Archive for April, 2010

• Marcolin just showed us the John Galliano and Todds Eyewear lines. Fantastic. More to come… #sunglasses #fashion #optical #
• Sneak preview of the new Galliano and Tod's sunglasses! http://bit.ly/c5WuP1 #sunglasses #optical #fashion #galliano #tods #
• Oy vey … when the optical chain "See" wins best of Detroit from Metro Times you have to scratch your head. No independents in town? #
• Here's hoping the Hour Magazine Best of Detroit winner will be an independent eyeglass store. #

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We Got A Glimpse of the New John Galliano and Tod’s Line of Sunglasses and You Are Going to LOVE Them!

This week  Marcolin, the U.S. distributor of Tom Ford, Tod’s and DSquared2, stopped in to show us the new sunglass lines from John Galliano and Tod’s.

At first we were a little skeptical.

We’ve been searching for some new eyewear lines to add at Urban Optiques for several months now, and what we’ve seen so far (outside of Francis Klein) hasn’t particularly impressed us.

We pretty much knew what we didn’t want:  Yet another line of sunglasses from some giant corporate design center with yet another fashion designer’s name stuck on the temple with something akin to Super Glue as an afterthought.

There are tons of those brands out there, and outside of the designer logo itself, there’s really not much in terms of unique design to differentiate these eyewear lines from each other.

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• Foursquare Special this Saturday at Urban Optiques! Check-in and get a $5 gift card from Wine Sync! #foursquare #Detroit #optical #
• EDGE Magazine Taps Urban Optiques for "Spring Shades" Feature Article: http://bit.ly/aRlQeb #sunglasses #detroit #fashion #glbt #optical #
• Shoutout to @michaelhisala for checking in to Urban Optiques on Foursquare. Micheal, hope to see you again soon! #foursquare #
• More new Tom Ford sunglasses arrived today … #sunglasses #tomford #
• Feels like July in downtown Northville today … WARM #
• Google search malware warning popping up like last year again tonight. Do we have another Google epic fail? Anyone else seeing this? #google #
• Not good. TAG Heuer's official site is getting blocked by Google in search as "harmful." #tagheuer #
• Maria Sharapova Gets Sunglasses! See Her Fashion spread for TAG Heuer: http://bit.ly/bHVstH #sunglasses #fashion #mariasharapova #optical #

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Tennis Star and Fashionista Maria Sharapova Launches TAG Heuer’s First Eyewear Line Specifically Made for Women

Tiger is out, Maria Sharapova is in.

And we’re overjoyed.

Last fall, TAG Heuer announced that tennis star and fashion-lover Maria Sharapova would be the new ambassador and muse for a women’s series of TAG Heuer Eyewear, adding a much needed feminine perspective to the Swiss company that’s most recognized for its luxury watches and racing-inspired eyewear.

While the announcement of Sharapova as an ambassador for TAG Heuer Eyewear preceded the scandal surrounding TAG Heuer’s other marquis spokesperson, Tiger Woods, there is no doubt that marketing execs in Zurich are breathing a sigh of relief that they decided to bring the 6′ 2″ Siberian tennis star on-board when they did.

Even better, we just got a glimpse at Urban Optiques of the fruits of the TAG Heuer-Sharapova Eyewear collaboration and we’re extremely happy to say that it’s the complete opposite of last year’s Lindsey Lohan-Emanuel Ungaro partnership.

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EDGE Magazine — One of the Largest GLBT News and Entertainment Portals on the Web — Highlights Urban Optiques in its “Spring Shades” Style Feature

Yesterday morning we were thrilled to see that EDGE Magazine published a lengthy interview I did with them last week around how to choose fashionable sunglasses and take care of your vision at the same time.

EDGE is the largest network of local Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) news and entertainment portals in the world, serving 500,000  readers from a variety of metropolitan areas around the United States and beyond.

Unfortunately, they don’t currently serve Detroit, but we’re hoping to change that with this story.

Check out the full article here (it’s pretty cool):

http://www.edgeonthenet.com/index.php?ch=style&sc=fashion&sc2=news&sc3=&id=102117

We also made EDGE’s photo spread on cool sunglasses, sending them a pair of the same Ray-Ban 3025 aviators that Megan Fox has popularized.

