We understand- you've landed on TimeToShade and are intrigued by what you see, but you're looking for "the catch". You bought your last pair of glasses from the shop attached to your Optometrist's office, and you had to choose between a $200 pair of generic glasses vs. a $400 pair of Ray-Bans. Your whole life, you've been told that you get what you pay for, and you've always paid hundreds of dollars for eyewear. So what can TimeToShade possibly be offering for $49?

The truth is- everything. TimeToShade doesn't have any shareholders to report to, sales goals to hit, or margins to maintain. We're not trying to make a killing off of you every year or two, we're disrupting that model by pricing everything close to our cost, and building happy customers who want (and can afford) to come back again and again.

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The table below outlines what is included at TimeToShade vs. what you get from other major retailers like Warby Parker, Zenni Optical, and Glasses USA.

Other retailers do a few things well, but as you can see, no one provides the same value as TimeToShade.

warby parker

Warby Parker has high quality frames and lenses at reasonable prices, but they are missing two key pieces of value vs. TimeToShade. First, they do not have any name brand frames. Everything is their house brand, and prices start at $95 for single vision. Second, their options are incredibly expensive. For example, progressive lenses are a $295 option (vs. $79 at TimeToShade).

Zenni Optical

Zenni offers the absolute lowest cost options for a pair of glasses. For $6.95, you can get a house brand frame with 1.5 index plastic lenses. However, once you start getting into more quality offerings, Zenni quickly falls behind. For example, if you upgrade to our "standard" of 1.59 poly lenses, that's an extra $9 from Zenni. If you don't like the handful of frames that they offer for ~$20, prices quickly climb to $32+. Finally, Zenni does not offer any name brand frames, so forget about wearing anything from Ray-Ban, Oakley, or Coach!

Costco

Like Warby Parker, Costco offers high quality frames and lenses. Costco's optical department has house brand frames (Kirkland), and carries other premium brands like Ray-Ban at reasonable prices. Selection is regional, but we've seen Ray-Ban frames from $90. Lenses are high quality- the least expensive option is 1.59 poly for $65. For another ~$100, they offer a light responsive treatment as well.

Costco is good, but TimeToShade offers complete pairs of Ray-Ban glasses for less than what Costco charges for just the lenses!

LensCrafters

LensCrafters is owned by Luxotica (who owns Ray-Ban, Oakley, and many other high end brands, as well as most vision insurance providers), so you would think that they would have some pricing advantages. Unfortunately, that is clearly not the case. Frames are reasonably priced- we found Ray-Ban frames as cheap as $70, but lenses are extraordinarily expensive. They charge over $150 for plain plastic lenses, and poly lenses are pushing $200. They do provide discounts for insured patients, but pricing is still well above what TimeToShade charges for equivalent products.

Glasses USA

Glasses USA is an online vendor that provides both house brand and name brand frames. They offer a lot of the same products and options as TimeToShade, but where they fall behind is on price. Their included lenses are 1.5 index- it is a $60+ fee to upgrade to 1.59 poly. Also, their name brand frames carry big price premiums. At the time of this writing, the least expensive pair of Ray-Bans that we could find was $89.

Coastal

Like Zenni, Coastal focuses on the low end. For about $20, you can have a pair of glasses shipped, which is a great value. However, where they fall behind is when you get into the more quality stuff. For example, upgrading to 1.59 poly is an extra $45. Progressive lenses start at $134, and light responsive lenses are $115.

Walmart Optical

Walmart has some house brand frames at very low prices. However, if you upgrade to 1.59 poly, Walmart charges an incredible $81. This prevents them from truly competing with any of the other online vendors.