"Warby Parker" Wonderfulness

As promised, after sharing about my Sarah Grace Glasses Moment(s), here is a post about my new replacement glasses...

A few quick highlights:

• The glasses (lenses and frames) sell for UNDER 100!?! 
• For every pair sold, the company donates a pair to someone in need; they are like the Tom's shoes of glasses :) 
• They actually sell a monocle!!??!!! :) 

I could go on for days about how cool this company is and you should definitely check out their website but here are some awesome aspects of the company:

They do community development:

According to their website, almost ONE BILLION people don't have access to glasses which means "15% of the world's population is unable to effectively learn or work because they can't see clearly."

And the site says that glasses are one of the best tools to alleviate poverty since they can make someone 20% more productive!?!
A. Pair. Of. Glasses.
Gosh, how much we can take for granted.

BUT, Warby Parker doesn't just give glasses away, they have a sustainable model of empowerment for the people they are trying to help: they "train low-income women to sell affordable glasses in their communities. The model creates jobs for people in need, as well as the economic incentive to continuously provide glasses as their customers lose or break their glasses and change prescriptions." 

 

They are low-cost but high-quality: 

While most glasses today cost 100s of dollars, they sell extremely high quality products at under $100 by cutting out the middleman. Here is how they do it (taken from their site): 

 

One added bonus of this approach is they deal directly with you... aka you don't have to go to a store. 

This was one of the COOLEST purchases I have ever made. 

I pursued their website and selected my top 5 favorites.

Then they mailed them to my house free of charge with those 5 pairs (no prescription lens) for me to try on. 

I wore them around for a few days and got friends and family to offer their opinion. 

Once I had decided which pair I liked, I sent them my prescription and returned the 5 trail pairs. 

Then they mailed me my final pair with my prescription lenses. 

All of this done via the internet and delivered right to my door. 

Awesomness. 

Talk about customer service!?!

 

AND, to top it all off, they are artsy: 

 

 The names of the company and the glasses are inspired by literary figures: 

"We’ve always been inspired by the master wordsmith and pop culture icon, Mr. Jack Kerouac. Two of his earliest characters, recently uncovered in his personal journals, bore the names Zagg Parker and Warby Pepper. We took the best from each and made it our name. We hope your new glasses will provide all the style you need to travel your road with class, and their price will leave you with some extra cash to use on your journey."

And the unisex, chunky glasses are just fun and bold statement pieces. Check them out here. If you are one of the lucky ones who happens to have perfect vision, have no fear, you can support this company still because they sell sunglasses too ;)

Warby Parker is seriously one of the best companies I have ever heard of. 

And I speak from experience as I am currently sporting my Amber Nedwins right now ;)