Talk:Warby Parker/Archives/2015

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Proposal to bring this article up-to-date

Hello! I am working on behalf of Warby Parker to update this article. I noticed that the article had an excellent foundation, and I am proposing to update it with additional well-sourced facts and data. I am a Wikipedia user and this is the first time I have suggested updates to an article with which I have a *very clear* conflict of interest, so I feel somewhat uncomfortable making these suggestions. My hope is that the info is neutral/well-sourced, and that it can provide a jumping-off point for updating the Warby Parker page.

With that long preamble over, I am placing a draft of the proposed update in a collapse box below. Any feedback at all would be gratefully received.

UPDATE MARCH 31: I reformatted this—hopefully it is correct.

Mollyyoung (talk) 14:46, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Molly, for the suggestions! I have some feedback about the section structure, and there are some technical things to do like mark up the references differently, but otherwise I think most of what you wrote is perfectly fine to incorporate in to the article. I'll dig in to the details more in a bit, Steven Walling • talk 05:23, 7 March 2013 (UTC)
Okay, I've made some structural edits, a few small style changes, and tried to incorporated some of the images you uploaded. Otherwise, I think I've been able to use most of the new content and citations. Any thoughts? Steven Walling • talk 04:44, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
Proposed revision of Warby Parker article

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Industry: Eyewear Founded: 2010 Founder(s): David Gilboa, Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, Jeffrey Raider Headquarters: New York City Products: eyeglasses and sunglasses Type: Private Website: warbyparker.com


WARBY PARKER

Introduction Warby Parker is an American company selling prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses under its own brand. Warby Parker sells online, and has a limited number of showrooms in the United States. By designing glasses in-house and avoiding the overhead of physical stores, the company is able to lower the cost of its glasses by a significant amount; generally, to $95.[1] Along with the low cost, the company is known for selling frames —sometimes described as vintage-inspired— that have been praised by ELLE[2], Esquire[3], Vogue[4], GQ[5] and others.

The company was founded in 2010 by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider[4] and is headquartered in New York City. The name “Warby Parker” derives from two characters that appear in a journal by the Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac.

The company was bootstrapped by the four founders and launched in February 2010. Shortly after launching, the company was featured on Vogue.com[4] and in GQ, which called it “the Netflix of eyewear”. [6] In May 2011, Warby Parker raised its first round of funding totaling $2.5 million. In September 2011, the company raised a Series A round of $12.5 million. [7] In Fall 2012, it raised a $37 million Series B round[8], with an additional $4 million announced in February 2013 with noted investors American Express and Mickey Drexler.[9]

Product Warby Parker designs glasses in-house and sells directly to customers to avoid retail markups.[10] A lower price point is also possible because glasses are designed in-house, eliminating licensing fees that can be as much as 15% of the wholesale cost on a pair of glasses. Warby Parker does not sell glasses through brick-and-mortar retailers, whose markups can double or triple prices.[11]

Warby Parker’s Home-Try-On program allows customers to choose five frames from the website, which they receive to try on at home for five days, free of charge. Customers can also upload a photo and try on frames virtually.[10] The company primarily sells eyewear online and through its New York City headquarters. It also maintains a limited number of showrooms located in boutiques through the United States. [12]

Monocle One of Warby Parker’s signature offerings is a monocle, which is available with a prescription lens.[13]


Social Innovation For every pair of Warby Parker glasses purchased, a pair is distributed to someone in need. Rather than donate glasses using a more traditional “one-for-one” model, Warby Parker funds the production of a pair of eyeglasses for non-profit organization VisionSpring, which VisionSpring in turn sells either directly to Base of the Pyramid (BoP) consumers or to vision entrepreneurs<.ref>Zax, Laura. “The VisionSpring Model: Creating Markets and Players Instead of Empty CSR” Forbes, October 5, 2012</ref> Warby Parker is a certified B Corporation with areas of excellence in Accountability and Consumers.[14] The company is 100% carbon neutral.[15]

