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Zenni is very good. There is a slight difference in quality between them and the Armani Exchange glasses I got from an optician, but it's not significant. I got

Zenni is very good. There is a slight difference in quality between them and the Armani Exchange glasses I got from an optician, but it's not significant. I got a basic pair of black framed rectangular nerd specs for $8 last week, and I'd happily wear them out. Measure the frame of a pair of glasses that looks good on your face and then try to find glasses with those measurements on Zenni.

chefandy 8y ago
I've had consistently excellent luck with Zenni. The key is considering measurements beyond simple pupillary distance, such as temple length and frame width.
bryan11 8y ago
Agreed, Zenni has worked well for several years for me
ourmandave 8y ago
How long does it take to ship a pair?
- flavor8 8y ago
  Between 2-4 weeks.
themodelplumber 8y ago
I have had good luck with Zenni, but I know others who have not. For example, a friend of mine unknowingly picked a coating that seemed to make his lenses appear slightly yellow. It was borderline visible so he kept the glasses but later regretted it. Another friend used his cotton T-shirts to wipe his lenses free of dust, and quickly filled them with scratches. I personally EDC lens cleaning cloths now because I nearly had the same issue. There are also so many options in checkout now (as of a week ago) that if you don't know what you're doing you can easily overspend or buy an add-on that alters the look of your glasses when they are seen as lenses and frames together. Aside from that though, they are amazingly convenient.
- zrobotics 8y ago
  To be fair, I've had 'scratch proof' lenses from an optician that I have ruined in 2 months doing exactly that. And the addon coatings upsell is something many retail opticians do as well, unfortunately. Although that doesn't excuse the practice, it still feels shady to me.
  - wuliwong 8y ago
    I wore glasses for many years before I was shown Zenni and I've never noticed a lack in quality.
  - lmpostor 8y ago
    If you have 'scratch proof' lenses there should be a warranty on lenses regardless of manufacturer. Industry standard is either 6 months, 1 year, or two years, and that is probably the greatest value in comparison rather than the nominal difference between hardness. Also any good optician will only say 'scratch-resistant'.
  - kaybe 8y ago
    This is not normal behaviour. 20+ years of wiping several coated plastic glasses on tshirts several times every day and it takes 5+ years to put enough scratches in them to even be noticable (and most of those are probably sports artifacts and from the few times the glasses were put down glass-first).
- kfarr 8y ago
  They're also so cheap that you can order a couple variants and assume that a few won't work out for some reason. You'll then have a bunch of spares still at a fraction of the cost of the US monopoly eyewear companies.
demygale 8y ago
Zenni is amazing. At less than $20 a pair, I can buy new every month. Everyone in my family uses Zenni and I get compliments on my glasses all the time.
wuliwong 8y ago
I've been wearing glasses for over 25 years, the last 5 or so years I've been buying them from Zenni and it has been great. The best pair of glasses I've ever owned were about $25 from Zenni. I used to wear contacts a lot more until I got that one pair from Zenni. Now I wear contacts a few times a month. I had to get a new prescription, so I went to a Walmart. After, they said that they could replace the lenses in my Zenni frames. It was going to cost me $180-240 just for the lenses! I have never researched the economics of all this but there is an option for cheap glasses in the US that anyone with access to the internet can use. I wonder why people are still paying so much? The conclusion from the article: >Why do glasses cost so damn much? >Because this industry has been getting away with fleecing people for decades. That's all well and good but the fact that there ARE cheap options out there still begs the question, why aren't people using them?
- nomel 8y ago
  > Why aren't people using them? I've converted several people, but not being able to touch them and try them on first appears to be a significant problem.
  - sf_rob 8y ago
    I'd pay a fee to "borrow" the empty frames of 3-5 selections from Zenni and then return them prior to ordering. I've had mixed success on fitment from Zenni.
    - webwanderings 8y ago
      I tried this. They wouldn't take the return of empty frames. In any case, the cost was cheap enough to try. The frame quality is good enough for the price.
    - walterbell 8y ago
      Eyebuydirect will return/exchange any glasses within 14 days, lens included. Since they are owned by Essilor, the lens quality is comparable to retail stores. Some of their frames are good quality clones of designer eyewear costing 10x up.
gtm1260 8y ago
I agree. I feel like the author is alarmed that there are really expensive glasses that are getting even more expensive, but you can also still get cheap, good glasses as well.
spurgu 8y ago
Before I got laser surgery I used to buy 5-6 pairs of glasses from them (half of them regular, half sunglasses), keep the pairs I liked, threw away the rest. Not optimal, but way cheaper than the alternative.
atombender 8y ago
Anyone else having trouble loading Zenni's web site at the moment? I've been trying it since yesterday. It's not showing images, search filters aren't clickable, etc. Looks like a JavaScript issue, but it's happening in multiple browsers, so it's probably not something on my end.

