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When you have a child that wears prescription glasses, at times it can be challenging to make sure that they keep their glasses on. This becomes even more of a problem when your child doesn’t like the pair of glasses that they have.
Today we are going to take a look at another relatively new company called Pair Eyewear, which focuses on high-quality, affordable, and customizable prescription glasses for children.
Realizing that the price for prescription eyewear was astronomically high due to one company controlling the entire industry and keeping the prices artificially high. Co-founders Nathan and Sophia set out to disrupt the industry by designing and producing their glasses in-house and skipping the traditional channels to keep the prices affordable.
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Pair Eyewear Review
Pair Eyewear aimed to be the fun, easy, and affordable alternative to the major eyewear brands that are out there. One of the major problems in the eyewear industry is the astronomical cost for children’s eyewear. Pair wanted to change that by not only offering affordable eyewear but also offering the ability to customize that eyewear into different colors.
For me personally, I have never understood why the cost of children’s prescription eyewear was so high. If you head over to Ray-Ban’s website and take a look at their Ray-Ban Jr. lineup of optical frames, the least expensive frame is going to cost you nearly $80, and that doesn’t even include the prescription lenses.
Pair Eyeglasses
Glasses at Pair Eyewear start at $60 and that includes polycarbonate prescription lenses with anti-reflective coating included.
Pair Eyewear only has 5 frame styles available for you to pick from, but each frame style has about 6 different color bases that you could choose from. The customization doesn’t just stop there, each frame has a variety of different magnetic tops that you could also get so your child could customize the color of their glasses any time they want.
I personally think that the business concept of Pair Eyewear is amazing. Especially the fact that they figured out a way for kids to be able to change the color of their frames wherever and whenever without the need of any tools.
Even though Pair only has a handful of frames to pick from, the various color and designed tops make up for the lack of frame selection. After all, with kids, it’s all about the colors.
The frames themselves are made from durable cellulose acetate and comes with flexible spring hinges for added durability.
Pair Eyewear Top Frames
The big deal about the glasses at Pair Eyewear is the customizable top frames that you are able to purchase separately from your glasses.
These top frames allow your children to be able to customize their eyewear by simply attaching the magnetic top frame to their glasses.
The founders of Pair talked to kids and parents to find out what they disliked the most about their overall glasses experience and the children were wondering why they constantly change their clothes and outfits meanwhile their eyewear always stays the same for years.
Pair Eyewear’s solution to that problem is the top frame which allows quick customization without having to purchase a whole new pair of eyeglasses.
Top Frames Cost
The top frames that you are able to purchase in addition to your base pair of glasses come in a few different options. You can get most of the standard top frames starting at $25 and could go as high as $30 for some limited edition models.
Each frame style has dozens of different top frames in various colors that you could purchase to customize the base pair. They even have some tops that could turn your child’s glasses into sunglasses. (It is very important to protect children’s eyes from the harmful UV rays from the sun) 
Sun Tops
This is one of my favorite options that are available and honestly, every parent should get their child a set of these sun tops. The sun tops allow you to quickly change your child’s regular eyeglasses into a pair of prescription sunglasses.
The best thing about it is that it doesn’t come with the cost of a pair of prescription sunglasses. Each sun top costs $30 and you have a selection of 3 different top colors to choose from for your sunglasses.
These sun tops provide your kids with 100% UV protection and is a polarized lens so it knocks out a majority of the glare that is reflecting off of flat surfaces such as the ground, hood of your car, sand, and snow.
Pair Eyewear Lenses
When you get your glasses from Pair there are a number of different lens options depending on what you need. Standard polycarbonate lenses with scratch-resistant, UV protection, anti-reflective coating comes included with every pair of glasses.
There are options for upgrades though depending on your child’s lifestyle and prescription. Here are the options.
- Blue Light Filtering (+$49) – If your child spends a lot of time in front of digital devices such as computers, smartphones, iPads, or televisions this could help reduce any eye strain or sleeplessness that they may be experiencing.
