Warby Parker Inc. is an American manufacturer and retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. Founded in 2010, it was initially an online-only retailer. It now receives about 90% of its revenue from its 237 physical retail stores, 232 of which are in the U.S. and 5 of which are in Canada.[1] It also offers eye exams.[1] The company has 2.28 million customers, with an average order value of $263.[1] The company's goal is to operate 900 stores.[2]
Warby Parker is headquartered in New York City. The name "Warby Parker" derives from two characters that appear in a journal written by Jack Kerouac.[3]
Warby Parker designs its products in-house and sells them directly to consumers through its website and stores. The company orders its own materials, such as acetate, from Italy and then manufactures frames at the same Chinese factories as competitors such as Luxottica.[4]
History
The company was founded in 2010 in Philadelphia by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider while they were students at Wharton School as JAND, Inc., an acronym for the names of the founders.[5][6]
The company was started in the Venture Initiation Program of the school.[7] The company received $2,500 seed investment through the program and launched in February 2010.[7] That month, shortly after launching, the company was covered by Vogue.[8] 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.[9] In September 2012, it raised a $37 million Series B round.[10] It raised an additional $4 million in February 2013 from American Express and Mickey Drexler.[11] In 2011, Warby Parker shipped more than 100,000 pairs of glasses and had 60 employees.[12] By the end of 2012, the company had grown to around 100 employees. In April 2015, the company raised $100 million in a funding round led by T. Rowe Price, valuing it at $1.2 billion.[13]
In 2017, the company opened a $16 million optical lab in Rockland County, New York, to create and manufacture glasses in-house instead of paying external manufacturers. The lab has 34,000 square feet and employs 130 staff.[14][15]
For a limited time in 2016, in addition to eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses, Warby Parker sold monocles with prescription lenses.[16]
In March 2018, Warby Parker raised $75 million in Series E funding, making its total funding about $300 million.[17]
In August 2020, Warby Parker raised $245 million in a funding round that valued the company at $3 billion. The $245 million was a combination of a Series F round and a Series G round.[18][19]
Vintage-style Warby Parker sign at a retail store on 82nd and Lexington Ave. in NYC
The company primarily sells eyewear online and through its retail locations in the United States and Canada. Warby Parker's "Home-Try-On program" is a strategy used by the company in which its customers select five frames from the website, which they receive and try on at home within a 5-day period, free of charge. The company has programs where customers upload a photo and try on frames virtually through their mobile app.[23]
Warby Parker began operating online exclusively in 2010 and opened its first store in April 2013.[24] As Warby Parker's revenue started to grow, the company began opening brick-and-mortar showrooms across the country. Following the opening of its retail stores, the company announced its plan to build its own point of sale system,[25] which was implemented by 2015.[26] In 2015, it established a partnership with Nordstrom, the brand's first national retail partnership, which led the company to establish six curated pop-up shops nationwide.
By January 2017, the company operated around 41 stores in 28 U.S. states along with two stores in Toronto and one in Vancouver.[27]
Warby Parker uses a social entrepreneurship model, described as "buy one, give one".[29] For each pair of glasses purchased, the company pays for the production of another pair of eyeglasses for the nonprofit organization VisionSpring.[30][31] In June 2014, Warby Parker announced that it had distributed one million pairs of eyeglasses to people in need.[32] As of 2023, the company has distributed over 15 million pairs of glasses through the program. The company also claims to be 100% carbon neutral.[33]
The company received B Corp certification soon after its founding but let the status lapse, choosing against reincorporating as a Benefit corporation.[34] Warby Parker became a public benefit corporation in mid-2021.[35][36]
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