Growth Warby Parker is expected to open its first retail store in 2013.[16] Previously the company opened a temporary retail store, the “Holiday Spectacle Bazaar”, in Soho. [17] They also launched a “traveling store on wheels” [18] and hosted a festival at SXSW.[19] 2012 Warby Parker released its first TV ad. [20]

References

  1. ^ Pack, Amy. “Warby Parker’s Vision for Growth” CNBC, June 11, 2012
  2. ^ Levinson, Lauren. “Sophia Bush Poses for Warby Parker x Pencilse of Promise” Elle.com, October 15 2012
  3. ^ Soller, Kurt. “Exclusive: Warby Parker Launching Prescription Shades” Esquire, April 20, 2012
  4. ^ a b c Bahrenburg, Genevieve. “In Focus: Warby Parker Eyewear” Vogue, February 22, 2010
  5. ^ Sebra, Matthew. “Exclusive First Look: Warby Parker’s Hayworth Collection” GQ.com, February 12, 2013
  6. ^ Wong, Danny. “GQ Calls it the Netflix of Eyewear” The Huffington Post, November 29, 2010
  7. ^ McMhana, Ty. “Stylish Eyewear Maker Warby Parker Tries on $12M In Funding” WSJ.com, September 22, 2011
  8. ^ Primack, Dan. “Warby Parker raises $37 million” CNN Money, September 9, 2012
  9. ^ de la Merced, Michael J. “J.Crew Chief and American Express Invest in Warby Parker” The New York Times, February 24, 2012
  10. ^ a b Mitroff, Sarah. “With $37M, Warby Parker Sets Its Sights on More Than Just Eyeglasses” Wired.com, September 12, 2012
  11. ^ Berfield, Susan. “Hip Eyewear: Warby Parker’s New Spectacles” Bloomberg Businessweek, June 30, 2011
  12. ^ [ http://www.warbyparker.com/showrooms “Warby Parker Showrooms”]
  13. ^ Redick, Scott. “When Big Ideas Come From Small Companies” AdAge, May 16, 2012
  14. ^ “B Corp Directory: Warby Parker”
  15. ^ Zelman, Josh. “In Focus: Warby Parker Eyewear” TechCrunch, February 24, 2012
  16. ^ Yannetta, Tiffany. “Warby Parker’s First Non-Internet Store Is Coming to Soho” Racked, July 16, 2012
  17. ^ Holt, Emily. “Another Pop-Up Pops Up: The Warby Parker Holiday Spectacle Bazaar” Vogue.com, November 23, 2011
  18. ^ Lapowsky, Issie. “How Warby Parker Reinvented Retail” Inc., December 26, 2012
  19. ^ Teicher, David. [2012 http://adage.com/article/digital/top-brands-amex-warby-parker-sxsw/233260/ “What Top Brands, From Amex to Warby Parker, Are Doing at SXSW”] AdAge, March 12, 2012
  20. ^ Elliott, Stuart. “Quirky Eyewear Brand Tries TV as an Ad Medium” The New York Times, September 20, 2012

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Recent addition

An IP who recently created two draft articles for a new eyeglass company keeps adding that they are a major competitor of Warby Parker into the article. I have three problems with the information. 1. It appears to be spam because the IP is probably someone at the company since an article about the company was also created by one of the owners and when the article was marked for speedy deletion the IP contested the deletion. 2. The information is malplaced in the middle of the history section of the article. This is not part of their history. 3. The source provided does not support the statement that Mason Eyewear is a major competitor of Warby Parker as the new information claims. GB fan 10:32, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Added back again with no explanation or discussion here. Also reverted my removal of it again. GB fan 15:43, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
I have removed the information again. I have given the user (editing as both MichaelKleinman and 76.18.25.245) their third warning for using Wikipedia for advertising. If you need to revert them again, please be sure to give them a final warning on either talk page by adding {{subst:uw-advert4|Warby Parker}} - ~~~~ to their talk page. If they revert after that we will then be able to block them. (I have also added notes to both talk pages "reminding" them to log in when they edit.) - SummerPhD (talk) 16:57, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
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