Shopping for contact lenses probably doesn’t seem like an exciting task. Going to the eye doctor’s office and taking the first brand of contacts they recommend is usually how it goes.
However, in this day and age, we should be able to make this experience a little easier, more engaging, and even fun; Incomes Warby Parker! Yes, the online glasses distributor is now selling contact lenses too.
Warby Parker has been known as an industry disruptor when it comes to eyeglasses and sunglasses. Founded in 2010, they were one of the first direct-to-consumer brands on the market, cutting out the middleman so purchasing quality glasses was more affordable. They broke into space with a slew of cool designs, interesting marketing tactics, and an effort to make the world a better place with their Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program.
After years of selling eyeglasses and sunglasses online, Warby Parker finally began to open brick-and-mortar stores in 2013 to showcase their products. Next came their virtual and in-store prescription check and eye exams in 2017. Warby Parker quickly went from being only in the fashion space to charging into the healthcare space as well. If you’re lucky enough to have a Warby Parker store in your area, you can head there for all of your eye care needs. Now you can get comprehensive eye exams, purchase prescription glasses and sunnies, and, of course, get your contact lens prescription filled too. Co-founder David Gilboa noted that getting a new prescription can be “…inconvenient and annoying…” and that using technology and interesting store layouts can make the process can be easy, fast, and fun. In addition to all of their in-store offerings, the experience there stands out against your usual optometry office. Instead of feeling like a sterile doctor’s office, the stores are fun, inviting, and get you excited to try on new things.
It only seemed natural that when Warby Parker started teasing a new product last month on their Instagram, it was contact lenses. Scout by Warby Parker is a brand of daily contact lenses that can be shipped right to your house online! Scout currently offers daily lenses, but you can still shop a variety of bi-weekly and monthly brands through their site.
Although you may feel that daily lenses are wasteful and bad for the environment, Scout has made a serious effort to be sustainable and environmentally conscious for people who may need dailies for health reasons. Scout packaging uses almost 80% less plastic than traditional contact packs and the box they come in is recyclable, so the packs take up less space in your cabinet and more environmentally conscious. The individual packs are also more hygienic than your usual contact lens cases because the contact lays in the pack face up, all you have to do is touch your finger to one side of the lens and place it in your eye, for a cleaner and safer experience. No more pulling out the lens, flipping it over, and dousing it with a solution in hopes it gets clean of debris. As an added bonus, if you don’t want or need dailies, you can still purchase your usual contacts from Warby Parker from brands like Acuvue and Air Optix. No matter which route you take, you can feel at ease when it comes to making your purchase through a sustainable brand that you already love.
The next time you need to resupply your contact lenses, consider a new way to shop for them by skipping your doctor’s office and heading to a Warby Parker store or online for all of your eyewear and eye health needs. Luckily, we live in a time that as the consumer we can choose our shopping and healthcare experience, we don’t have to be put in a box when it comes to getting the things we need. If you already shop at and support Warby Parker, it is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly brand of contacts is the way to go.
