Eight things you should know about Independent Optical
We DON’T sell ugly glasses.
But what makes an eyeglass ugly anyway? One of the biggest culprits is a frame that is the wrong size, shape or color. You can take the world’s finest eyewear and if it clashes with your complexion and hair color, resonates poorly with the shape of your face, or sits awkwardly, even a good frame has little chance of being attractive. We have a saying- “You might love the frame, but it may not love you back”. In a mass-market world, what greases the wheels is simplicity. Nondescript, unimaginative eyewear pervades the market. If it’s all in the same basic size, shape and color, a seemingly large selection becomes very navigable. That gives the illusion of a lot of options, when in reality what you end up with is a whole bunch of marginal choices. You won’t find that here. Each of our brands have a character of their own. They reflect the environment of their place of manufacture ad their designer’s personal design sensibilities. For example, our Orgreen brand, made in Copenhagen Denmark, has a cool, minimalist and Nordic look. On the other hand, Tom Davies, made in London, has a refined and understated elegance. Entourage of 7 is from Venice Beach California and has that modern LA vibe. Lowercase reflects its Brooklyn Hipster origin and Eyevan is classic Japanese. Jacques Durand and Vue DC are both very French, but each in a different way. Instead of compromise, we offer an individuality that fits your personality, fashion sensibility and lifestyle.
At Independent Optical, you’re not on your own.
Eyewear is what we do. And the only way to do it right is for us to hone our ability to recognize what particular pair of glasses is going to work best for you. We pride ourselves on finding the absolute most perfect pair. At least once a day we hear “Now I would have never picked that for myself”. And that’s what we shoot for. We focus on a broad range of factors when fitting eyewear. The first and most crucial is making sure your glasses are the right size and shape. And that includes the bridge sitting properly on your nose and the temples properly on your ears. But we go far beyond that. We try to understand your life and what you’re doing every day. The various environments you’ll find yourself in. And your sense of style. A popular word around here is “Vibe”. Everyone has a presence. Finding the one best frame that fits into that presence and does the things you’d want it to do is what we strive for every day.
Our eyewear is made very differently.
And does that even matter? YES! Until you’ve worn a hand-crafted frame made of premium acetate or aerospace titanium, it would be hard to imagine the difference. A frame constructed of the best materials wears like tailor-made clothing. It just “feels right”. How could it though? For one, design. When your aim is perfect fit for a specific size, the compromises all go out the window. Second is the material. Trying to explain the differences rank right up there with trying to explain why a premium wine tastes better than the $8 grocery store variety. Acetates are a lot like wine. You start off with base material. In this case, that’s cellulose acetate- an organic product. Just like the grapes we make wine with, quality at the beginning delivers quality in the end product. Premium acetates start with carefully made base product from premium stock. In order to get those exquisite colors and color blend detail, it requires a highly experienced worker utilizing the best in dyes and applying the knowledge gained from long experience to create the material. And just like wines, acetate requires careful ageing. A curing process that must be carefully controlled in a process that cannot be rushed. What you yield from that is a rainbow of brilliant colors with incredible hues and depth that you get with a Mazzuchelli acetate or the gorgeous finish polish and incredible feel of a Takiron or Daicel product.
Titanium is now the go-to in good eyewear. Titanium is not hypo-allergenic. It’s biologically inert. Titanium is lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel. It is also incredibly fatigue-resistant. Many of our brands utilize a material called beta titanium, which is a formulation combined with a processing technique that delivers incredible flexibility. Others are made of ferrotitanium, which can just about be tied in knots without damage or losing shape. Titanium eyewear is a leap beyond the Monel used for decades in metal frames in all respects. Titanium doesn’t “creep”. That means that each and every bump doesn’t further mis-shape the frame. It simply returns to where it was. We have even had framed mashed flat that were straightened and returned to the customer ten minutes later. The absence of weight is probably the greatest selling point. Little weight equals little movement, so you’re not spending the day with the annoyance of your frame sliding down your nose. And even though titanium sounds industrial, there is a broad range of fashions that range from retro to avant garde.
Great material includes the hardware. We are full on hardware geeks. You won’t find a pair of glasses here that has a flimsy hinge. German-made OBE hinges are the standard and the upper end manufacturers utilize their own in-house designs, fabricated from Titanium and finely made with elegant ornamentation. You’ll find hundreds of examples of five-barrel hinges and sometimes the unheard-of seven-barrel hinge. A seven barrel has the feel of the door hinge on a Mercedes. Like a bank vault.
None of this matters without the lens. Do you know who made YOUR lens? It’s unlikely.
We use no other lens than those produced by Zeiss. Carl Zeiss is a German manufacturer of OPTICS. They’re not in the optical lens business. Unlike everyone else, who are lens manufacturers, Zeiss is the world leader in a broad range of optics. They make industrial lenses for the semiconductor industry, they make lenses for billion dollar spy satellites and the vast majority of movies or TV programming you’ve ever seen was shot through Zeiss lenses. On NASA’s first trip to the Moon, when the first photo of Earth was taken, it was using a Zeiss lens. When you have one chance, why risk it? And they also make eyeglass lenses. Zeiss quality and optical fidelity is unsurpassed. And they cost no more than anyone else’s less sophisticated product. Seems like a no-brainer.
