The "Beckett" glasses from Warby Parker
 

Warby Parker is an American company selling prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. Warby Parker sells online, and has a limited number of showrooms in the United States. By designing glasses in-house and avoiding the overhead of physical stores, the company is able to lower the cost of its glasses by a significant amount. The company has also been lauded for the vintage-inspired style of its design.
 

History

The company was founded in 2010 by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider, and is headquartered in New York City. The name “Warby Parker” derives from two characters that appear in a journal by the Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac.
 

The company was bootstrapped by the four founders and launched in February 2010. Shortly after launching, the company was featured on Vogue.com, and in GQ, which called it “the Netflix of eyewear”. In May 2011, Warby Parker raised its first round of funding totaling $2.5 million. In September 2011, the company raised a Series A round of $12.5 million. In Fall 2012, it raised a $37 million Series B round, with an additional $4 million announced in February 2013 with noted investors American Express and Mickey Drexler. Warby Parker shipped more than 100,000 pairs of glasses in 2011, and had 60 employees. By the end of 2012, the company grew to over 113 employees.
 

Retail stores

Warby Parker is expected to open its first retail store in 2013. Previously the company opened a temporary retail store, the “Holiday Spectacle Bazaar”, in Soho.  They also launched a “traveling store on wheels”, and hosted a festival at SXSW. 
 

"Buy a pair, give a pair" program

For every pair of Warby Parker glasses purchased, a pair is distributed to someone in need. Rather than donate glasses using a more traditional “one-for-one” model, Warby Parker funds the production of a pair of eyeglasses for non-profit organization VisionSpring, which VisionSpring in turn sells either directly to consumers or companies. Warby Parker is a certified B Corporation with areas of excellence in Accountability and Consumers. The company is 100% carbon neutral. 

Products

Warby Parker designs glasses in-house and sells directly to customers to avoid retail markups. A lower price point, generally $95, is possible because glasses are designed in-house, eliminating licensing fees that can be as much as 15% of the wholesale cost on a pair of glasses. Warby Parker does not sell glasses through third party brick-and-mortar retailers, whose markups can double or triple prices. 
 

Along with the low cost, the company is known for selling frames that have been praised by ELLE, Esquire, Vogue, GQ, and others. The company primarily sells eyewear online and through its New York City headquarters. It also maintains a limited number of showrooms located in boutiques through the United States. Warby Parker’s Home-Try-On program allows customers to choose five frames from the website, which they receive to try on at home for five days, free of charge. Customers can also upload a photo and try on frames virtually. In addition to eyeglasses and sundglasses, one of Warby Parker’s signature offerings is a monocle, which is available with a prescription lens.