Lens & Frame Co. Launches with Focus On Disrupting The Luxury Eyewear Market

Lens & Frame Co. delivers top-tier quality at a fair price with personalized service.  Specializing in premium reading glasses, custom prescription eyeglasses and Rx sunglasses within a curated collection of independent brands such as Raen, Ombraz, and the iconic American Optical (AO Eyewear) that is made in the USA, as well as offering Rx replacement lenses in your own favorite frames.

Today is a great time to be an eyewear consumer according to Darren Rosenberg, co-founder of Los Angeles based Lens & Frame Co. (www.lensandframe.co).   The consumer has lots of choices, a wide variety of price points, and myriad distribution channels to take advantage of these days. “Unlike EssilorLuxottica and the global conglomerates that control most of the eyewear market including the brands, the retailers, and the vision insurance,” says Rosenberg, “I believe there’s plenty of room for independent brands to thrive in a very large marketplace that continues to grow larger every year.”

L&F creates a unique DTC experience from private appointments at their Venice, CA showroom and free at-home try-ons to the unboxing of each tissue-wrapped retail box finished with a handwritten note. With frames made of sustainable cellulose acetate or titanium and lenses that are digitally-surfaced and finished by hand in Southern California, customers can select from a variety of options including anti-blue light, photochromic, polarized, and prescription computer progressive glasses. The company also offers a replacement lens service allowing customers to replace the prescription lenses in any frame, including sunglasses.

Because they cut out the optical shop middleman and their substantial retail markups, Lens & Frame Co.’s price tag weighs in at less than half the price of traditional retail. The company concedes that consumers can likely find eyewear online for less. Yet, Lens & Frame Co. seeks to create a luxury niche for those online consumers who seek a higher level of quality, style and service. “Not only is the quality high, but the company also goes for a nice personal touch,” says reporter David Lazarus in his recent LA Times “Consumer Confidential” column that reviewed several online eyewear brands.

The idea hatched in 2017 after Rosenberg left Kaenon, the high-end brand of polarized sunglasses he co-founded.  Conversations with co-founder Chandos Erwin highlighted the void in the top end of the eyewear market and motivated the two longtime friends to look into how they could “offer a better consumer experience by utilizing state-of-the-art prescription lab technologies, balanced by an artfully applied finishing touch,” said Rosenberg.  Each pair of Lens & Frame Co. glasses are carefully reviewed to ensure everything is perfect before being packaged and shipped. Accompanied by a one year scratch warranty, their commitment to service continues well after the product ships.