Warby Parker

Warby Parker Inc. is an American eyewear brand and retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. It also offers eye exams.[1] Originally founded in 2010 as an online-only retailer, the company now generates about two-thirds of its revenue from its 276 physical retail stores, 271 of which are in the U.S. and 5 of which are in Canada.[1][2] The company intends to operate 900 stores.[3] In 2024, the company had 2.28 million customers; the average order value was $263.[1] 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.[4]

Warby Parker designs its products in-house and sells them directly to consumers through its website and stores. The company orders its own materials and works directly with partners in Italy, Vietnam, Japan, and China to manufacture their frames, often in the same factories as competitors such as Luxottica.[5][6]

History

The company was founded in 2010 in Philadelphia by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider while they were MBA students at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[7][8] Blumenthal, Hunt, Gilboa, and Raider received a $2,500 seed investment through the Venture Initiation Program and launched the company in February 2010.[9][10] That month, shortly after launching, the company was covered by Vogue.[11]

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.[12] In September 2012, it raised a $37 million Series B round.[13] It raised an additional $4 million in February 2013 from American Express and Mickey Drexler.[14] In 2011, Warby Parker shipped more than 100,000 pairs of glasses and had 60 employees.[15] 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.[16]

In 2017, the company opened a $16 million optical lab in Rockland County, New York, to oversee a portion of the manufacturing process instead of paying external labs. The lab has 34,000 square feet and employs 130 staff.[17][18]

For a limited time in 2016, in addition to eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses, Warby Parker sold monocles with prescription lenses.[19]

In March 2018, Warby Parker raised $75 million in Series E funding, making its total funding about $300 million.[20]

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.[21][22]

On September 29, 2021, the company became a public company via a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.[23][24]

In October 2023, a federal appeals court ruled that the company's use of keyword 1-800 Contacts in search engine optimization to redirect search engine users to its website did not violate U.S. trademark law.[25]

Google announced its partnership with Warby Parker at Google I/O 2025 to develop AI-powered smart glasses based on the Android XR platform, supported by the Gemini AI assistant, investing up to $150 million in the initiative.[26][27]

Retail model

The company sells eyewear online and through its retail locations in the United States and Canada. Warby Parker's "Home-Try-On program" was a strategy used by the company in which its customers selected five frames from the website, which they received and tried on at home within a 5-day period, free of charge, but that program ended at the end of 2025. The company has programs where customers upload a photo and try on frames virtually through their mobile app.[28]

Warby Parker began operating online exclusively in 2010.[29] As Warby Parker's revenue started to grow, the company tested several different retail models, including opening brick-and-mortar showrooms in boutiques across the country.[30] In 2012, they launched the Class Trip, an outfitted yellow school bus that they turned into a store and toured across the country.[31] The company opened its first flagship store in 2013. Following the opening of its first retail stores, the company announced its plan to build its own point of sale system,[32] which was implemented by 2015.[33] 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.[34]

By February 2018, it operated 64 stores.[35]

Corporate social responsibility

Warby Parker uses a social entrepreneurship model, described as "buy one, give one".[36] For each pair of glasses purchased, the company pays for the production of another pair of eyeglasses with nonprofit organizations like VisionSpring and Restoring Vision.[37][38][39] In June 2014, Warby Parker announced that it had distributed one million pairs of eyeglasses to people in need.[40] In 2015, Warby Parker launched Pupils Project, which works to provide free vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses to U.S. public school students.[41] As of 2025, the company has distributed over 20 million pairs of glasses through the program. The company also claims to be 100% carbon neutral.[42]

The company received B Corp certification soon after its founding but let the status lapse, choosing against reincorporating as a Benefit corporation.[43] Warby Parker became a public benefit corporation and re-incorporated as a B Corp in mid-2021 prior to their direct listing.[44][45][46][47]

External links