Our Story
Why a practicing optometrist built a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand
After more than ten years of practicing optometry in Milwaukee, I've watched the same frustrating pattern repeat itself thousands of times.
A patient comes in for an eye exam. I spend time with them taking their history, performing a thorough examination, diagnosing, educating, and prescribing. Then they walk next door to a retail optical chain and spend three times what they paid for the exam on a pair of glasses.
Think about that for a moment. The examination, the part that requires eight years of education, clinical training, licensure, hours of continuing education and over a decade of practiced skill, costs less than the goods that come out of it. The frames and lenses, which require no clinical judgment to select and no medical expertise to dispense, are marked up to a margin that makes the professional service look like a loss leader.
In my opinion, this didn't happen by accident.
Over the years I've watched the optical industry consolidate in ways that most patients never see. From where I sit as an independent practitioner, it appears that the same parent companies have quietly acquired ownership stakes across the entire supply chain; the vision insurance plans that determine your benefits, the retail chains those plans direct you toward, the wholesale labs fabricating the lenses, and many of the frame brands sitting in those dispensary cases. The patient walking in with their insurance card may not realize that their insurer, their retailer, their lab, and their frame brand could all share a common owner. That's a remarkable amount of influence over a single transaction, and in my view, it hasn't served patients or independent doctors particularly well.
I want to be clear that this is my perspective as a practitioner who has worked within this system for over a decade. Others may see it differently. But I think patients deserve to understand the landscape they're navigating.
What I believe, and what Frame Republic is built on, is straightforward: the examination should be the most valuable part of your eye care experience. The doctor's time, expertise, and clinical judgment should command the highest premium in the transaction. The glasses should be fairly priced for what they are.
The current system, as I've experienced it, has flipped this. The professional service has become the entry point, sometimes offered at deeply discounted rates through insurance, while the optical goods carry the margin. Independent optometrists get squeezed. Patients pay prices for frames and lenses that have little relationship to what it actually costs to make them. And somewhere in between, the value of the doctor gets lost.
Frame Republic is my attempt to correct that, at least for the patients who find us.
Every prescription that comes through Frame Republic is reviewed by me personally before your lenses are cut. Every pair is inspected before it ships. You're not buying glasses from a retail chain that happens to have an optometrist on staff. You're buying from the optometrist directly. Someone who has examined thousands of patients, understands what makes a quality lens, and has a professional and personal stake in getting your glasses right.
That's not something the current system is designed to offer. It's what Frame Republic is built to provide.
Have a question? Ask me directly.
I read every email that comes to hello@framerepublic.com. If you have a clinical question about your prescription, your lens options, or whether Frame Republic is the right fit for your vision needs — reach out. That's not a promise you'll get from a retail chain.
Dr. Colin Smith, O.D.
Founder, Frame Republic