Retail prescription glasses and sunglasses chain Warby Parker began with an online-only business model in 2010. By the end of this year, it will have about 230 brick-and-mortar stores across the country, including 18 in Florida and the first two in Southwest Florida.
Warby Parker opened a store at Coconut Point, 23151 Fashion Drive, in Estero just next door to the Apple store. About 640 different styles of glasses across 20 different displays are inside, with a second location being planned to open after Christmas at Mercato in North Naples.
“This is everything you need,” said Tyler Carbol, the company’s district leader for Florida. He moved to Lakewood Ranch from Chicago in 2018, when there were just two Florida stores, one in Tampa and the other in Miami.
“Warby Parker was founded with the mission to inspire and impact the world,” he said. “Vision, purpose and style.”
Each location has 10 or 11 employees, he said.
The company’s founders remain fans of the author Jack Kerouac, who has characters named Warby Pepper and Zagg Parker in one of his books. The founders combined the two characters’ names in naming their company Warby Parker.
The brand began by mailing five styles to customers, who had the option of buying them all or returning as many as they wanted to the company for no charge.
“We were known as the Netflix for glasses,” Carbol said, referring to Netflix’s initial mailing DVD model, prior to streaming television.
In 2013, the company’s leaders added brick-and-mortar locations to better meet customer demands.
“It’s kind of reverse from what you normally expect,” Carbol said. “Starting out online, obviously we had a really great response to our glasses and our mission and style. Our customers wanted to be able to try the glasses on in person.
“Being able to create a touchpoint where our customers could come in and try them and feel them beyond trying those five frames, they could really come in and see our full line of glasses.”
Beginning Dec. 15, the Coconut Point location will offer vision testing starting at $85. The glasses range from $95 to $195.
Every style of glasses also can be purchased as sunglasses.
Warby Parker also distribute a pair of prescription glasses to someone in need for every pair sold. So far, more than 15 million pairs have been donated, Carbol said.
“Style is one of the things we have,” Carbol said. “Our winter collection just came out, which is typically our largest collection of the year. We have new styles every six to eight weeks.
“We’re keeping it fresh. It’s not the same frame that you see every time. We have variety. No longer are people just wearing glasses for just vision, but it’s also a part of fashion. There’s a really fun dynamic there as well.”
