overland Park. Bushnell's purchase of Bolle in 2000 has given the company a foothold in the .1 billion sunglass industry.

“Competition has been pretty keen,” Spring said. “They still have a consumer franchise. They have a very high brand recognition, and they’re known for quality. But they screwed up distribution somewhere.

“The best I can say is that they have hit bottom, and they have no place to go but up.”

Bushnell, which has about 400 employees worldwide and annual sales of about $225 million, also operates factories in France and Italy. About 250 of its employees are in Overland Park, where Bushnell’s distribution center is located. Almost 35 percent of the company’s business is in the United States, said Joe Messner, CEO and president.

Gyori said Bushnell has been devoting a lot of energy to bringing Bolle back and points to several new Bolle styles of sunglasses and goggles out in 2002.

“There is now a lot more in terms of price changes, more contemporary designs, more aggressive styling. There’s a whole new color pallette,” Gyori said.

He said Bushnell’s plans for Bolle revolve more around updating than overall change.

“When we bought the company we said this is a brand that’s well-known, with a lot of equity on the mountain. But it tended to be a little more male-skewing and tended to be a little more geographic in the western states.

“What we saw was a jewel that needed some polishing. Job one was the product line, and there’s been a lot of effort and energy making it more aggressive and more contemporary. Despite what you’re hearing we’re having a pretty good year and being well-received by the retailers.”

Messner said while the U.S. sunglass industry has seen declining sales in the last two years, there’s still room for growth.

“Things are different now,” Messner said. “When I was a kid, you had one pair of sneakers that you did all your sports in. But now we know how that’s changed. And it’s the same with sunglasses. You have one pair for sports, one you leave in the car for driving, and a third pair for dress up. That’s the multiple purchase market.”

Gyori says Bushnell also is banking on people willing to spend more on their eyewear because of developments in laser vision correction. Bolle, while not the most expensive brand of sunglasses on the market, typically cost from $80 to $130.

“The market is growing because of things like Lasik surgery. People are wanting to protect their eyes,” Gyori said.

Julia Day, managing director of the retail tracking division of Leisure Trends Group, said Bolle’s market share has dropped since it was in the top five in the late ’90s.

“So what that says to me is that the brand image with consumers has slipped since the purchase. … I mean at a trade show if you go by the Oakley or Smith booth, there’s a buzz. … You can see from market share that they don’t have the buzz.”

But buzz may not be what Bushnell and Bolle are looking for.

“We’re trying to establish our own identity,” Gyori said. “We’re not trying to be a me-too Oakley. …Sometimes not everyone wants to wear what everyone else is wearing.”