Pair eyewear, a retailer of eyeglasses that has its customer base online focuses on eyewear for adults and kids has landed on a $12M Series A. It sprang into the eyewear community in 2017 and is new to the field. It was launched by few Stanford grads. In 2020 the owner of the venture appeared in an episode of Shark Tank, an American business reality show on ABC, and since then the company has been in the limelight. People have gradually shown interest in the dream of a fashion-eyewear world that was shown by the CEOs and co-CEOs. They claim for a world of glasses that are a form of self-expression, a twist from the conventional way of buying glasses.
The CEOs Sophia Edelstein and Nathan Kondamuri have plenty of things to talk about this venture. They work on getting the customer place order again with the release of at least two new limited-edition collections every month. Edelstein mentions that their average customer owns about at least five of these frames and some have gone overboard with at least 90 of them who make sure not to lose out on any limited editions. The re-imagination around glasses was done as a result of their research in which they heard many people say almost the same thing that they wished their eyeglasses to be more like an accessory which they can work around every day in a unique way like their shoes.
The start-up certainly was made possible by few Standford graduates but today Pair Eyewear’s net worth is unbelievably good in just three years and a lot of famous names can be seen to be named along with the company. The funding initially was done by Alex Gurevich who is soon to join the company’s Board of Directors. Alex in an interview mentioned that this idea resonated with him as his son who needed glasses for his astigmatism would not wear his glasses and Alex could only make him wear them by promising that they’d make the glasses look like that of Clark Kent. And just a few weeks later Alex met with Sophia and Nathan (co-founders) who presented them with this idea and was presented with glasses that had Spiderman and Superman skins and Alex was so impressed with this idea. He mentions that it would have been a lot easier to convince his kid to wear glasses if these skins would have been available then.
Pair was originally focused on only making glasses for kids but has moved to make them for adults and this has been a great call by the team. The company also saw a boost in its sales after its appearance in Shark Tank (and also after the funding by them). Figures say that month after month the sales have only risen by at least 30%. Commenting further on this data, co-CEO Edelstein calls this company recession-proof.
What’s in Store?
- Base Frame: There aren’t many options available at the moment and it comes out only in few shapes. However, these shapes are also quite restricted in availability. An adult can choose from among 10 options for the base frame and a kid can choose from 5 options.
- Top Frame: The top frame comes in funky and creative options. One can choose a frame with the theme of their favorite superhero, or sports team, with a new style being introduced in their inventory now and then.
- You can choose multiple top frames to go with your base frame, the idea is to create a new look every day to go with your mood or your outfits. Or just the season.
- Pair Eyewear apart from bringing in the traditional eyewear options, it also brings in all the progressive options to your plate. Like reading glasses, blue-light protection glasses, sunglasses, and much more.
How Much do Eyeglasses from Pair Cost?
What is the cost of being fashionable and trendy you ask? Well, you invest in a pair of eyeglasses and can only pull off one look with it, is it worth the price you paid for it? With Pair eyewear’s eyeglasses, you get the base at around $60, which is the price all their eyewear base starts from and this cost is also inclusive of the basic prescription glasses, and additional features like anti-glare or scratch-resistant coating. The Top Frame is available at $25 per frame and can go up to $30 for the special editions. However, if you want to add any additional features like blue-light coating or any other such feature then it will cost you extra. You can also cut out on the basic lens by switching to the sunglass lenses and it will cost you an additional $99. To sum it up, while the base seems to be quite affordable, you will anyway have to end up spending up to $100 when you add the top frames.