chefandy 8y ago

I've had consistently excellent luck with Zenni. The key is considering measurements beyond simple pupillary distance, such as temple length and frame width.

bryan11 8y ago

Agreed, Zenni has worked well for several years for me

ourmandave 8y ago

How long does it take to ship a pair?

flavor8 8y ago
Between 2-4 weeks.

themodelplumber 8y ago

I have had good luck with Zenni, but I know others who have not. For example, a friend of mine unknowingly picked a coating that seemed to make his lenses appear slightly yellow. It was borderline visible so he kept the glasses but later regretted it. Another friend used his cotton T-shirts to wipe his lenses free of dust, and quickly filled them with scratches. I personally EDC lens cleaning cloths now because I nearly had the same issue. There are also so many options in checkout now (as of a week ago) that if you don't know what you're doing you can easily overspend or buy an add-on that alters the look of your glasses when they are seen as lenses and frames together. Aside from that though, they are amazingly convenient.

zrobotics 8y ago
To be fair, I've had 'scratch proof' lenses from an optician that I have ruined in 2 months doing exactly that. And the addon coatings upsell is something many retail opticians do as well, unfortunately. Although that doesn't excuse the practice, it still feels shady to me.
- wuliwong 8y ago
  I wore glasses for many years before I was shown Zenni and I've never noticed a lack in quality.
- lmpostor 8y ago
  If you have 'scratch proof' lenses there should be a warranty on lenses regardless of manufacturer. Industry standard is either 6 months, 1 year, or two years, and that is probably the greatest value in comparison rather than the nominal difference between hardness. Also any good optician will only say 'scratch-resistant'.
- kaybe 8y ago
  This is not normal behaviour. 20+ years of wiping several coated plastic glasses on tshirts several times every day and it takes 5+ years to put enough scratches in them to even be noticable (and most of those are probably sports artifacts and from the few times the glasses were put down glass-first).
kfarr 8y ago
They're also so cheap that you can order a couple variants and assume that a few won't work out for some reason. You'll then have a bunch of spares still at a fraction of the cost of the US monopoly eyewear companies.

demygale 8y ago

Zenni is amazing. At less than $20 a pair, I can buy new every month. Everyone in my family uses Zenni and I get compliments on my glasses all the time.

wuliwong 8y ago

I've been wearing glasses for over 25 years, the last 5 or so years I've been buying them from Zenni and it has been great. The best pair of glasses I've ever owned were about $25 from Zenni. I used to wear contacts a lot more until I got that one pair from Zenni. Now I wear contacts a few times a month. I had to get a new prescription, so I went to a Walmart. After, they said that they could replace the lenses in my Zenni frames. It was going to cost me $180-240 just for the lenses! I have never researched the economics of all this but there is an option for cheap glasses in the US that anyone with access to the internet can use. I wonder why people are still paying so much? The conclusion from the article: >Why do glasses cost so damn much? >Because this industry has been getting away with fleecing people for decades. That's all well and good but the fact that there ARE cheap options out there still begs the question, why aren't people using them?

nomel 8y ago
> Why aren't people using them? I've converted several people, but not being able to touch them and try them on first appears to be a significant problem.
- sf_rob 8y ago
  I'd pay a fee to "borrow" the empty frames of 3-5 selections from Zenni and then return them prior to ordering. I've had mixed success on fitment from Zenni.
  - webwanderings 8y ago
    I tried this. They wouldn't take the return of empty frames. In any case, the cost was cheap enough to try. The frame quality is good enough for the price.
  - walterbell 8y ago
    Eyebuydirect will return/exchange any glasses within 14 days, lens included. Since they are owned by Essilor, the lens quality is comparable to retail stores. Some of their frames are good quality clones of designer eyewear costing 10x up.

gtm1260 8y ago

I agree. I feel like the author is alarmed that there are really expensive glasses that are getting even more expensive, but you can also still get cheap, good glasses as well.

spurgu 8y ago

Before I got laser surgery I used to buy 5-6 pairs of glasses from them (half of them regular, half sunglasses), keep the pairs I liked, threw away the rest. Not optimal, but way cheaper than the alternative.

atombender 8y ago

Anyone else having trouble loading Zenni's web site at the moment? I've been trying it since yesterday. It's not showing images, search filters aren't clickable, etc. Looks like a JavaScript issue, but it's happening in multiple browsers, so it's probably not something on my end.