The Optical Vision Site

How To Find The Right Glasses- A Vintage Eyewear Story

This video was sent to us from one of our friends on Facebook. The video is from Daily Candy, who went to Fabulous Fannys a vintage store in Manhattan, NY who also carries vintage eyewear.  They also say that Lady Gaga gets some of her eyewear here.

Watch the video here: How To Find The Right Frames

Visit Fabulous Fanny’s online shop, go to store.fabulousfannys.com. For more vintage eyewear styles you can visit

Best Image Optical who has a great selection of vintage frames for sale to the optical professional.

Top 10 Spring Eyewear Fashion Colors For 2010

Pantone’s Top Spring Colors for Fall 2009 and Winter 2010

Pantone has released their top 10 Fashion colors for 2010. Pantone is the most recognized color standard from paints, to graphics to fashion colors. Every season at New York Fashion week Pantone collects feedback about the top colors and releases a seasonal report for the fashion industry.

How can you use this report?

Set aside a special:’ Eyewear Spring Fashion Colors 2010′ area in your dispensary. You can download and print the Pantone colors and sketches , put in plastic sleeves and coordinate them with eyewear.

Send out a special mailing to recall patients, fashion-eye-stas, let them know what new Spring Eyewear in the Pantone colors you will be carrying.

Get fabric swatches, paint samples, even tile samples of the Pantone colors, and display them with matching and coordinating eyewear.

Put this on your website and blog, let your patients and potentials patients know your ‘hip’ with the latest in eyewear.

Don’t forget to accessorize and put out and display your fashion contact lenses as well.

Most importantly, show your eyeglass cases, retainers, contact lens cases, along with Pantone colors. You are trying to build a Eyeglass fashion story with Spring Fashion Colors, Spring Fashion Eyeglass Case or contact lens case with of course matching and or coordinated eyewear.

Before you think this is a hassle and you don’t have the skills or time for this or even your patients don’t care. They do care, they buy shoes, paints, carpeting, clothing and jewelry in the latest fashion colors and styles. It’s up to you to remind them not to forget eyewear the #1 fashion accessory they could ever buy.

More pictures are available on Pantone site, plus lots of coordinating colors as well.

You can see by the below pictures, it is very easy 1.) Print 2.) Put in plastic picture frame or even a sleeve, 3.) Put a few pieces of coordinating eyewear and accessories with the picture 4.) Build a fashion eyewear story.

Dried Herb Pantone Color For Spring 2010

Pantone Color Violet

From The Mouth of the Male Eyeglass Consumer:

Boring Men: From kebo

We receive email from consumers and usually turn them into blogs or put it out to our readers. Below is an email we received from a consumer remarking about men’s frames and the selection or lack thereof:

‘I recently purchased new eyewear and found the selection for men very limited and boring.  it appears all optical shops have the same selection, is there no variety?  do all of the buyers purchase from the same vendors?  many men want something different without the same look their friends wear.  my suggestion to the buyers might be to look to new vendors who have limited distributors.  just a thought.’

Our response to our consumer:

There is plenty of fun, fashionable eyewear for men. In fact we love some of the new mens eyewear being presented in the market today. The problem is men in the USA usually buy  pretty boring styles. If you travel, note how many Europeans and Asians of all ages are wearing up to date, funky and trendy eyewear. I can also tell Americans by the eyeglasses they wear whether here or abroad.

Here’s some of our picks of the latest in mens fashion eyewear:

From Optylux: combing the rimless with a traditional brown with side detailing. You can put any shape and size you like into the frame. Great for progressive lenses as well.

Optylux Flair Style 908

From Zyloware’s Randy Jackson’s Dawg collection. I personally think crystal on men is very sexy!

Randy Jackson Eyewear: Style Dawg 5002

Tura, an elegant classy company has the retro Goldfinch Collection.

Tura: Goldfinch Style GO 21 Spike

From Classique Eyewear- I love this Kaos Collection, try the red, (comes in other colors as well)

Classique Eyewear Kaos: Style KK188

From OGI Frames, an incredible assortment of fun colors in shapes that everyone can wear:

OGI Frames: Style SP4

Tags: Consumers, Dispensing, Eyewear
Posted in Dispensing Room | 2 Comments »

Repair A Bent Pair Of Plastic Frames With a Tea Kettle

One of the newsletters I subscribe to is ehow, a site that offers simple easy solutions to many issues. This just came over the Internet on How To Repair a Bent Pair of Plastic Frames. Good to know the optical professional can get rid of hot air blowers and other frame adjustment paraphernalia and put the tea kettle on, have a cuppa my dear, while adjusting frames.

Source eHow

Photo:www.ifixglasses.com

‘Plastic eyeglass frames are much lighter and more comfortable to wear than their metal counterparts. The plastic is also less malleable than metal, so when a plastic eyeglass frame gets bent, it is much harder to safely repair than when the eyeglasses have a metal frame. The process for repairing a bent plastic eyeglass frame can be done at home without any special equipment, but must be done very carefully to avoid breaking the plastic.