Our eyewear is NOT expensive.
Sure, we have some exotic eyewear. And we have some incredibly highly crafted eyewear. But the vast majority of our eyewear is in the same price range as what you’ll find elsewhere. So how do you get better quality without an increase in price? One of the biggest components is the name on the temple. Eyeglasses are a lot like car tires. Do you know much about tires? How do you choose? Known brands with good reputation is usually the way. When you go to the tire store and the owner points at his showroom, you see Goodyear, General, BF Goodrich and Firestone. All good name brands. How could you go wrong with any of them? While all four mentioned are high-quality, only one of them is an actual tire manufacturer. Three are brands of companies long out of business, owned by others. The names you see on eyeglasses are almost always “rented names”. These designers aren’t in the eyewear business. They are leveraging their notoriety via licensing. Some of the producers even brag about the designer’s lack of involvement in the process. So when you look at a rack of glasses and think “I have one of her purses- lasted a long time. The glasses should…” Those glasses are being made on the same production line as a dozen others, using the same materials and mass-production construction techniques, usually in a place you’d prefer your purchases weren’t made. With a name, you don’t really need to have an experienced individual to help fit you and explain differences. You trust the name. We don’t do that here. The price of the frame is reflective of what went into crafting the frame, not the cost to rent a celebrity or designer name.
Our eyewear is NOT made in China.
For two reasons. First, if it’s possible to manufacture premium quality eyewear in China, we have yet to see proof of it. Second, we have a philosophical issue with Chinese product.
We often see brands touting “Buy a pair and we’ll plant a tree!” Who made that pair? A child laborer? Someone working a 72 hour week (they call it 6/12) for sustenance wages? Or maybe an individual who is working in a forced labor environment while being re-educated for their religious beliefs? No thank you.
But what about Italy? We have Italian eyewear. All of the eyewear we sell that is made in Italy is made in the manufacturer’s own small workshops. Italy has become a brand source washing machine. The Italian Supreme Court struck down the stringent “Made in Italy” laws a few years ago. Their explanation of “Made in Italy” is an item made with Italian influence in the spirit of Italian design. Now, you can make the frame parts anywhere, ship them to Italy, screw the temples to the front plate and stamp it “Made in Italy”. You won’t find it here.
Our eyewear is single-sourced
Have you wondered why everywhere you go has the same brands and the same frames? Chances are, the places you are seeing it are all the same company. There are a small group of companies that own the vast majority of this industry. They own the frame manufacturing, the lens manufacturing and most of the retail outlets. In the average town you can have three or four outlets in walking distance of each other all owned by the same owner. The two large vision insurers? They own them too. And when you go to the small optometrist’s office, you see those same brands? They provide turn-key eyewear programs for these medical practitioners so they can focus on eye care.
Our eyewear is unique. It is the result of people passionate about eyewear combining their stylistic vision with fanatical quality in materials and production. This results in eyewear that becomes a part of you. It’s no longer an appliance aiding your vision, but an integral part of “you”. Wearing them makes you feel better.
You can own more than one pair.
How many pairs of shoes do you have? Purses? Articles of clothing? And how many different environments do you find yourself in a week? At the office. At the beach. Out to dinner. At the golf course. At a wedding or cultural event. Does that brightly colored, sporty frame really work at Uncle Jim’s funeral?
And it’s not just style. Different environments call for different lenses. An office lens is going to have you driving home with less tension and no sore neck. The right lens makes the day at the beach or on the boat more comfortable. The right lens will make following the ball through the air of on the green so much easier. The right lens makes driving at night clearer and more glare-free.
At the end of the day, your eyeglasses are a tool. They’re a tool that provides an enhanced visual experience. And they are a device to convey who you are and exhibit your personality and sensibilities. You should have the right tool for the job.
We don’t want to sell you a pair of glasses.
Doing that is a wasted opportunity for both of us. We want you leaving here certain that you’ll never buy a pair of glasses anywhere else ever. And we want to do the same with your friends, family and co-workers. We want to give you the confidence that when a stranger compliments you on your eyewear that you’ll rave about your experience. YOU are our brand ambassadors. Our “influencers”. So no, we don’t want to sell you a pair of glasses. We want to sell you every pair of glasses for the rest of your life. We accomplish that by being the place and the people that deliver so well that you’d never consider contemplating it. And that makes it a win for both of us.
If you made it through all eight, you have our sincere thanks. For your reward, we’ll give you an extra Tootsie Pop and a cool “Ugly Glasses” refrigerator magnet when you visit. And we’ll also hook you up with a pair of glasses that does more for you than any others ever have.