How Warby Parker disrupted the eyewear category
Stephen WhitesideWarc
Transforming a mature industry with a lengthy purchase cycle requires a brand with real vision – and nowhere is that more true than the eyewear category.
Incumbents don't come much more formidable than Luxottica, which owns brands including Oakley, Vogue Eyewear and Ray-Ban, and manufactures glasses under licence for big-name players like Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Tiffany, Giorgio Armani, Coach and Burberry. It is also the parent of retail chains LensCrafters and Pearle Vision, and licenses the Sears Optical and Target Optical banners – all together amounting to 4,818 stores...