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Defying Conventional Wisdom to Sell Glasses Online

Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Neil Blumenthal, left, and David Gilboa of Warby Parker, sell eyeglasses online.
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
Published: January 16, 2011
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Shopping skeptics said people would never buy certain things — shoes, diamond rings, cars — online because they needed to see the products in person. They were wrong. E-commerce companies have found success in all of those fields.
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Warby Parker designs its glasses, like these for women, and primarily sells them for $95, including prescription lenses.
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Todd Heisler/The New York Times
A model photographed for Warby Parker, an online company that has sold 20,000 pairs of glasses in its first year of business.
But some purchases still happen mostly offline, including one of the most personal: prescription eyeglasses.

Warby Parker, a New York start-up, thinks it can persuade people to shop online for glasses, with a combination of fashion, low prices, technology and old-fashioned customer service. It seems to be working. In its first year of business, the company sold about 20,000 pairs of glasses; however, it would not disclose financial information.

It joins a new generation of e-commerce companies that is changing online shopping by taking a cue from Zappos.com, the online shoe retailer that emphasizes convenience and customer service, and which was bought by Amazon.com in 2009.

“We’re asking consumers to change the way they buy eyeglasses, so we want to de-risk it as much as possible,” said David Gilboa, who founded Warby Parker with three friends from business school, Neil Blumenthal, A

Helping Soldiers Trade Their Swords for Plows

Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times
GOING GREEN Carlos Rivera, a former Marine, at Archi’s Acres, an organic farm in California’s avocado country where service members and veterans learn about farming. More Photos »
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
Published: February 5, 2011
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VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — On an organic farm here in avocado country, a group of young Marines, veterans and Army reservists listened intently to an old hand from the front lines.
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From the Frontlines to the Farm
“Think of it in military terms,” he told the young recruits, some just back from Iraq or Afghanistan. “It’s a matter of survival, an uphill battle. You have to think everything is against you and hope to stay alive.”

The battle in question was not the typical ground assault, but organic farming — how to identify beneficial insects, for instance, or to prevent stray frogs from clogging an irrigation system. It was Day 2 of a novel boot camp for veterans and active-duty military personnel, including Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton, who might be interested in new careers as farmers.

“In the military, grunts are the guys who get dirty, do the work and are generally underappreciated,” said Colin Archipley, a decorated Marine Corps infantry sergeant turned organic farmer, who developed the program with his wife, Karen, after his three tours in Iraq. “I think farmers are the same.”

At their farm, called Archi’s Acres, the sound of crickets and croaking frogs communes with the drone of choppers. The syllabus, approved by Camp Pendleton’s transition assistance program, includes hands-on planting and irrigating, lectures about “high-value niche markets” and production of a business plan that is assessed by food professionals and business professors.

Along with Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots, a new program for veterans at the University of Nebraska’s College of Technical Agriculture, and farming fellowships for wounded soldiers, th