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

• Glass bowl
• Teakettle
• Work gloves

1. Step 1
   Fill a teakettle with tap water and heat it on the stove. Take the teakettle off the stove when the water boils.
2. Step 2
   Pour the boiling water from the teakettle into the glass bowel.
   Put on the work gloves.
3. Step 3
   Pick up the eyeglasses and hold the bent plastic frame directly over the boiling water in the bowl so that the steam is hitting the bent frame.
4. Step 4
   Gently bend the plastic frame back into its original position as the plastic begins to soften. Remove the eyeglasses from over the bowl. Examine whether the bent frame has now been restored to its original shape.
5. Step 5
   Place the eyeglasses back over the bowl and repeat the process if necessary. Put the eyeglasses down on the table to cool off. Pour out the water from the bowl and put the bowl and teakettle away.

Back To School Tips by Clearvision

With the Back to School season upon us, you can expect the return of your smallest (and often times – your most challenging) customers. We’re referring of course, to children.

To ensure that a child will wear his or her frames, it’s important that the child is happy with them. One of the best ways to make this happen is to make kids an active participant in the selection process (or at the very least – give them the impression that they are making the decision). You can begin by helping the parent choose a variety of frames that addresses their concerns and then present those frames to the child to make a selection.

By allowing the child to choose their own frames (as opposed to forcing frames on them), they will take pride in ownership and will ultimately be far more likely to wear their glasses as prescribed. As an eyecare professional, this is your opportunity to serve your customer by helping the parent and child choose frames that will make all involved parties happy with the result. It’s also a great way to open a door to a long term relationship with a customer.

Koodles, from ClearVision Optical, offers a wide range of butterfly shapes, simple geometric looks and flattering pillowed choices that kids (and their parents) will love.

While giving kids the power of choice is a great tool when dealing with school-aged children, when it comes to tiny tots, parents (along with an eyecare professional) should be the decision makers in the frame selection process. Style is certainly an important factor in making this choice; however, the level of comfort in pediatric frames should be a parent’s ultimate deciding factor. That’s due largely to the fact that infants and toddlers who are not comfortable wearing their frames will undoubtedly fuss with them and often remove them altogether.

Fortunately, brands like Fisher-Price offer frames that are both comfortable and fashionable. Fisher Price’s Marshmallow is a metal alloy frame that features cable temples, single action spring hinges and a special comfort silicon unifit bridge, making it an incredibly comfortable frame for tiny tots. All Fisher Price frames are offered with a choice of skull or comfort temples in five different size options, as well as four different strap bridge sizes.

When selling frames for kids, it can be helpful to create a “Kids Korner” in your practice – a special section decorated in vibrant colors that appeal to kids. You can include toys for the littlest customers, age appropriate P.O.P. and mirrors that are at the right height for kids. For the “tweens” audience, you can also mix their frames in with adult frames, since this age group may not want to choose frames from what they consider a “little kids” department.

In the end, a little extra effort can go a long way in making kids (and their parents) happy about their eyewear purchases.

Submitted by Andrew Miller – ClearVision Optical

Eye Glass Frames Database and Resources

Optical Who?

It is very confusing about who carries what  eyewear brand, who used to carry what brand, and then of course there is all the non-optical brands- that you have no idea of what they are!

Even if you google a ‘name’ doesn’t mean that you will actually get the manufacturer!

There are actually two sources that have the most up-to-date information on frame companies: We highly recommend that you have at least one of these optical frame resources installed on your computer. (saves trees and valuable selling space and selling time)

• Opti-Search- Database by Manufacturer, Collection, Product
• Frames Data- (Jobson) Frames Data compiles information about frames, lenses, contact lenses, lab equipment and other products used in the optical industry. This information is then distributed in various formats to subscribing eyecare professionals.

Hilco Tool Giveway- Optician Works

Hilco Tool Give-Away 

16 Chances to Win- It’s Easy  

Opticianworks and Hilco have come together to offer you a chance to win one of the following:

• One of 2 complete sets of 8 pieces of Hilco Ergo Pliers
• 1 of 12 PD Sticks
• 1 Pair of Hilco Ergo Flat- Round Snipe Pliers 
• 1 Pair of Hiclo Ergo Wide- Jaw Pliers

Rules:

• Register by July 6, 2009 
• You must post a message on any forum of the opticianworks. 
• You must return to the message board at least 1 time to check messages 
• Winners will be chosen at random on July 11, 2009 from the list of registered message board users. 

Progressive Lens Dispensing Incentives

Most major lens companies offer their own progressive lens dispensing incentives. They are often very similar to the frequent flier programs, grocery store loyalty cards that we all use in our everyday life. If you are like me you have a love/hate relationship with these programs. You love the fact that you can save money, upgrade on a flight, take advantage of special offers etc. But you hate having to remember to use the right card, enter a promotion code etc. and being tied in to a particular supplier. However, in the end you have to admit you like the benefits and you still have a choice as you decide which incentive programs you want to be involved in. Every now and then you might even try a new product  so the same thing goes with progressive lens dispensing incentive programs. They can save you money and also provide opportunity to try new product releases. I like the ones that can provide incentive to the whole office for example with prizes that can be shared. Everyone needs to have goals and fresh ideas to stay motivated and enthused every day. It is easy for even the best of us to get a little stale and that can come across negatively to the patient. It is hard to stay fresh and enthused every day so take advantage of the programs provided by the vendors, they are a win win for both the optical retailer and the optical vendor. It could be a good time to do some staff training on progressives in conjunction with a promotion.

Kodak Lens new progressive lens dispensing incentive promotion starts today, April 1 and runs until the end of July. It is called the Kodak Lens Puzzle Challenge and is the perfect example of an incentive program that can be applied to the whole office and provide a little fun at the same time.