This is the oldest motorcycle goggle ad I've ever seen. This ad is from 1955.
Notice it says you get a dozen space shields per box, and it looks like the ad was meant for motorcycle dealerships who had to buy one dozen at a time, or did customers buy 12 at a time because they were disposable? The retail price of each goggle or space shield was 96 cents. It would be priceless to see someone go back in time to 1955 and tell the average person that today people spend more than a buck for a bottle of water.
Gas prices in 1955 averaged 29 cents per gallon. The average wage per hour was around $1.71. Minimum wage was 0.75 cents per hour. The nationwide minimum wage today is $7.25 per hour. The national average gas price today for regular unleaded is $2.38 per gallon. After doing a quick search online the cheapest goggles I found were $16.20. Did money go farther in 1955?
Most goggles sold today are made in China to keep prices down. I'm pretty sure the Barnett Space Shield goggles were made in USA and were priced far less than the average wage for most people. Today I would need to work 3 hours at minimum wage to afford the cheapest goggles. Back than I would only need to work 2 hours at minimum wage to afford the Barnett goggles. If the Barnett goggles are disposable, maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges, i don't know. Quality seemed more important back than, but maybe they needed to be disposable to account for poor quality plastics, scratches and that sort of thing.
