Startup Ditto aims to help customers customers to find the right pair of eyeglasses. With that in mind, it recently launched a new “Netflix for designer eyewear” program called Endless Eyewear.
Subscribers pay a monthly fee, choose a pair of glasses for delivery, then if they don’t like the pair or get tired of it, they can swap them out for anytime you want, with free shipping and returns. There’s one plan for sunglasses, and another for prescription glasses — and yes, the prescription program includes new lenses each time.
The company says Endless Eyewear offers more than 50 brands, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Burberry. It also includes insurance for scratches and wear-and-tear.
Co-founder and CEO Kate Doerksen told me via email that she got this idea from her constant conversations with Ditto customers:
One storyline I heard over and over was what we started to call the “one and done” dilemma, meaning people could only afford one pair even though they wanted multiple styles. We knew if we could solve this ‘one and done’ dilemma, we’d make a lot of our customers happy, and we had a hunch that it would be attractive to a much larger audience. We conducted a few focus groups and surveys, and we got an overwhelmingly positive response.
Doerksen also compared the program to Rent the Runway’s new Unlimited offering, where you can rotate between different fashion accessories for a monthly fee.
Ditto, by the way, raised a $5 million Series A last fall. Its first big innovation was its “virtual try-on” technology, which uses your webcam or phone camera to create a 3D model of your face. You can then use that model to see how different glasses will fit you, and if you find a pair that you like, you can purchase the through Ditto.
Doerksen said the company will continue to support the traditional purchase model, because “there will always be an audience for that business.”
Endless Eyewear will cost $19 a month for sunglasses and $29 a month for prescription glasses. You can read more in this company blog post.