The phrase “seeing is believing” has special meaning for Kevin Hundert and his online eyewear business. That’s because Made Eyewear in Sun Valley has a website with a sort of unbelievable business model. The website allows customers to design two pairs of glasses, which are made to order with prescription lenses and shipped to customers – who can return them within seven days for a full refund if they don’t like them. It may sound like a crazy business model – especially with retail prices ranging from $84 to $270 – but it sets Made Eyewear apart from plenty of online competitors. “The concept was founded behind custom eyewear – the customers being able to build their own product on our website,” said Hundert, 27. “We appeal to an edgier, younger audience and we target a kind of active, tattooed and outgoing West Coast type of person.” So how is it possible? The company, founded two years ago, has its own low-cost manufacturing plant in China, and is not just a retailer. Other companies feature home try-on marketing but with limitations. Warby Parker in New York is one of the leading online retailers for eyewear in the country. It lets customers order up to five prototype frames without prescription lenses and to try them for five business days. After they return the frames, they can place an order for a pair with their prescription lenses. Lookmatic in Los Angeles takes a similar approach. Jim Okamura, founder of ecommerce advisory Okamura Consulting in Chicago, said he’s seen an influx of online eyewear retailers over the past few years, but he likes Made’s approach. “Their ability to lower the risk for the customer by offering free returns makes it OK for a customer to take that chance. The customer service standards have risen quite a bit and lowered the barriers (that keep customers) from pressing the ‘buy now’ button,” he said. Lens lab advantage Hundert has had an advantage in the business; he was raised in it. His father, Michael Hundert, is chief executive of REM Eyewear, an online Sun Valley retailer that sells glasses with off-the-shelf frames from brands such as Converse and Jones New York. After graduating from Babson College, a business school in Boston, Hundert joined his father at REM in 2010. The business model for Made Eyewear came to him during a business trip in China arranged by his father. While in China, the younger Hundert visited each department in the factory for the span of a week and got to make his own pair of glasses. While doing so he noticed how simple it was to design his frames and to shape the lenses. “That was kind of the light bulb moment,” he said. “If it’s that easy, why can’t a customer in the U.S. be able to customize a frame like that?” Hundert took the idea to the owners of the manufacturing company he was visiting, and in 2012 the two partnered together to establish Made Eyewear. He declined to share the name of the Chinese manufacturer, which has a significant equity stake in the company. The manufacturer uses its lens laboratory and factory to assemble all Made products. He said partnering with a manufacturer that owns a $5 million lens lab allows his company to make eyewear for an affordable price. And even with the distance, the company promises to get its glasses to customers in a week. “Because we have our own lens lab, we can make lenses very quickly, in about a day, and they’re very cheap,” Hundert said. “It’s very expensive to build a lens lab and we just had one fall into our lap, which is very convenient.” Hundert declined to provide revenue figures but said the company has grown about 25 percent each month since it was founded. It has not reached breakeven. The company has grown to four employees. Bryan Goldstone, owner of Express Lens Labs Inc., a private lens lab in Fountain Valley, said it is rare for an optometrist or an eyeglass company to own a lab, and it provides a financial advantage for Made. “It’s expensive to start up a lab but once you have that expense made, I would imagine the cost to produce the goods is less than using an outside source,” Goldstone said. “And I think that once most people get the glasses they don’t end up sending them back.” Evolving business Indeed, the end product is highly customized. Customers can select the style, different colors for the frame and the earpieces, and special coatings for the lenses. Also they can opt to engrave their name, favorite word or twitter handle, up to 26 characters long, on the outside of the earpieces. Although Made has developed a niche with its design-it-yourself model, Hundert recently launched a new collection of pre-made eyewear in response to website analytics. The data revealed a segment of users who visit the site and spend hours designing their own glasses without making a purchase. “They’ll design one hundred different frames then their head explodes and they don’t know what to do so they just don’t buy anything,” he said. “So we came to the inevitable conclusion that we need to also add a more traditional model, which is very similar to what our competitors are doing.” Hundert’s father, Michael, said that while he arranged the original business trip and offers advice, his son made the most of his chance. “Providing the opportunity to learn was then followed by encouraging him to follow his ambition. From there, I have remained available to advise Kevin whenever he needed a sounding board for his ideas,” he said.
