Stop Paying Too Much For Glasses – Check Out Glassic.in

By Kailash Nichani on August 19, 2015 27 Comments / 13114 views

Do you ever wonder why you pay *so* much for glasses? Have you ever tried to buy glasses online looking for “cheaper” solutions, but they’ve turned out to be a bit too cheap? Or you’ve found something that looks good on screen, but didn’t know if that pair would suit you? Or realised that the designs of frames & site were just so bad that it made you shut the site & never visit again?!

The Problem

To begin with, let me ask you another question: which is your favourite eyewear brand? Ray-Ban? Oakley? Prada? Or Bvlgari? Ever wonder who makes these eyewear? It should make sense when I tell you that Ray Ban makes Ray Ban & Oakley makes Oakley and so on. I only wish it were true.

80% of major eyewear brands are manufactured, distributed & retailed by a single company. That’s right. Just ONE. And if you ask me, there really is not much of a difference in quality between these brands. Their designs are great. But is it really warranted for you to pay 5 figure sums of money for just the brand label?

Enter Glassic

What if I told you that there is a start-up which recognises this lopsidedness? And that they have created a website where you can get really awesome pairs of eyewear for a fraction of the price? How much? How does Rs. 1,999 sound to ya?

Rs. 1,999 for any frames or sunglasses (all polarised) – all made from the same raw material as branded eyewear. I’m Kailash Nichani, one of the two co-founders of Glassic.

What Makes Glassic Special?

1) Alternate Supply Chain

“How the heck is it possible to provide great quality at such an affordable price, Kailash?”, you might ask. Well, a simple tweak to the supply chain is what has allowed us to do so. We design, manufacture & sell our own eyewear – no middleman, therefore no redundant costs to be borne by you.

Great, now that you know what we do, you might be wondering about the answers to the other set of questions I asked in the first paragraph. Read on 🙂

2) Super Simple Interface

We’ve got an insanely easy to use interface which shows you *only* the stuff that’s important for you to see in order to make your purchase decision.

3) Augmented Reality Based Virtual Try On

We have a state-of-the-art 3D virtual try on. And I’m not talking about that “Upload Your Photo” nonsense. Ours is a 3D augmented reality based software that uses your webcam to show you a live feed of yourself. It’s like you’re sitting in front of a mirror! Check out the video to see the virtual try on in action 🙂

4) Lens Recommendation Tool

Our prescription tool recommends the best lens for you, in terms of thickness, based on your power (prescription required). Toggle around our options to understand the features & pricing using our simple 4 step process. And since we believe in providing you with only the best, we have an exclusive tie up with the world’s best lens manufacturer, Essilor.

All our frames & sunglasses have a one year limited warranty, 14 day free returns & COD. All lens orders come along with an authenticity card straight from Essilor.

Go ahead and give us a try. It’ll be an experience like no other!

You can reach us on Twitter @Glassic_IN for any further information.

PS: We’re showing fellow rodinhooders some love! There’s a site-wide 20% discount (only on frames & sunglasses) till 31st August 2015. No coupon code required!

Comments

Kailash Nichani

27 Comments

asha chaudhry August 26, 2015, 5:47 am

hey kailash,

i’m super intrigued by glassic!

a) i wear reading glasses (and progressive for watching tv/movies & driving)

b) i always prefer something non plain jane 🙂

c) your prices seem to be very attractive!!

i went through your vid here – i love the idea of a virtual tour! the first part of the vid is cool but the second part about accuracy didn’t come through. (pls correct a typo in the super – change it to its accuracy – you don’t need that apostrophe :))

the music of the accuracy part takes away the seriousness too.

you might also want to think of having a female model too (as your products cater to both).

thanks for the special offer – will spread the word!!
Kailash Nichani August 26, 2015, 6:08 am

Hey Asha,

Thanks for the feedback! You should give us a try soon 🙂

Will work on the video bit shortly and update it here.
Anamika Joshi August 26, 2015, 9:43 am

Hey Glassic! I superloved the experience.. Your webcam trial is spot on! I need half-frames.. so once you i crease your range of options, I would be your customer for sure!

Keep rocking!
Chetan Kaushal August 26, 2015, 5:49 pm

Hi Kailash,

I’m looking for powered sun glasses more specifically polarized powered sunglasses. Lenskart does provide powered sunglasses but there is not much of a choice for people with number. Good looking frames are unreasonably high in price. It would be great if I could get some good looking sun glasses with powered and polarized lens at reasonable cost.

I have to wear my eyeglasses all the time, there are lots of people like me who wish they had some decent choice without compromising vision.

p.s. I’m not comfortable with contact lenses
Kailash Nichani August 26, 2015, 6:27 pm

Hey Chetan,

Thanks for writing in. I understand your problem perfectly.

Unfortunately not many people know that there are many options available for powered sunglasses. For me to be able to suggest the right lens to you I will need your prescription. Please feel free to email it at kailash@glassic.in or whatsapp/call me at 8754-43-43-43 and I will be happy to suggest the right lens for you.

Cheers!
Kailash Nichani August 26, 2015, 6:28 pm

Thank you 🙂 we will keep you posted once we add semi rimless frames!
Soumitra Sengupta August 28, 2015, 11:39 am

Hi Kailash

Superb idea and execution.

I totally agree that people actually don’t know when they buy premium branded sunglasses that about 60% of the price they pay is only for the brand and not the product.

