Getting Started

Follow along as I share my process on what it takes to launch an eyewear collection from concept to reality. This process begins by journaling how to best position the eyewear’s point of difference. Consumers have many choices and many brands to choose from. Ask yourself…What’s going to motivate them to cast a vote for my shades with their hard-earned dollars? My job is to offer something special that resonates with my target audience.

While I intend to sell DTC, I wanted this collection to appeal to both sun specialty buyers, and boutique optical shops. There is sound business rationale as to why I want to serve all of these channels, but mainly, designing the collection around these channels would give us long-term flexibility. It helps to service a large percentage of the world’s population who needs corrective eyewear and those that simply want a pair of sunglasses to suit their personality.

So what do you need to get started?

A Solid Marketing Foundation

Put simply - You need to develop a point of view and a point of difference. Nothing run-of-the-mill. How can you leverage styling, materials, technology or combine new manufacturing methods in new ways?

Product Design

While there is no official training or schools that teach eyewear design, there are no courses to follow on how to design eyewear properly. Most eyewear designers came from industrial design backgrounds or have experience in jewelry, fashion, or mechanical engineering. They have honed their craft thought apprenticeship and by doing. You’ll want to connect with a designer like @ATIPPICAL, who has a solid understanding of the nuances and intricacies of eyewear design…ergonomics, fit, size, proportion, angles, face shape, lens curve, lens coatings, lens tint, types, engineering and tooling specifications.  One must possess an ability to sketch concepts and communicate ideas in 3D over different languages and different timezones. 

Production

The normal minimum quantity in the eyewear industry to start a new design is 300 pieces. But these are for off-the-shelf styles…. If you want custom eyewear (not white labeled collections with your logo) then you’ll have to find a non-conglomerate owned (independant) supplier capable of producing the quality you want at an affordable price and who is willing to sacrifice MOQ’s and set-up expenses to back an individual client. Typically, manufacturers partner with established brands that they already have long-term relationships and quick payment terms with. Instead of a simple buy and sell relationship, find a supplier who’s willing to support your ideas.

The margins are there and there are advantages, but you need a connection in order to cut out the middle man. This is how you minimize your risk, iterate and innovate. This is how you deliver quicker and with smaller quantities to start. You can post about the design+development process using your social media account as a means to document, gather feedback from followers / users, make final color and material selections, build hype, pre-sell and seed the market.

Research

The thing about eyewear is innovations do not get publicized a lot - people in the industry know of them for the most part, but the general public is mostly unaware. I have met a lot of inventors who believed they had the next greatest idea only to find out that Luxottica or an obscure brand had already been doing for the past 50 years or had a patent in a foreign country.

For the past 22years, I’ve attended the world’s largest trade shows. Vison Expo East + West, Hong Kong Optical Fair,  Mido  and Silmo. I’ve studied exhibitors and product far and wide. I was always amazed that vast variety of eyewear in the market that opticians just never promoted or even heard of in the States. This may be how you uncover a niche that will inspire you.

E-commerce.

Leveraging our international distribution network and our social media following, we remove the stress by developing a pre-sale commercialization strategy, handle warehousing, automate shipping and logistics and utilize website integration tools.

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