Online luxury eyewear retailer Archibald Optics has extended its reach to the US marketplace – a year after being founded in the UK.
The London-based company last month started to sell its spectacle and sunglass frames at the luxury end of the US market, but with prices ‘free of excessive mark-ups, licensing fees, and industry middlemen’. It has also opened a New York office but product was to be shipped directly from existing hand-crafted manufacturing partners in Fukui, Japan.
Archibald Optics founder and CEO Rohan Dhir said: ‘We created Archibald Optics to fill in a gap in the way the direct-to-consumer model is currently being used.
‘We are by no means the first direct-to-consumer eyewear brand, however the model typically involves the sale of low to medium quality products, and we are one of the first in the space to include luxury-quality products.’
The standard Archibald Optics frame was being sold for $225, with hi-index prescription lenses and shipping included in the cost, and customers were able to try three frames at home before purchasing.