Your eyes are one of your most important senses, influencing how you interact with the world, and how the world interacts with you. To protect the longevity of your vision, you should always wear the most high quality glasses. But high quality glasses are expensive, and don’t always come in frames you like. Which is why Warby Parker exists.
The Story
Warby Parker is much more than a glasses brand, it’s a transformative lifestyle brand, dedicated to making designer eyewear accessible for everyone. Before Warby Parker, the world of eyeglasses was monopolized by one company that made eyeglasses artificially expensive to reap profit. The founders of Warby Parker realized this problem when one of them lost their glasses on a backpacking trip, and didn’t have the money to replace them. They set out to create Warby Parker as an eyeglasses company that interacted directly with the consumer, lowering the price of eyeglasses by cutting out all the middleman nonsense. They wanted to make buying eyeglasses easy and fun. Which is exactly what they ended up doing.
How It’s Made
All glasses are designed in-house by the Warby Parker team. Colors are custom-designed and sourced from a family-run factory in Italy using high-quality materials like cellulose acetate and ultra-lightweight titanium. Frames are cut from the mixture of raw materials using a high-tech machine, tumbled in wood chips, and then hand-assembled and polished before being run through a series of quality checks. Lenses are custom cut, polished, impact resistant, scratch resistant, smudge resistant, anti-reflective, and block 100% of UVA and UVB rays. Each new pair you order is made especially for you, inspected by hand before being sent to your door!
Types of Glasses
Warby Parker offers seemingly endless options when it comes to size, fit, and type of glasses. Their glasses are inspired by vintage glasses, and come in dozens of different styles. Their selection includes sunglasses, eyeglasses, blue light glasses, and even monocles! Warby Parker glasses can be personalized to your prescription, and cover single-vision prescriptions, progressive glasses, non-prescription magnification, prism correction, polarization, and more. Warby Parker also provides a variety of lens colors: grey, brown, green, and blue to compliment you!
Prescription Help
Most Warby Parker stores offer eye exams at, or next to their stores, which are perfect if you need to renew, extend, or make a new prescription. You can easily make an appointment for an eye exam on the Warby Parker website. Warby Parker also lets you check and update your prescription through their Prescription Check app.
Pricing
All Warby Parker glasses start at $95, with some added costs for personalized prescriptions, blue light lenses, and other modifications. Warby Parker is dedicated to making your glasses cost as little as possible, which is why they let you apply your flexible spending account (FSA) and health spending account (HSA) dollars towards your prescription glasses, eye exams, prescription sunglasses, and contact lenses. If you don’t have FSA or HSA dollars, you can still use your insurance for a discount before or after purchasing.
Returns
Warby Parker offers an ingenious model for trying on your glasses. If you’re ordering from home, Warby Parker lets you try on 5 different glasses for a period of 5 days for free. You don’t even have to pay for shipping! If you end up wanting to buy one of the glasses you try on, you can order a new pair online. Warby Parker also offers a quiz to help you figure out what kinds of glasses you might like.
Giving Back
There are around 2.5 billion people of the world who do not have access to glasses, meaning that 15% of the global population is not able to work and learn to their full potential. Warby Parker was founded with many beliefs in mind, but most importantly the belief that everyone has the right to see. For every pair of glasses bought, Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses to men, women, and children in need. Since their founding, Warby Parker has donated over 5 million pairs of glasses to over 50 countries.
Overview
There are glasses, and then there are Warby Parker glasses. Warby Parker offers the whole designer glasses experience, at a fraction of the price. With dozens of styles and multiple colors to choose from, Warby Parker’s quality-made, vintage-inspired glasses come in every type of prescription and polarization imaginable. Their Home Try-On system and personalized quiz make it easy for first-time glasses buyers, and their dedication to giving back to the community make them a great choice for socially conscious consumers.