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A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

businessoffashion.com

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Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#21

Post by slackingoff2017 »

arkades wrote: post #12
Fezzik wrote: post #6

if you’re in to avoiding paying hyper-inflated costs to support entrenched and anticompetitive markets, like what eyeglsses have been for years, I higly recommend Zenni Optical. They have highly customizable options and are great glasses, especially for the price. http://www.zennioptical.com Edit: spelling

My best experience to date for avoiding price-gouging has actually been at Costco's in-house optical. My experience with Zenni was of the "you get what you pay for" variety.

Same here. Zenni frames are cheap, and the lenses are pretty good. But the frames are built from cheap plastic, and so are the linkages, they just plate them with metallic coating. I've had the linkages break on 10+ pairs from fairly innocent things like falling asleep with them on.

They work fine, but it's like buying anything else designed to be disposable. Make sure you have a few pairs on hand for backup

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#22

Post by frostburg »

I didn't do it to avoid the Luxottica monopoly, but I moved to Mykita frames (fitted with zeiss or hoya lenses, since I like my sunglasses to be corrected too - can't wear contacts) and I wholeheartedly recommend them.

The steel ones are exceptionally light and easy to clean. Design is subjective, but the 'studio' line is generally rather inoffensive (I do have a pair of the Damir Doma ones, too - https://my.mixtape.moe/ffhahq.jpg). Their screw-less hinges are pretty great. The prices are high, but they're low volume objects and there is probably a lot less gouging going on. There are other non-luxottica boutique makers, too.

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#23

Post by hobolord »

hkmurakami wrote: post #20

If you're ever in Japan or Taiwan, have some glasses made there. JINS in Japan is ~$120 including lenses, lenses ready in 3 hours. Pick up same day. I heard there's a company in Taiwan with a similar business model as well. They're set up to handle tourists, and will handle duty free as well.

South Korea as well, I got a paid of glasses made in 20 minutes as I walked around and ate street food

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#25

Post by el_benhameen »

whathaschanged wrote: post #18
swampthinker wrote: post #9

I'm surprised Warby Parker isn't mentioned at all in this article. Isn't their whole business model built on tackling this market?

No, their business model is based on pretending like they are saving you money when they are just ripping off the customer for marginally less with fancy branding like dollar shave club. Look at Zenni Optical and tell me I'm wrong.

Their episode of How I Built This was pretty interesting. They talk about how they initially tried even lower prices but found that below $99, people started to question the quality of the product. That could be marketing in and of itself, I suppose.

http://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=506455305:506610651

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#26

Post by walterbell »

hkmurakami wrote: post #20

If you're ever in Japan or Taiwan, have some glasses made there. JINS in Japan is ~$120 including lenses, lenses ready in 3 hours. Pick up same day. I heard there's a company in Taiwan with a similar business model as well. They're set up to handle tourists, and will handle duty free as well.

They have free shipping. Hi-index single vision lenses are included in frame prices, https://www.jins.com.

JINS PC (blue-light blocking) glasses were an industry marketing breakthrough, selling almost 1 million units in the first year, https://corp.jins.com/jp/en/company/history. Their success prompted eyeglass lens makers to launch blue-blocking coatings, now widely available.

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#27

Post by santoriv »

Fezzik wrote: post #6

if you’re in to avoiding paying hyper-inflated costs to support entrenched and anticompetitive markets, like what eyeglsses have been for years, I higly recommend Zenni Optical. They have highly customizable options and are great glasses, especially for the price. http://www.zennioptical.com Edit: spelling

I've had a great experience with Zenni Optical over the years and it's a LOT less expensive than the alternatives. Regarding the comments "You get what you pay for" - I guess this is somewhat true but the only competitively priced retailer that I've used was Wal-Mart - and those frames were much lower quality. For the money, I thought that Zenni was pretty great.

YMMV.

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#28

Post by JumpCrisscross »

petilon wrote: post #8

The reason glasses cost so much is because one company owns: (1) nearly all brand name frames including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada eyewear, Armani eyewear and so on, (2) nearly all retail stores such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical and (3) EyeMed, one of the largest vision insurance companies. Luxottica retail brands: http://www.luxottica.com/en/retail-brands Luxottica eyewear brands: htt…

I see an independent ophthalmologist. He stocks both Luxottica and non-Luxottica frames. Every time, they and I blindly select frames with a bias against Luxottica. Every time, I choose the Luxottica frame. Somehow, that company has cornered the market for decently-built frames for non-hipsters.

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#29

Post by walterbell »

frostburg wrote: post #22

I didn't do it to avoid the Luxottica monopoly, but I moved to Mykita frames (fitted with zeiss or hoya lenses, since I like my sunglasses to be corrected too - can't wear contacts) and I wholeheartedly recommend them. The steel ones are exceptionally light and easy to clean. Design is subjective, but the 'studio' line is generally rather inoffensive (I do have a pair of the Damir Doma ones, too - https://my.mixtape.…

There's a 200 page, 8-years running, active thread on eyewear/frame selection, https://www.styleforum.net/threads/ask-me-about-eyewear.1205...

Boutique frames are not usually available online, only from authorized B&M retailers. Because of the cost, opticians only carry a few models. Sometimes older models show up on Amazon and eBay. A few models are available at http://www.pretavoir.co.uk/us/ and http://framesdirect.com (owned by Essilor, soon to be Luxxotica).

Re: A Closer Look at the $13B Premium Eyewear Market

#30

Post by lighthazard »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #28
petilon wrote: post #8

The reason glasses cost so much is because one company owns: (1) nearly all brand name frames including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada eyewear, Armani eyewear and so on, (2) nearly all retail stores such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical and (3) EyeMed, one of the largest vision insurance companies. Luxottica retail brands: http://www.luxottica.com/en/retail-brands Luxottica eyewear brands: htt…

I see an independent ophthalmologist. He stocks both Luxottica and non-Luxottica frames. Every time, they and I blindly select frames with a bias against Luxottica. Every time, I choose the Luxottica frame. Somehow, that company has cornered the market for decently-built frames for non-hipsters.

The lack of good designs for non-Luxottica brand frames is appalling. I use a third party eye glass company to order frames + lenses for < $100 and get good quality stuff (but not the best styles). Why are they not able to compete on style and fashion?
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