Warby Parker sets its sights on contact lenses with ‘Scout’
The company offers a low-cost six-day try out program for $5.
Warby Parker revolutionized the way eyeglasses are sold. Now, the company wants to do the same for contact lenses.
On Tuesday, the New York City-based retailer announced it was expanding its offerings to include daily contact lenses. Warby is pitching the line, dubbed Scout, as “comfortable, breathable and affordable.” The lenses are fashioned out of hioxifilcon A, a material that is 57% water.
“The addition of Scout really puts us in the position of being a one-stop-shop,” said Warby Parker cofounder and CEO Dave Gilboa.
Founded by four Wharton students in a West Philadelphia bar in 2010, Warby Parker was created to make affordable specs and sell them online with a novel home try-on program. Warby’s sales, which once existed only in the digital realm, have since expanded to nearly 120 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and Canada, including locations in Center City and King of Prussia. The still-private company was valued last year at nearly $2 billion.
Just as Warby lets customers try on glasses frames at home, Warby is offering a similar “test drive” program for the lenses. It won’t be free. But they provide a six-day trial of daily prescription contacts for $5. A 90-day supply of Warby lenses will run $110, slightly less than the roughly equivalent lenses available through 1-800-Contacts.