Pair Eyewear Launches

Pair Eyewear is on a mission to prove that getting glasses is fun. Stanford graduates Sophia Edelstein and Nathan Kondamuri teamed up with Lee Zaro, former head of product at Warby Parker, to create a similar service for children that is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years.

“Until Pair there hasn’t been anything like this for kids in the global eyewear market, which will reach an estimated $18 billion by 2024,” Zaro says. “Pair is disrupting a stagnant part of the industry by bringing a unique blend of high-quality eyewear and creative design to an age group that is seemingly forgotten in the eyewear space.”

Pair Eyewear provides customizable prescription and non-prescription glasses fit for little faces with interchangeable frames. Today at launch, Pair is going live with five base frames and 50 top frames (a clip-on customization for every base frame). Each base frame, which includes hand-polished acetate frames and anti-reflective, shatterproof polycarbonate lenses, retails for $125. Top frames are available for $25 each and polarized sunglasses start at $40.

Reflective of the Warby Parker business model, children can browse Pair’s e-commerce platform and order a free at-home try-on kit that includes five cardboard samples of various base frame styles, enabling them to get a feel for the glasses before the real frames are ordered.

Pair also follows in Warby Parker’s footsteps in running the business from a philanthropic approach. In an effort to make glasses accessible to children everywhere, Pair will be partnering with EYElliance, created by Vision Spring founder Dr. Jordan Kassalow, to provide school-aged children with vision care. For every pair of glasses sold, Pair will donate one to a child in need.

“When I was 8-years-old, getting glasses was a daunting experience, and that process hasn’t seen any change in the last 50 years,” Kondamuri says. “Pair Eyewear provides a new product that reflects a child’s ever-changing style and personality and gets kids excited about wearing glasses by making the process more interactive and less intimidating.”