Optometrists dont make it easy to buy new lenses for a favorite old pair of glasses or shades. Especially shades! Who even does that? Lens replacements through an optometrist can cost more than a new pair altogether, especially when it comes to sunglasses.
Anew startup out of Westwood, Calif. called Lensabl is on a mission to keep your favorite frames on your face. Whetherthe old lenses are damaged, you need a new prescription or you want to switch to a different tint, the companys site lets you swap out lenses for a direct replacement or something new.
The Lensabl site asks users to select exactly the kind of lenses they want, including prescription, reading or plain lenses and tints, including a range of colors,polarized, transitional and mirrored lenses.After customizingapair to your liking, yougive Lensabl yourprescriptiondata through aform on the site, including detailslike the strength of each eye and pupillary distance. Userscan either manually type in the info or upload a copy of a written prescription from theireye doctor if theyrefeeling confused.
Oneyou place your order, the startupsends you boxes that you can use to ship in your frames for a lens replacement. You get one box with a prepaid shipping label for each pair. (Lensabl pays for the shipping and handling.)TechCrunch tested the service, orderinga few pairs at once. It took about two weeks for the vintage frames we sent out to come back with custom lenses that feel like the same quality youdexpect froma brick and mortar optometrist.
The company will work with any shape of frames.Theycan even replace the trippy, colored lenses of SnapInc.sSpectaclesif you dont like them. Replacing them with transitional tinted lenses that are clear in low light and dark in the glaring sun could encourage people who wear the video-capturing Spectacles to use them more consistently, taking snaps indoors and outside in equal measures.
Lensabl lets users replace original lenses with any tint they want, including mirrored.
According to Lensabl co-founders Andy Bilinsky and Mike Rahimzadeh, Lensabl quietly started its service in November 2016. The company is getting some attention in the fashion industry. It is working onpartnerships with different brands and retailers in eyewear, on and offline, to allow customers to pick a lens all their own when they buy a new pair.
TechCrunchsFelicia Williams rocksvintage frames with Lensabl lenses.
One early partner of Lensabls is ChilliBeans, a brick and mortar retailer of non-prescription sunglasses. ChilliBeans is now using Lensabl to sell frames plus prescription lenses from their stores.The startups competition is mainly against national optical retailers like Costco Optical or LensCrafters, for example.
Customlenses from Lensabl cost from $77 to $397 today. For now the company only sells in the U.S. If your prescription is really complicated, like you needbifocals that have amber transitional lenses and are very thin, it costs a bit more than a straightforward clear prescription lens or non-prescription shades.
