We've all purchased a pair of sunglasses or glasses at some point in our lives. It's an extremely important moment. Design, feel, quality, fit, weight, colour, whether it hides your eyebrows or shows them off - these are all serious considerations.

buying glasses can take anything form 1 minute to 1 year.

We launched in 2016 and as an online brand, and very quickly we learnt that many people wanted to try-on our frames in person before considering a purchase. Opening a shop straight away simply isn't possible for a small business, so we had our proverbial thinking caps screwed tightly on trying to think of ways to solve the problem.

How could our customers try-on frames from the comfort of their own home?

We didn't come up with the idea. The glasses Home Try-On was invented by an eyewear company in the US and soon made it's way across the pond to Europe and the UK. But we saw problems in their solutions and as designers, we're always looking at ways to improve the process. So what big problems did we find with the current solutions out there?

The Problems with current Home Try-On solutions out there:

1. Cardboard, Cardboard, Cardboard

2. Slow and inconvenient delivery

3. Tricky Returns

SOLVING THE PROBLEMS

During 2018 & 2019 we've been developing concepts for our Home Try-On solution, designing packaging that's long lasting, which could be easily cleaned and re-used.

Our concepts:

Introducing The MONC Home Try-On

STEP 1 - REMOVING ALL THAT CARDBOARD

We chose the concept that didn't use cardboard, was lightest in weight and easiest to use.

Every other brand we tested used cardboard packaging where you either tore, cut or broke open the corrugated box to get into the Home Try-On kit. This box is then thrown away or recycled after each use.

Re-usable for a minimum of five years.

For the MONC Home Try-On we created a shipping wallet that's designed to be re-usable for a minimum of five years. Zip sealed and manufactured from durable heavyweight PVC and coated with nylon material for long life - it's durable and easy to clean so we can go on using it for many years to come.

We can't take all the credit for this - Versapak are the manufacturers of our reusable pouches which they currently make for the purposes of securely moving money and safely storing medical equipment. Their patented 'tamper evident security system' means that our frames can be transported to our customers and sent back to us safely and easily.

STEP 2 - CONVENIENT Delivery

Each of the Home Try-On's we tested didn't give much, if any notification of when this precious parcel might arrive and were sometimes delivered a few days after ordering online. This wasn't quite good enough for us.

So we have chosen to use DPD's Next Day service with a notified time slot on the day of delivery. This means that you know exactly what day and time your DPD driver will be delivering your Home Try-On. No more waiting at home all day too scared to go out for a sandwich, until you finally do...only to come back and find that little paper slip under your door...drat.

Carbon Neutral

On the plus side our Home Try-On is carbon neutral thanks to the folks at DPD.

STEP 3 - HASSLE FREE RETURNS

When returning the Home Try-On, customers simply insert the sunglasses case into the yellow wallet and re-seal it using the security tag provided. They then drop it off at a local DPD drop off point and the parcel comes back to us.

Once we receive the parcel back with the frames in, we clean everything inside, dis-infect the yellow wallet and it's ready for it's next journey.

OUR Waste

There is a little waste - the plastic security tag. Luckily our friends are Versapak take all of our spent tags and recycle them into new ones. Hurrah!