The NYTimes reports that Google "is negotiating with Warby Parker, an e-commerce start-up company that sells trendy eyeglasses, to help it design more fashionable frames."

  • oschene

    Warbaby?

  • http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Dr. Chronobiologist

    This but a bit more rectangular to maximize HUD screen size.

  • https://twitter.com/Thejackthompson Jack Thompson

    Let me get this straight:

    Google, the home of the kings of the nerds, is in talks with a company that makes nerd-frames, to take said frames and integrate an array of sensors and a HUD into them.

    Google is taking an object of ridicule and making them empowering? Do I have that right? Because that sounds like it has the potential to be amazing.

    • http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers

      The only reason chunky specs are an object of ridicule now is because they’re a thoroughly overdone affectation.

      • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

        What drives me nuts are lens-less frames.One time I was at a music festival and saw a girl reach through the glasses to rub her eye.

        They just feel like a mockery of a minor disability. 

        • http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers

           Mark My Words: the next hipster fad will be polio calipers and boots.

  • Taniwha

    so I’m guessing they won’t be selling glasses with HUDs that work with bifocals/progressives any time soon (hint the HUD has to appear in the BOTTOM of the glasses, not the top)

    • pjcamp

       No, they won’t. Who do you think you are, trying to avoid contact lenses?

  • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

    I’m actually surprised they aren’t in talks with Luxottica.

    No they probably are.

  • Daneel

    Meh. I wanna see what Vertu Glass come up with.

  • hugh crawford

    “cheap hipster glasses” ?

    How about neither gratuitously ugly nor gratuitously overpriced? 

    They look to me like what generic glasses would look like if you had to draw glasses on a cartoon duck in a hurry. Sort of what would make the fashion statement “yes I don’t have perfect vision, make a big deal about it and I’ll sue your pants off under the ADA and tattoo my name on your ass because my cousin is a lawyer and my mom owns a tattoo shop”

    They don’t look particularly hipster to me, but I would love to shop at the eye-ware of third world dictators and Hollywood lawyers store.

  • Albert Tallman

    Calling ~$145 sunglasses “cheap” is just totally crazy.

    • the_steve

      Oh, did the optician at the dollar tree step her game up? Last time I went in there, the prescription sunglasses she sold me were TERRIBLE.

    • http://twitter.com/cooljames cooljames

      That’s actually a really good price for prescription glasses of any sort. To keep the “let’s criticize something” tone of this comment thread, buying glasses is hard. If you want cheap, you get the name of a designer on the temple. Usually, these designers would never stoop to sell $79 frames, but somehow BCBG or Perry Ellis or Gucci is irrevokably branded for all to see. 

      Anyway, outside of the Google Glass application, Warby Parker is doing it right. You go to their website and pick 5 frames that might work. WP sends you the 5 frames (without lenses) for an at-home try-on (the presentation of this is actually startlingly classy, when you get it in your home). Then, you pick one or more that you like and send the prescription. A week or so later, you have new glasses that you’ve already tried on and meet your prescription needs. Also, their customer service is great, and I’m a total dick about that sort of thing.

      Back on topic, $145 for prescription ANYTHING is a good price. Hipster or not, they do good work at Warby Parker. You’re not going to find anything stylish (without the aforementioned gaudy branding) under $300 for frames + lenses.