Italian acetate
Common Hours
The house line: quiet shapes, honest price
Our own line: eight shapes we re-order because they suit most faces and survive most lives. If your budget stops here, your options don’t feel like it.
$95 to $145 · frame only
The dispensary
Frames chosen by opticians. Lenses explained like you’re an adult.
No wall of 600 near-identical frames, no mystery lens packages. Six lines we stand behind, price bands on the shelf, and a lens menu that tells you when the cheaper option is the right one.
Frame lines
Six lines. Plain bands. No till surprise.
Bands are frame-only; lenses are priced separately below, so you can do the whole math before anyone reaches for a tray. Outside prescriptions welcome, and filled without a surcharge or a sigh.
Surgical stainless steel
Norrland
Scandinavian minimal, nearly weightless
Thin steel fronts with screwless hinges. The frame you forget you’re wearing, which is the whole idea.
$210 to $260 · frame only
Japanese beta-titanium
Fieldnote Titanium
Engineered, flexible, hypoallergenic
Beta-titanium temples that flex and spring back. For strong prescriptions and people who are hard on glasses but tired of replacing them.
$260 to $340 · frame only
Hand-finished French acetate
Atelier Malo
Small-batch colour and heft
Tumble-polished acetates in colours the big labs don’t run. Each batch is small, so when a colour sells out, it’s usually gone.
$295 to $385 · frame only
Acetate + nylon sun lenses
Solst
Sun frames, prescription-ready
Real sun protection that takes your prescription. Every pair ships with polarized lenses, and all of them fully block UVA and UVB. That part isn’t a premium feature.
$175 to $265 · frame only
Flexible TR-90
Kite + Co. Kids
Bend-don’t-break frames for ages 3 to 14
Frames built for playgrounds: flexible fronts, spring hinges, grippy temple tips. Includes one no-questions replacement in the first year.
$85 to $125 · frame only
The lens menu
Every option, priced, with the honest read.
The honest read is the part most optical shops keep to themselves. We’d rather you skip a coating than distrust the whole bill.
Lens type
Every lens we sell includes scratch-resistant hardening and a standard anti-reflective coating. Those aren’t upgrades here.
| Option | Price | What it does | The honest read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single vision | from $115 | One prescription across the whole lens, for distance or reading. | What most people under 45 need. The “from” price is a real lens we actually dispense, not a teaser. |
| Progressives, standard | $240 | Distance to reading in one lens, with no bifocal line. | A good everyday progressive. Expect a few days to adjust. That’s normal, not a fitting error. |
| Progressives, premium digital | $340 | Digitally surfaced, with wider clear zones and less “swim” at the edges. | Worth the price if you wear them all day or struggled with progressives before. If standard works for you, we’ll say so. Your first pair comes with a 60-day exchange if you can’t adapt. |
Thinner materials
Lens thickness depends on your prescription. Thinner lenses help, but only past a certain strength.
| Option | Price | What it does | The honest read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-index 1.60 | +$60 | About 20% thinner and lighter than standard. | Sensible from roughly ±3.00. Below that, you’re paying to fix a problem you don’t have. |
| High-index 1.67 | +$130 | Noticeably thinner for stronger prescriptions. | Worth it from about ±5.00, or sooner in rimless frames where the edges show. |
| High-index 1.74 | +$210 | The thinnest widely available material. | We suggest it above ±7.00 and rarely otherwise. At moderate prescriptions, the difference over 1.67 is hard to see. |
Coatings + treatments
Coatings are where optical shops have always padded the bill. Here’s what each one actually does.
| Option | Price | What it does | The honest read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium anti-reflective | +$40 | A smoother, more smudge-resistant top layer over the standard coating. | A convenience upgrade. The optics are the same as the included coating, and we’ll tell you that before you pay for it. |
| Blue-light filter | +$40 | Filters a slice of blue-violet light from screens. | The evidence that this reduces eye strain is weak, and we say so. Screen breaks and good sleep do more. We sell it if you want it, as long as you know that. |
| Photochromic | +$120 | Lenses that darken outdoors and clear indoors. | Genuinely useful if you’re in and out all day. Know the limits: they barely darken behind a windshield and take a minute to clear indoors. |
| Polarized sun tint | +$90 | A fixed dark tint that cuts glare off roads, water and snow. | The right call for a dedicated pair of prescription sunglasses. UV protection is already in every lens we sell, so you’re buying glare control, not safety. |
After you buy
Glasses are a relationship, not a transaction.
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Adjustments: free, forever, on any frame
Including frames you bought somewhere else. Drop in; it takes minutes.
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Two-year manufacturing warranty
On every frame we sell. Kids’ Kite + Co. frames add one no-questions replacement in year one, because playgrounds.
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60-day progressive non-adapt exchange
If premium progressives don’t work for your eyes, we remake into standard progressives or single vision and refund the difference.
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Your prescription and PD, handed over
They’re yours. You get them without asking, even if you’re buying online elsewhere. We’d rather earn the sale than hold the number hostage.
Need a prescription first? Book an exam, or bring your outside one straight to the dispensary.
Next available this week
Start with the exam. The frames will still be here.
A current prescription makes every lens decision easier. Book online, then let Priya pull three frames you didn’t know you wanted.