The optics sector, dominated by a handful of major manufacturers bent on stifling competition, is poised to enter the scene.
It turns out that several ambitious startups are trying to do just that (kill the competition), with California being a particularly fertile breeding ground for innovative approaches.
As part of a series of columns covering the optical industry, I’ve previously written about Los Angeles-based Lensabl and online eyewear retailer Zenni Optical, based in Novato, north of San Francisco.
Here are a few other online companies worth checking out, with products ranging from dirt cheap to high-end. Each is trying something new, hoping to reinvent the way people shop for corrective frames and lenses.
And remember, in all cases you will need to get your prescription from a professional optometrist first, and you will most likely need that person’s help to get your mail-order glasses to fit properly. Most optometrists will do this for free.
Culver City-based Pixel Eyewear wants to become the preferred eyewear provider for digital-age dwellers, with glasses designed to reduce the strain of staring at a computer or handheld device screen for hours.
“I used to work in an office and my eyes hurt all the time,” said Ian Chen, the company’s founder. His moment of “joyful discovery” came when he wondered why no one had combined stylish frames with the effectiveness of tinted glasses.
“Our glasses use a pigment that is baked into the lens,” Chen said. “So instead of a special coating, it’s the lens that filters out the blue light.”
Pixel sells complete glasses, frames and lenses, for about $125. Like much of the optical industry, including some of the best-known brands, it outsources its manufacturing to China.
I was impressed with the quality. The plastic frames seem durable and, more importantly, the lenses seem well made despite the relatively low price.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but I noticed over several days of use that my eye strain had reduced and I wasn’t experiencing the usual headaches from concentrating for hours on a bright screen. The subtle blue tint of the lenses wasn’t visible to others.
Pixel only offers single vision lenses at the moment, but says progressive lenses are in the works. The glasses come with a 30-day trial period. If you’re not satisfied, you can return them for a full refund.
When Darren Rosenberg founded Lens & Frame Co. with offices in Long Beach and Santa Monica, he knew he was following the same path of quality and style pioneered by Warby Parker.
“I feel comfortable thanking Warby Parker for making it easy, convenient and fun to shop for glasses online,” Rosenberg said.
What I wanted to do, however, was take things up a notch for people willing to pay a little more for frames and lenses made to higher specifications.
“The goal,” Rosenberg explained, “was to enhance the quality of Oliver Peoples or Salt with the direct-to-consumer convenience of Warby Parker.”
I’d say he got it right. Lens & Frame Co. offers bold, solid frames (most made in China) and high-quality lenses (produced locally). Full-frame single vision glasses start at $245 and progressives at $345.
Not only is the quality high, but the company also puts a lot of effort into adding a personal touch. Every pair of glasses comes with a personal note from whoever inspected them to make sure everything is okay, and it’s easy to track that person down (probably Rosenberg himself) if there’s a problem.
The available acetate styles lean toward the chunky, cool look that’s popular right now. There are some metal frames that offer a more subtle fashion statement.
Lens & Frame Co. makes prescription glasses and reading lenses.
San Francisco-based Topology set out to do something “radically different” with eyewear: custom frames and lenses. For founder and CEO Eric Varady, the mission was personal.
“I wanted to solve a problem for myself,” she said. “I have a big nose and my ears are a little bit set back. I couldn’t find glasses that fit me properly.”
Topology’s solution is an app that scans your head, calculating exactly how long your arms should be, how big or small your bridge should be, how wide your frames should be, how your lenses should fit.
Customers choose the frames they like, see how they would look using a photo uploaded to the app, and adjust them to their liking.
I’ve never had a custom-made product before, so the idea of custom glasses seemed outlandish to me. But when I tried on a pair that had been designed for my face, it was a revelation.
Like Varady, I have a proud nose, and these were the first glasses that sat on my nose as if they were made to be there, which of course they were. I needed help from my local eye doctor to get everything perfectly right, but the fit and lens quality were exceptional.
