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Finding the right sunglasses at the right price isn't easy and despite your ambitions to look like Don Draper or Carrie Bradshaw, your $200 glasses will assuredly break or get lost.
A new LA company is giving you complete control of your eyewear and doing it at an affordable price. Spective launched in May and allows users to create, purchase, or promote their own brand of sunglasses.
The brainchild of an entertainment lawyer and a talent manager, the sunglass company got an early foothold with local LA influencers before rolling out to the general public. They quickly found out they could make high quality glasses in the $20 to $50 price range and decided to take on the long-standing, overpriced industry leaders.
“We got familiar with the industry and had relationships with manufacturers,” said co-founder and CEO Todd Kurihara. “We nailed down the supply chain and had a general idea of what people were looking for, what was out there on the market, and what was missing.”
The site currently offers four different frame designs that can be customized with different colors and lenses. For those looking to brand their ingenious design, words can be added on the lense or frame to promote themselves or their company. Once finished, you can either purchase your creation or promote it to others.
“We noticed this growing trend in the fashion world towards customization and getting away from generic brands in order to express yourself,” added Kurihara. “In a matter of minutes anyone can go online, design there own brand of sunglasses and sell it right there on the site.”
The company is currently located in downtown LA and has 10 employees. After bootstrapping the funding from their previous sunglass sales and from local family and friends, the native Angelenos believe their proximity to LA’s fashion district will aide them in disrupting a monopolized sunglass industry.
“It’s almost shocking. No one really know about it but Luxottica is one of two companies that controls almost 80% of the market share,” Kurihara said. “And it’s not just the brands they own, they own the distribution channels like Sunglass Hut and Lenscrafters and they're stocking those stores with their own brands.”
More than any other fashion industry, sunglasses are judged more on brand affiliation than actual quality. The brand obsession has led to an industry stranglehold that 60 Minutes covered thoroughly last year.
“The consumer suffers the most because they are paying these inflated prices when they don’t have to,” argued Kurihara. “These glasses that RayBan sells for $200 cost them maybe a $1 at the scale they are producing them. People have accepted it because it's all they know.”
Spective plans to continue to raise awareness about the industry and what their brand offers. As the company grows, they will continue to add more designs and options to allow consumers to fully embrace their unique, affordable style.
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