WARBY PARKER UNBOXING

If you don’t know about Warby Parker already, then shame on you. Better late than never, though… Right? Anyway, in one sentence, Warby Parker is an upstart eyewear company that makes stylish prescription glasses for $95 (prescription lenses included) and donates a pair to someone in need each and every time they sell a pair.

Here’s a little more detail, straight from the founders themselves…

A collaboration between four close friends, Warby Parker was conceived as an alternative to the overpriced and bland eyewear available today. Prescription eyewear simply should not cost $300+. The industry is controlled by a few large companies that have kept prices artificially high, reaping huge profits from consumers who have no other options. By circumventing traditional channels and engaging with our customers directly through our website, Warby Parker is able to provide higher-quality, better looking prescription eyewear for under $100.

Now, with all that said, allow me to get to the coolest thing about Warby Parker… Their “Home Try-On” program, designed to address the concerns of anyone who is a bit apprehensive about buying prescription eyeglasses over the Internet (which, in reality, is probably everyone).

Here’s how it works: You go to their website and pick out five frames you’d like to check out. Then enter your info, and they’ll mail them to you. For free. To try on for five days. After which you mail them back. Again, for free.

Anyway, I signed up for the Home Try-On service as soon as I found out about Warby. Unfortunately, that was right about the same time everyone else found out about them, because they’d just been featured in GQ and Vogue, so I had to wait a bit longer than expected… Right around four months, to be a bit more precise. No worries, though: They’re a young company that got a lot of publicity real quick, and I’m sure they are working through the growing pains.

The important thing, though, is that I got my glasses today! Enough talk, on with the unboxing…

For reference, your handsome author, in his current spectacles, the Larrabee by Oliver Peoples

They come in a nice black ballistic nylon box…

With nice button clasps on the side

These are called the Miles (Click the name for a purchase link)

They are too wide for my face, this makes me sad, you can tell by the look on my face

These are called the Webb

These are perfect for my face, I feel handsome again

These are called the Roosevelt

I took some artistic pictures of them, because I am an artist

Even if the fake lenses didn’t make me look jaundiced, I would still look horrible in them

These are called the Nedwin, which is the nerdiest name of all time

Sometimes I gaze into the mirror, and wonder how I became so handsome

And these, my friends, are called the Huxley

Thought these were too bold at first, then remembered my bone structure and changed my mind

Well, there you have it, folks. A complete unboxing, including pictures of my charming face in some glasses that fit me miserably… But who knows? The specs that do nothing for me could do wonders for you! And you can find out, for free, thanks to the guys at Warby Parker.

Now that they’ve boosted their inventory, I would highly recommend them… I’ll be sure to update if/when I purchase a couple pairs… I’m thinking the Webb in “Amber” and “Revolver Black Crystal” or maybe the Nedwin in a couple colors or maybe the Huxley or maybe…

Steven Alan | Spring/Summer 2010 Collection

More or less the FFFFound of online retail, SVPPLY makes it that much easier to max out your credit card…