Those Who Paved the Way

I'm not the first blogger to get excited about buying eyewear online, so it only seems fitting to give a nod to some others who have covered the same territory before me and left a pretty sweet trail. Seriously -- we're talking breadcrumbs here.   

GlassyEyes

Although the blog seems to be mostly ads now, Ira Mitchell started me (and SO MANY others) on the path of shopping for glasses online. He has had an enormous influence on consumers in this market, thanks to his critical take on the industry monopoly by Luxottica and the outrageous markup on retail frames and lenses. GlassyEyes began nearly seven years ago and the blog and forums continue to be relevant, especially if you're just jumping into this business of shopping for your specs on the interweb.

Eyeglass Retailer Reviews

This site, as far as I can tell, belongs to a Canadian techie named Matt whose approach to online glasses shopping mirrors my own obsessive tendency to organize everything and try to make sense of it, except he's much funnier than me. His focus is on the budget retailers, which, let's face it, are the major draw for folks buying online. Definitely worth a read.

You may be wondering, then, why I bothered. I wanted to highlight how much has changed and how easy it is now to buy great glasses from reputable companies. For everyone. Whether you've got plenty of cash or very little, you can get a great pair of specs online. The number of retailers has increased exponentially, and there are so many more options than there used to be. It's no longer necessary to order from the sketchy place with the F rating from the BBB. Hooray!