10


Q2 • 2024


BRANDS WE LOVE


LOOK OPTIC a


ndrew Leary refused to accept the truth. Despite struggling for months


to read without relying on his phone’s light, he hesitated to admit he needed glasses. Finally succumbing, he purchased his first pair of prescription glasses, albeit reluctantly due to their cost. Initially pleased with his new appearance, Leary soon realized the inconvenience of wearing glasses daily and wearing the same pair. As he searched for new frames, he discovered his vision only required reading glasses, yet he was disappointed by the limited choices and poor-quality craftsmanship available. “I saw an opportunity to provide


consumers with the highest-quality readers available, in classic styles and colors for every occasion, and priced to collect [more than one pair],” Leary says. The idea for LOOK OPTIC was born. That was in 2015. The company launched in 2017, and now LOOK OPTIC makes quality readers from 100 percent recycled materials and says its mission is to ensure wearing readers is a fun, fashionable, and fearless experience—whenever you need to read the fine print. The home page of LOOKOPTIC.com explains it like this: “You should never have to surrender your


style for a moment of clarity. Because confidence looks good on everyone.” When he founded the company, Leary


was still the CEO of Ipsos SMX (Social Media Exchange). LOOK OPTIC was intended as a side hustle for him and his business partner, Jonathan Saven. However, in 2021, Leary joined LOOK OPTIC full-time. Since then, the company has sold more than 400,000 pairs of glasses and seen double-digit growth year over year. In addition to its stylish readers, LOOK OPTIC sells progressives and blue- light readers for all that screen time we log. They even offer tinted sun readers and a few additional accessories. The company boasts about the style of its products, and Leary claims landing on this point of difference was not just blind luck, if you’ll pardon the pun. “Having worked for Ipsos, one of the


largest market research firms in the world, we did a good amount of research prior to launch,” Leary explains. “We found that the current reading glass options were not very stylish and made consumers feel old. To this end, after releasing our initial collection, we started to focus on oversized silhouettes that were not traditionally found in or did not look like readers. Price testing also helped us arrive at our $68 price point.”


Still, the brand’s success cannot only be attributed to recognizing an unnoticed need. For starters, the product is made to last. The wire-core temples allow LOOK OPTIC readers to be adjusted without heat, the prescription- quality lenses are scratch resistant, and the frames overall are 50 percent lighter than acetate frames. LOOK OPTIC also offers a 90-day trial and a one-year guarantee on all its glasses, along with free shipping. This customer-first attitude is one reason why consumer reviews on the website are almost always ultra-positive; Leary knows that such online reviews can make or break a direct-to- consumer brand. “For this reason, we believe there is nothing more important than delivering a great product and top-notch support,” he says. “And we have always invested heavily in these areas, which was not always easy as we were trying to get to breakeven.” Leary’s wide-ranging career prior to LOOK OPTIC included time spent building online communities for innovative brands such as Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola; it’s no accident that doing so has played an integral role in his own brand’s success. He says the most important lesson he learned in this area is to be a good listener.


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