- Premium Ultra Thin (+$60) – If your child has a stronger prescription and needs thinner and lighter lenses, this premium ultra-thin lens is highly recommended if your childPs combined prescription is +/- 4.00 or higher. Thinner lenses will help reduce the overall weight of the glasses as well as reduce how big or small the wearer’s eyes become with the glasses on if they have a stronger prescription.
- Sunglass Lens (+$75) – If you want dark prescription lenses instead of clear you have the option to get lenses that are polarized, scratch-resistant, and blocks 100% of UV rays. If you are looking to save money, sticking with the clear lenses and buying a sunglass top for $30 is a better option.
- Light Responsive ($+100) – These are the lenses that changes from clear lenses to dark lenses when they are exposed to UV rays. These lenses are great for children since they are generally more active and outdoors more and their still-developing eyes need protection from the harmful UV rays.
One thing that is noticeably missing from their lineup of lenses is any type of multifocal lenses. Although Pair has acknowledged that they are working on it so we may see a progressive lens sometime in the future.
Pair Eyewear Return Policy And Warranty
Pair offers a 30-day no-questions-asked return policy which makes the entire process completely risk-free. This gives you and your child the ability to try out the glasses and ensure that your child is completely happy with how the glasses look and fit.
PAIRCare
If you decide to keep the glasses beyond the 30 days Pair does not offer any type of warranty. But, you do have the option of purchasing PAIRCare insurance for your child’s glasses for an additional $40.
This would provide you with 1 free replacement pair in the event that the glasses get damaged. The insurance plan does not cover the glasses if they get lost or stolen, it also does not cover any prescription changes, and lastly, it does not cover any lens changes.
Does Pair Eyewear Accept Insurance?
Pair Eyewear is not in-network with any vision insurance providers but, if you have out-of-network benefits on your vision insurance policy you can always submit in your itemized reciept from Pair Eyewear to your insurance provider to get reimbursed.
If you have an HSA (Health Savings Account) or FSA (Flexible Spending Account) card that is affiliated with a major credit card company you can use that card to make your purchases just like you would any other credit card. Some HSA/FSA providers will request an itemized receipt from you after you make your purchase so ensure you keep that handy in case it is requested.
Alternatively, if you need more time to pay for your glasses, Pair Eyewear has partnered up with Affirm to give you the ability to split your purchase up into smaller payments you could make overtime.
Pair Eyewear Shipping Cost And Time
Standard shipping is included for free with every single order from Pair which takes 4-7 business days. You have the option to upgrade the shipping to faster shipping if you need the glasses quicker.
Pair offers 3-days expedited shipping for an additional $30 or if you need it even faster you can choose next day shipping for an additional $60. Keep in mind though that the shipping time does not include the processing time needed to make the eyeglasses and they will ship after processing is complete.
Pair Eyewear SharkTank Appearance
Recently Pair Eyewear was featured on ABC’s “Shark Tank”, and they were looking for a $400,000 investment in exchange for for 10% of the company.
The two co-founders made their pitch to the sharks and walked away with a deal struck with Sharks Lori Greiner, and guest Shark Katrina Lake.
This is a great achievement for the young company especially when you think about how many companies try out for Shark Tank and don’t even make it in front of the Sharks. There are even fewer companies that leave with a deal from a Shark, kudos to them!
You can check out the episode that aired on March 6th on-demand or on Hulu.
If you’ve got some time, check out this video to learn about the story behind Pair Eyewear.
Final Thoughts
I personally love the concept that Pair Eyewear has brought to the market. The innovative magnetic top frames give kids a quick and easy way to express themselves through their eyewear. And the best thing, it’s affordable.
I definitely hope to see them expand their frame selection over time and offer more frame shape choices. Multifocal lenses would be useful as well, especially if Pair wants to reach more older customers. If you are ready to get your little one some glasses, head over to PairEyewear.com to check out all their options.