The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Blumenthal: Warby Parker Customers Ranked Social Mission Last in Buying Decisions
“After survey after survey, what we found was what mattered first and foremost was how these glasses look on your face. Second price you know, third quality last, if at all Would be the social mission.”
Blumenthal: Customers prioritize appearance and price over a company's social mission
“What's most important to customers. And when they're buying glasses, what's most important is the glasses look good on their face. Then how much do they cost? And then is it good quality and is it good service? Lastly, you know, is there a social ethos behind …”
Blumenthal: AI ocular imaging will eventually diagnose primary health conditions
“And then we can use AIs to make diagnoses eventually and, you know, help better triage. Customers, not just within sort of eye care, but for primary health care and beyond.”
Blumenthal: Bold corporate statements often cause distraction rather than real impact
“Making bold proclamations or performative statements can sometimes not lead to desired impact and may actually lead to disruption and distraction.”
Blumenthal: Luxottica controls major eyewear brands, licenses, and retail chains
“They own Oakley, Ray-Ban, Oliver Peoples, Persol, and Arnett. They license almost every major fashion brand under the sun, like Ralph Lauren and Chanel and Prada and Dolce & Gabbana. They also own a lot of the major retail chains like Lens Crafters and Pearl V…”
Warby Parker is partnering with Google to launch AI smart glasses
“We're working with Google to launch AI glasses. They're sort of Warby Parker branded intelligent eyewear.”
Blumenthal: Physical stores cause brief e-commerce cannibalization but expand overall demand
“What we found is that if we're going into a new market and we open up that first store, there is some e-commerce cannibalization for a short period of time.
The way to think of it is there's a certain size pizza in that market.
The store comes.
There's a bunch…”
Blumenthal: PR effectiveness is 30% messenger and 70% message
“We often say that PR is, I think, 30% the messenger, 70% the message”
Blumenthal: PR success is 30% the messenger and 70% the message
“We often say that PR is, I think, 30% the messenger, 70% the message”
Blumenthal: Warby Parker's valuation crossed $1 billion
“Our last valuation was over a billion dollars.”
Blumenthal: Warby Parker owns and operates all 300+ retail stores
“Warby Parker owns and operates all of our own stores, of which we have over 300.”
Blumenthal: Online eyewear penetration remains surprisingly low at only 12%
“And if we look at the overall market, 88% of glasses are sold in bricks and mortar. So it's still only 12% online penetration, which is really low.”
Blumenthal: Roughly 2% of American optometrists are Black
“Roughly two percent of optometrists in America are Black.”
Blumenthal: Luxottica has a market cap of around $30 billion
“Luxottica has a market cap of about thirty billion dollars.”
Blumenthal: Luxottica owns EyeMed, the US's second-largest vision insurer
“They own the second largest vision insurance plan in the country, IMED.”
Blumenthal: Warby Parker priced at $95 over $99 to avoid looking cheap
“So one thought was, should we charge 99 dollars? And we felt that was too discounty and cheap, and we were building an aspirational brand. So we actually settled on 95 dollars using just our instinct, thinking that this doesn't sound cheap and that it looks de…”
Blumenthal: 17 of 18 banks rejected Warby Parker for lacking tax history
“We went to 18 different banks, and only one would talk to us, and again, this was 2010, so soon after the financial crisis, and what all these loan officers said is, hey, we've never seen such a beautiful business plan, we've never seen a company That has such…”
Blumenthal: Luxottica has a market capitalization of roughly $30 billion
“Luxottica has a market cap of about thirty billion dollars.”
Blumenthal: Luxottica owns EyeMed, the second-largest US vision insurance plan
“And They own the second largest vision insurance plan in the country, IMED.”
Warby Parker priced glasses at $95 to avoid seeming cheap
“So we actually settled on 95 dollars using just our instinct, thinking that this doesn't sound cheap and that it looks deliberate and visually looks decent.”
Warby Parker name originates from two Jack Kerouac characters
“Two early Jack Kerouac characters that Dave actually discovered when he went to the New York Public Library exhibit on Kerouac, and two of the characters were Warby Pepper and Zag Parker.”
Blumenthal: GQ dubbed Warby Parker the 'Netflix of eyewear'
“GQ actually called us the Netflix of eyewear in the article they put.”
Blumenthal: Warby Parker applied to 18 banks and 17 rejected them
“We went to 18 different banks, and only one would talk to us”
Blumenthal: The Average American Buys Glasses Once Every Two Years
“The average American buys glasses once every two years.”
Warby Parker progressive lenses start at $395 versus $1,000 elsewhere
“We launched with 95 dollar glasses we still sell 95 dollar glasses today. Now we've introduced some additional frames that have more complex construction that cost more to manufacture, like our precision progressives offering which is a top-of-line progressive…”