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Lookmatic’s Vision Quest

Tim Yap
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Until recently finding a pair of great looking glasses was about as challenging as finding a great pair of pants. It wasn’t just abou nailing the style but nailing the fit and price. Fortunately a few folks in the eyewear industry decided to bring technology into the picture to develop eyewear you could not only buy online, but customize to spec and get sent right your doorstep no matter where you were. Of the lot, the New York City-based companies Warby Parker and Moscot have made converts out of many with their mid-century modern (read hipster) frames, but if it’s easy, understated frames you’re after, you’ll want to consider Lookmatic.

Offering more than 80 prescription optical and sun frames in ’50s through ’80s updated styles via a slick, interactive website, the company touts variety and affordability as its strengths. Starting from $95, you can in fact select your frame, choose a colorway and then your tint and lens to create a pair of glasses that’s 100% you. To make sure customers know exactly what they’re getting, Lookmatic additionally offers a virtual try-on system to allow customers to sit in front of their computers to try on various styles in real-time. Alternatively, customers can choose up to five pairs of glasses and have them sent to their doorstep to try on in the privacy of their home.

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About the best thing we like about this company, which has quietly collaborated with some of the coolest actors in showbiz including Jason Schwartzmann and Waris Ahluwalia, however, is its authenticity. The founders have been in the eyewear business, working with companies such as Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical, for over 50 years, so there’s real passion and know-how behind the product. As the company chief Joe Cole puts it, “Lookmatic offers an opportunity to reshape a paradigm, breaking down barriers to a product that people can’t live without as well as one that offers everyone access to great design.” Indeed, where good eyewear was prohibitively expensive and hard to find back in the day, you can finally, as Lookmatic suggests, “own a new look for every day of the week.”

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