Your designs and price really seem bang on and I wish that you become the Warby Parker of India 🙂

All the Best!
Kailash Nichani August 28, 2015, 12:12 pm

Absolutely! I remember my dad telling me that he used to sell Ray-Ban Wayfarers in the late 90s for about Rs. 1000 and today, the exact same model is being sold by Ray-Ban for about Rs. 7,000. One may point out that inflation needs to be considered. But seriously, 7 times the price??

Thanks for your kind words Soumitra 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal August 30, 2015, 6:06 pm

WHOA!!!!

I loved the tech man… It was smooth as silk!!

Gonna promote tomorrow!
Narayanan Hariharan August 31, 2015, 5:56 am

Awesome stuff Kailash! I don’t wear glasses, and bought a pair of sunglasses only last month, but I hope to coax my mom to try you guys out in the near future 🙂

Edit: Works fine on a Windows machine, but this is what I get to see on a Mac. Anything I can do to fix? Flash is working, and the webcam is on.
Kailash Nichani August 31, 2015, 6:02 am

Hey thanks, Alok!! 😀

Do get in touch if you need a pair of glasses/sunglasses at any time!
Kailash Nichani August 31, 2015, 6:05 am

Hey Naraynan, thanks for the kind words and appreciation! Haha, sure man 🙂 Let me know if you need any help with selecting the best frame and lens for her at any time.

PS: Your article about Screeny was super insightful! Thanks for sharing 😀
Narayanan Hariharan August 31, 2015, 6:07 am

Thanks Kailash!

Just edited my previous comment about issue with the virtual try on. Is there anything I can do to make it work?
Kailash Nichani August 31, 2015, 6:37 am

Hey Narayana,

As I told you on chat, I’ll look into this issue and get back to you ASAP. Thanks for pointing it out 🙂
Sudev kk August 31, 2015, 9:10 am

Congrats Kailash!

Loved the Try On. Awesome it is!. Was this built in house?
asha chaudhry August 31, 2015, 9:24 am

kailash,

my 8 year old daughter and i had so much fun trying on glasses. she insists i buy my next pair from you!!!

🙂
Kailash Nichani August 31, 2015, 11:01 am

Thanks Sudev! 😀 It’s licensed 🙂
Kailash Nichani August 31, 2015, 11:03 am

Haha! That’s so awesome and cute 🙂
Sourav August 31, 2015, 11:19 am

This is just fantastic and path-breaking. Amazingly superior trial experience.
Kailash Nichani August 31, 2015, 11:24 am

Thank you for your kind words Sourav! 🙂
Sudev kk September 1, 2015, 4:57 am

Ha Ha! Of course it is!.

Just wanted to congratulate the team behind! 😀
Mubaid Syed September 1, 2015, 6:26 am

This is so amazing… True innovation.. Congrats Kailash… 🙂
Sridhar Rajendran September 1, 2015, 8:55 am

Hi Kailash,

As a person who has been wearing specs for years I know for a fact that a specs that looks cool on the showcase can look weirder on face. I have lots of personal experiences to vouch for. It is one of the reason I do not buy glasses online. I do not like having to send it back and forth till I find the right pair. Coming to Glassic, I gave it a try and first impressions were really good. I felt I was in a cartoon movie (in a good way) and kept making faces 🙂 Reading an earlier comment I observed that when I tried the webcam application on Chrome (in Mac) it did not work but on Safari it did.

While the application was pretty good in figuring out where my eyes were and the side view worked well but one thing I observed is the virtual rendering did not look close enough to the original as shown in the pics. Maybe this is just my personal opinion but please do check for the feedback of others as well.
Kailash Nichani September 1, 2015, 2:51 pm

Hey Sridhar,

Let me start by saying that I truly appreciate your unbiased feedback on the purchase process of glasses and Glassic’s offerings. Thanks for that!

You’re absolutely right that some glasses look better on display than on one’s face – which was the main reason why we refused to launch our site without the virtual try on feature. And secondly, I completely see where you’re coming from when you say that you’re still skeptical about ordering online. We’re working on features that would help customers like you make your purchase decision easier and more pleasurable 🙂

I will get the issue with Chrome checked out, thanks for pointing it out!

About the virtual try on looking different from the images: this probably might be due to the fact that the 3D eyewear is slightly brighter than the photos. The reason being that it should be visible through your webcam irrespective of the quality of the webcam (some show better images compared to others).

If you see the split screen screen shot in my article, you’ll realise that the physical frames look a lot duller. The visibility of the physical frames depend on the ambient lighting settings. So if it were brighter, your physical frames would look better visible. We couldn’t take that chance with the 3D eyewear thus, we made it look more prominent. I hope this makes sense?

A humble suggestion: if you ensure that you have sufficient ambient lighting, you would probably see a better output of the 3D eyewear and it would look more similar to the images.

Thanks once again for the feedback! 🙂
Kailash Nichani September 1, 2015, 2:52 pm

Thank you, Mubaid! 🙂
Kailash Nichani October 9, 2015, 5:52 am

Hey everyone,

As promised, here’s an updated video showing how smooth & accurate the virtual try on is. Take a look! Feedback is always welcome 🙂

PS: Asha, I’ve implemented your feedback as well. Thanks for that!
asha chaudhry October 9, 2015, 6:09 am

hey niiice! much better 🙂

try to have a couple of short informative supers that tell you the benefits so that the teaser gets you to use the virtual try on IMMEDIATELY after watching it.

it needs to convey you can try on everything you like that helps you decide what you want WITHOUT MOVING FROM YOUR SEAT!!