Q2 • 2024


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“Before raising money and joining LOOK OPTIC full-time, I was the only customer service rep for three years, and probably not a great one,” he explains. “But this experience helped us define our positioning. Specifically, 90 percent of our customer reviews reference comfort, so we saw this as an opportunity to use comfort as a clear point of differentiation in a crowded market and to use the quote ‘The World’s Most Comfortable Readers’ as a tagline.” Marketing-wise, the brand’s tone of voice


is like their readers—sophisticated, yet fun. LOOK OPTIC’s Instagram relies heavily on images of people wearing their products, of course, but it also features some playful posts that align with the brand’s pillars of Fun, Fashionable, and Responsible. The brand’s tagline—“Fear Not the Fine Print”— was developed by Yard NYC. The agency was briefed by Leary and the LOOK OPTIC team, using Barneys New York (circa 1990) as inspiration. “Fun and fashionable, never taking


ourselves too seriously,” Leary says. “When I think of Barneys in the ’90s, I see a man in a tux with pink socks or Linda Evangelista kissing a monkey. We believe having fun is at the heart of being truly fashionable. The third pillar used to be Affordable; however, as we moved into 100 percent recycled frames, we updated this to Responsible.” Identifying—and operating by—those


three brand pillars may not always make life easy for a business, but it certainly does simplify selecting brand ambassadors who will align with your values. In its short


history, LOOK OPTIC has collaborated with the likes of tennis legend Venus Williams and actor/model Carolyn Murphy. Leary says these choices were made because both had a previous interest in LOOK OPTIC, and that authenticity is nonnegotiable for the brand. LOOK OPTIC was featured on Williams’s website as one of her favorites before the brand and the tennis star ever became “doubles partners.” Likewise, Leary says the company initially inquired about Murphy due to her interest in sustainability (a shared value). “When her agent responded with a photo


of Carolyn wearing our LIAM frames in black, this led to the development of a new style with her,” he says. The company does not pay influencers to post about their brand or products. The goal is to partner with people who already wear and like LOOK OPTIC glasses so that they create content and share their own personal experiences about wearing the company’s products. “Luckily, as we have grown, we have more


and more creators interested in sharing their stories,” Leary says. LOOK OPTIC’s success with what they


refer to as an “Opti-Mistic” attitude continues to make the brand desirable for creators—and consumers too. The company says that more than four million frames end up in landfills each year, which is the reason LOOK OPTIC uses 100 percent recycled materials in its products and a circular production model. The company has partnered with recycling leader TerraCycle and encourages consumers


to send their old frames back to be recycled. LOOK OPTIC also partners with the Lions Club to refurbish unwanted frames and distribute them to those in need. Consumers can get 25 percent off their next frames by donating or recycling old frames. The “Opti-Mistic” approach to business does not end there. LOOK OPTIC also contributes a percentage of every sale to a philanthropic organization called charity: water, whose goal is to bring clean water to every human on the planet. The founder of the organization is a longtime friend of Leary’s and was an early advisor who helped the LOOK OPTIC team create a sustainable company.


“When we started LOOK, we made the decision to give a percentage of every sale to charity: water,” Leary says. “Over 780 million people go without clean water every day and contaminated water is the number one cause of preventable blindness worldwide. What I love most about charity: water is that 100 percent of all donations go to actual water projects so donors can see their contributions’ real, tangible, and life-altering impact. Private donors fund operating costs so donors can rest assured that every penny they contribute will change people’s lives.” Leary says it’s difficult to tell what kind of


return on investment there is for maintaining a responsible business, but he doesn’t seem to care. “For us, it’s in our DNA,” he says, “and we hope that we can not only raise awareness but encourage other brands to act responsibly as well.” 


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