A Review of Warby Parker: Spoiler, I love them!
Buying glasses is a pain sometimes. Besides the distraction of a million different pairs of glasses, which a good optometry technician can help narrow down, there are a bunch of choices to make: frames, lens materials, coating, etc. Warby Parker (who didn’t sponsor this post or reimburse me in anyway) can make this a little easier. I’ve recently discovered that my days of contact lenses are probably limited, and I’ve been liking all the hip spectacles I’ve been seeing around town. I decided to expand my eyeglass wardrobe, through both a conventional optician (via Groupon) and Warby Parker.
The process
First, I obtained a new prescription, including pupil distance, from my optometrist, and scanned it into my document manager, keeping the paper version to give to the place I bought glasses.
Process at a conventional optometrist: This took about an hour. I went to the optometrist after buying a Groupon for $75 for a $225 voucher for eyeglasses. The optometry technician tried narrowing down glasses for me, bringing many glasses for me to see. By seeing what I liked, she was able to narrow down my choices, as there were a TON of glasses I did not like (Napolean Dynamite, anyone?). However, I have no idea whether she was “upselling” me glasses by bringing me incredibly expensive glasses or not. What I do know is that the glasses I saw in the end were Oliver Peoples, Fendi, Prada, etc. I picked some glasses out that I liked- Oliver Peoples, in an unusual bold cat-eye style. She computed the price, subtracted the voucher, and voila- “$550.” What?! Add the charge for ordering the glasses, labor, multiple coatings, high density lenses, etc. Plus, to be fair, I ended up with a really nice brand of glasses. However, she seemed perplexed that I did not want all these upgrades, and upon hearing that I was a.) in a hurry to leave since I’d been there 45 minutes already and b.) leaving since I wasn’t spending $550 that day in glasses, some of the things that were necessary were suddenly expendable, and they were able to reduce the glasses to $300. It took a few weeks for the glasses to come in, which seemed like a long time. I had to return to the store, and no adjustments were made at that time, so I could have had them mailed to my house rather than drive out to the optometrist. They didn’t have Oliver Peoples cases by that time, so I ended up with a velvet Tom Ford case. However, I love the glasses, and they are perfect.
Process at Warby Parker: My experience may be slightly different, since we have a physical Warby Parker in our town. Choosing glasses from Warby Parker is pretty easy. I walked into the store in Bethesda, MD, which was pretty crowded with people of all ages and demographics but had nice displays of well-curated eye glasses in their own brand. There were relatively few frames to choose from in comparison to the optometrist, but I really liked the ones I saw. Because they were crowded, there was no one to help me or suggest frames, but I tried several pairs on, which rapidly helped me narrow down the shape I liked. I had also done a little research before going to the store, so I was familiar with many of the styles, though not all of them were available to try on in the store. I found one I liked, went to the counter, where someone was immediately able to help me. He ordered my glasses, the “Upton” in “Sea Smoke Turquoise” on a portable device (I emailed him my prescription), with slightly upgraded high density lenses to make them lighter because I am SO blind I require coke-bottle lenses. The spectacles were $95, including lenses, but the high density lenses were $40 extra, bringing my total to $135. I received the glasses in under a week via mail, in a high quality case (nicer quality than the case from the traditional optometrist), along with a cloth to keep the lenses clean. Also, because of their “buy a pair, give a pair” program, a pair of glasses was given to someone in need. Hurray!
Had I ordered from the website, I could have either chosen a pair directly off the website, or chosen from a selection, of which five would be delivered to my house to try on. I make a choice and return the glasses- they mail me the ones I chose with the correct prescription. Easy!
What I like about Warby Parker…
- Well curated, stylish glasses for a reasonable price
- No hidden costs -what you see is what you pay!
- A pair goes to someone in need!
- Convenient
- High quality glasses and accessories
- Quick, polite service
What I think they could do better…
- The quiz to help you determine what glasses might look good on you is a little generic. If you don’t know what kind of glasses look good on your face shape, choosing glasses by whether the spectacles are round, square, rectangular, or cat eye isn’t going to help you. If you’re ordering on line, you’re really relying on their quiz to help you figure out what to order!
- All glasses look nice on J. Crew models. Ok, I might be exaggerating here- maybe they’re Gap models. But if the glasses look good on them, I’m SURE they will look perfect on me. Not really. You can see what they look like on customers, I’m assuming, by pressing the “more photos” link at the bottom of the page, but not all glasses have extra photos to look at.
- More people to help at the stores? I think the business model is on-line, so I’m guessing the physical locations are more for publicity and concept, but I thought the employees might have suggested frames I wouldn’t ordinarily have tried on.
The Verdict: I love Warby Parker!
I would definitely shop at Warby Parker again- I’m considering a set of translucent rose-colored frames that I think would be perfect for summer. And maybe a set of prescription sunglasses! In fact, they make wearing my glasses much more fun, and I would recommend them to anyone!
Silicon|Sutra 