Is it possible to remain fashionable while wearing reading glasses? Cheeterz Club, a new eyewear company, believes so. The company wants to shift people’s perceptions about reading glasses, from inexpensive, throwaway things purchased from a revolving display rack at your local drug store to something you’d be pleased to wear. To accomplish so, the company creates glasses with high-quality lenses and frames in a variety of styles, all while keeping the price low.
She stated the idea to create a better set of readers occurred to her when she became irritated with the current market options. “It all began a few years ago. My pals were putting negative remarks and postings on social media, such as, “I’m getting old and turning into my parents, this is dreadful.” And I wondered, “Why does it have to be like this?” Farrelly explains, “I feel exactly as young today as I did ten years ago.”
“Why are my friends and I compelled to feel old because of something that comes overnight?” she asks, referring to the onset of middle age and the challenges it brings.
What’s more, when you finally get to the drugstore to get some reading glasses, all you’ll find are terrible; plastic sets that look and feel cheap, according to Farrelly. She adds, “That’s much more disheartening.”
So Farrelly teamed up with Lee Zaro, the former Head of Product at Warby Parker and Pair Eyewear, to create a new range of more fashion-forward eyewear.
Zaro, who is situated in the Los Angeles area, recognized the possibility right away. “Drugstore reading glasses are usually of low quality and feel like they were made with our parents in mind, creating a significant unmet need for sophisticated eyewear options,” he explained. “I knew it was a wonderful idea when Jennifer approached me to assist design her first line of eyewear.”
Cheeterz Club glasses are manufactured entirely of acetate and have spring hinges and stainless steel to set them apart from lower-end readers. Meanwhile, the lenses are clearer than those found in most reading glasses. The Abbe value — a measure of how light is dispersed or separated — of ophthalmic plastic lens materials is typically between 30 and 58. The greater the number, the better the optical performance, crown glass has an Abbe value of 59, but polycarbonate readers (like as ones from Warby Parker), according to Farrelly, have an Abbe value of 30.
