Essex, Vt. – January 6, 2010 - Revision Eyewear in Essex, Vt. is a fast growing Vermont company that 5 years ago had merely a handful of employees in a 2500 sq. foot space and has grown rapidly to currently employ 150 people, expanding to a 52,000 square foot facility.  Wednesday, following a tour of the firm’s newly expanded manufacturing facility in Essex, Senator Patrick Leahy and Revision Eyewear CEO Jonathan Blanshay announced $2.4 million in additional funding has been made available for the U.S. Army to supply soldiers with state-of-the-art protective goggles.

The new funding, written into law by Leahy in this year’s defense appropriations bill, comes less than a month after Revision delivered 26,000 sets of protective eyewear to the U.S. Army as part of a $3 million contract Leahy secured for Revision last year. Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and of its Defense Subcommittee, which handled the Senate’s work in writing the bill.

Leahy said Revision’s products will help reduce the number of eye injuries to American soldiers. According to the Department of Defense, more than 10 percent of all battlefield injuries are eye injuries – many of which are penetrating injuries from shrapnel, ordnance and other projectiles. The new Revision lenses also protect against the increasing use of lasers on the battlefield, Leahy said.

CEO Jonathan Blanshay talked of the Vermont National Guard toop send off this morning in town, “It was a very moving ceremony, it made me realize that what we do here really makes a difference. Those soldiers are now deploying. They are deploying with our product and it is going to protect their eyes and in some cases, it saves their eyes.

“You might think that a piece of eyewear is really not that complicated a tool, but it’s actually years and years of designwork and R&D, investment in equipment and the final product in the end is a highly technical piece of equipment.” 

Blanshay praised the assistance of Senator Leahy as having a big part in Revision locating the facility in Vermont and then he joked about that decision, saying other than marrying his wife, it was the best decision he’d ever made. 

Revision has successful  developed a laser protective manufacturing capability producing up to 12,000 pieces per day shift.  The company’s laser protective lenses offer high light transmission in the visible spectrum while blocking frequencies of harmful military lasers.  Protection can be injection molded or coated onto ballistic substrates that are compatible with the newest in anti-fog and hard coatings for scratch prevention. Within Revision’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, which includes optical quality injection molding, sophisticated lens coating and advanced research and testing laboratories, we are capable of producing a wide variety of lenses to protect against numerous laser frequencies.  The company says it’s military spectacles and goggles line features battle-proven, laser protective, interchangeable lenses and is 100 percent U.S. made.

Since 2005, Leahy has helped secure more than $10 million for the firm to develop and distribute protective eyewear. The ballistic eyewear is interchangeable and integrates with existing equipment, while providing soldiers with increased protection. The eyewear meets or exceeds all required military and industrial eyewear standards, and it has been approved by the U.S. Army Forces Command.

Revision CEO Blanshay also announced the company would have a job fair this weekend as they plan on hiring 35 new employees, citing the new contract and additional market share growth.

-Vermont Daily News staff report and Leahy Office press information