Gear tip – Zenni eyeware glass case

I’ve overall been fortunate with aging.

I can comfortably schlep gear through rough terrain, put down the same distances I did twenty years ago, and, more importantly, enjoy myself while doing it.

Part of it is luck, in that I haven’t had any major injuries. Part of it is genetics. And a large part of it is committing to my health and fitness over the years, even with the ebbs and flows of life.

The major concession I’ve had to make to aging?

Wearing prescription glasses.

I’ve had astigmatism that first became noticeable when I started driving 35 years ago. I mainly needed glasses for driving in low-light conditions.

Then I started working professionally in IT, began getting minor headaches, and was told I needed to wear glasses for computer work, too.

My prescription hasn’t changed much since then. But I’ve gradually needed to wear the glasses more and more.

First, I needed them at home while writing this very website over the years. Then for my phone. Then for maps….

About a decade ago, I asked my eye doctor in Colorado: If my prescription hasn’t changed that much since I was 16, why do I need the glasses more?

She smiled and said very kindly, “Your eyes are a muscle. As you get older, your muscles get tired more easily.”

Welcome to middle age, Paul!

As opposed to this Middle Ages, Game of Thrones, and Monty Python mashup! From a “Blog of Thrones.”

Now, if you purchase glasses in most of the world, you may or may not know about Luxottica. This Milan-based company reportedly controls about 80% of the world’s major eyeglasses brands. Its parent company brings in about 27 billion euros annually ($32 billion)

To quote the linked article –

They [Luxottica] own Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Costa Del Mar, and Vogue Eyewear.

They manufacture eyewear under license for Prada, Chanel, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany, Michael Kors, Coach, Valentino, and Tory Burch. The “Prada glasses” at your optometrist were not designed by Prada. They were not crafted in a Prada atelier. They were made in the same Luxottica factory complex as everything else, on the same production lines, with a licensing sticker applied to the temple. Prada collects a royalty. Luxottica sets the price.

They own LensCrafters. They own Sunglass Hut, with over 3,100 locations worldwide. They own Pearle Vision. They run Target Optical. They own Glasses.com and EyeBuyDirect.

And they own EyeMed Vision Care, the second-largest vision insurance company in the United States, with 43 million members.

One company manufactures the product, owns the brands, controls the retail, and provides the insurance that pays for it. A columnist on 60 Minutes called it “an optical illusion.” Fake competition. Dozens of brands on the wall, one company behind all of them.

However, since 2003, Zenni Optical (among others) has sold eyeglasses directly to consumers at a fraction of the price of so-called designer glasses.

Zenni owns the factory, the supply chain, etc. etc.

Since COVID and the maturation of technology that enables better remote sizing and fit, the company has blown up.

I don’t think these glasses are cheap so much as reasonably priced, especially compared to the near-monopoly pricing.

Though older reviews claim they’re cheaply made with suspect build quality, I’m on my third pair. My friends and colleagues here in Moab also use them to great effect. They fit well, are durable (a necessity during my IT career, when I often left them on a desk or workbench), accommodate my progressive-lens prescription, and seem stylish enough.

And, again, they’re less expensive and more reasonably priced than the Luxoticca-owned offerings.

I carry my glasses in my pants pocket, so they’re handy when I need to look at my phone, read a map, or see the night sky clearly.

I tried a soft case, but after one hike, I had to buy an eyeglass repair kit to replace a loose screw.

Not good!

The ultralight favorite of a Crystal Light case is apparently no longer available. And the Walmart version is supposedly similar? Well, the nearest Walmart is two hours from us, so I’m not driving there to check.

But I looked at my Zenni case, noticed the thinner plastic compared to most prescription-glasses cases, removed the ZENNI foam, and weighed it.

It comes to ~42 g (1.5 oz).

I prefer an analog scale to a digital one.

That saves me a trip to buy some Walmart-brand Crystal Light I won’t drink, shopping for an Ultralight^(TM) version on Garage Grown Gear, or using a lighter but less structurally protective soft case.

(Is it worn weight? Does it add to my base weight? I’ll let the Ultralight Catholic dogmatists parse out this “Angels on the head of a pin” argument!)