Not surprisingly, custom-made glasses aren’t cheap. Topology frames cost around $350. Lenses can cost a couple hundred dollars more. Basically, you could be paying around what you pay for designer glasses at a professional eye doctor.
The difference is that the glasses are made for you and only you. They will even have your name on the inside of the arm.
Topology minimizes risk by offering a money-back guarantee in case of dissatisfaction. It is also launching a try-before-you-buy plan where customers pay just 10% of the cost upfront.
“We stand behind it 100%,” Varady said. “If you don’t like it for any reason, return it for a full refund.”
An Australian company called Dresden Vision is doing exactly the opposite of Topology. Dresden’s position is that everyone can afford to buy glasses if it offers one style and mass-produces it as cheaply as possible.
“I started Dresden because I couldn’t understand why the experience of buying glasses was so bad,” said Bruce Jeffreys, founder of the company. “I’ve worn glasses since I was a teenager and they always seemed impractical for someone who led a normal, busy life. They broke and were difficult to repair.
“Our intention was to make the glasses simple and comfortable, stripping down the product, removing some of the customization and making it more of a consumable than a bespoke fashion statement,” he said.
Dresden offers modular components for glasses, fronts and arms, in different sizes and colors. Customers choose the ones they think will look best, connect the pieces using colored pins, and voila, prescription glasses for a starting cost of $35.
I knew the nylon polymer frames would look plasticky, but they didn’t look like toys like I had thought. Most importantly, the single vision lenses (which I had to put into the frames myself) were totally fine.
I wear them for walking the dogs and watching TV. My wife says the rectangular shape makes me look like a hipster, which I think she’s trying to compliment me on.
They are obviously a great option for kids. The fact that they can be easily customized by swapping out different colored arms adds to the fun.
Jeffreys sees Dresden partnering with nonprofits to bring its glasses to developing countries as well, and hopes to expand the company’s retail presence in pharmacies, bookstores and other locations.
The long-term goal, he said, is to reduce the cost of a finished pair of glasses to about $7.
A Costa Mesa company called EyeBrain Medical also wants to change the world of eyewear. However, unlike Dresden, it is doing so at a significantly higher price.
EyeBrain’s “neurolenses” offer what the company calls “the first and only prescription lenses that add a contoured prism to align the eyes.”
Such prisms, he says, can alleviate “the headaches, neck/shoulder pain and eye strain that many people experience when using digital devices, reading or doing detailed work.
I am one of those people, so I approached neurolenses with high hopes. The verdict? Yes, they work and are better than other prescription lenses.
But the improvement, at least for me, was relatively modest, making reading and focusing up close a little easier, given that neurolenses are very expensive.
They start at $650 for a pair of single vision lenses and $850 for progressive lenses, not including frames. Complete glasses, therefore, can cost more than a thousand dollars.
Davis Corley, chief executive of EyeBrain, said the company is aware that neurolenses are expensive. “We’re always looking for ways to reach more patients,” he said. “We’re trying to make it widely available.”
That includes a current 100% money back guarantee if you are not satisfied for any reason, financial aid may also be a possibility in the future.
Prisms are not new to prescription lenses; I’ve had them in my glasses for years. They help align your eyes so it’s easier and more comfortable to focus.
Neurolenses are different in that, for the first time, prism strength can vary over the reading distance, even in single vision glasses. This makes neurolenses more versatile than lenses with the same prism strength at all times.
The costs are high because optometrists need to invest in special machines to examine your eyes for neurolenses and the only laboratories that currently make neurolenses are in Japan.
Corley noted that for a person with severe vision-related headaches or muscle pain, the cost of neurolenses may be cheaper over time than visits to a chiropractor or massage therapist, or regular doses of medication.
That’s probably true. So in light of the money-back guarantee, I recommend neurolenses for anyone with chronic symptoms.
For everyone else, the price needs to come down to where a contoured prism costs the same as an add-on or anti-reflective coating.
It’s one thing to try to offer cutting-edge technology, as EyeBrain has done, and quite another to make it affordable.
If you want to read this article in English, click here