Special thanks to David Andrusia, the author of the article,  and the entire EDGE staff for being so great to work with.

A Recent Rash of Lens Remakes on External Prescriptions Underscores the “Art” portion of Vision Correction.  Learn The Steps We Are Taking to Ensure Your Outside Prescription Is Accurate.

Lens remakes are the bane of any optometrist’s existence.

Not only are they costly for both the practice and the labs, but they also create frustration with patients and clients who may have to endure one or more lens remakes before they are actually able to see clearly.

No one wants them and every optician and optometrist works hard up-front to avoid them.

However, they do happen every now and then.

Why?

Well, unfortunately, sometimes a lab will make a mistake and get the script wrong.

Sometimes what a patient thought was “clear vision” during the exam isn’t so “clear” when they actually put the finished glasses on.

Other times, we just need to “tweak” a prescription and lens a few times, especially for new progressive wearers or people with complex vision correction needs like prism.

In very rare instances, a person’s vision may literally change between the refraction and the delivery of the finished frame and lenses.

Our Philosophy: We Work Until We Get Your Lenses Right. Period.

In all of these cases, we continue to work with the patient until we get the finished product right, and often we do this at considerable extra cost to Urban Optiques – both in additional lab rework fees and the staff’s time.  It’s just part of the process of providing good vision care and an accepted cost of business for us (even though we want to minimize it.)

The good news is that when we actually perform the eye exam and refraction at Urban Optiques, we have an extremely low remake rate. There are few specific reasons for this, which I’ll touch on a bit later.

But first, let me tell you about a recent “mystery” at Urban Optiques around remakes.

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• Today's UV Index for Detroit Michigan: 6 (High) Keep those sunglasses on! http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/uv_search #health #optical #eyes #
• Are Women More Prone to Vision Loss? http://bit.ly/9goGms #optical #health #eyes #vision #
• Five Proven Ways to Grow Your Optical Practice Using the Internet: bit.ly/aiW73J #optical #optometry #business #marketing #
• Congrats to the New Mayor of Urban Optiques on FourSquare! Harry from Ann Arbor: http://bit.ly/9GQzmY #foursquare #
• Urban Optiques FourSquare Special: 10% off frames/suns when you show your check-in, Mayor get's 15% off! #foursquare #optical #sunglasses #
• More new Chloe sunglasses arrive! HAVE to stop in to see them … #sunglasses #
• @EyewearExpo Thanks for the compliment and nice RT. The Sunglasses Mag article was so much fun to do! #sunglasses #
• Check out Urban Optiques' "Sunglasses" App on Facebook! Send gorgeous designer sunglasses to your friends: http://bit.ly/dcgQom #sunglasses #

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We’re Open Earlier and Later Now On Select Days!

To take advantage of the longer Spring and Summer days, we’ve made some tweaks to our retail hours at Urban Optiques over the past week.

While we’ve always accepted appointments outside of our posted retail store hours, we decided to switch our official hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays to offer people more options in terms of both scheduling and walk-ins.

Here’s what’s new:

• Wednesdays we are now open from 8 am to noon for early birds
• Thursdays we’ve extended our evening hours from 11 am to 7 pm for the after-work crowd

For now, Saturdays we are still officially open 10 am to 2 pm, although we are usually open later than that depending on what’s going on in Downtown Northville, our exam schedule, the weather, foot-traffic in town, etc.

We will likely extend Saturday hours once we get an idea of how the Wednesday and Thursday changes work out.

Looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Do You Belong to Foursquare?  If So, You’re Gonna Love Our Perks for Foursquare Members!

If you are a regular user of Facebook, you may have noticed some of your friends posting “Check-ins” lately at local businesses using something called “Foursquare.“

So what is Foursquare and why would Urban Optiques care about it?

Foursquare is mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location.

Points are awarded for “checking in” at venues and users also earn badges by checking into locations with certain tags or at certain frequencies.  Even better, users can choose to have their Twitter and/or their Facebook accounts updated when they check in.

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Study Suggests Females Have Higher Rates of Eye Disease.  So What Can A Woman Do to Keep Her Vision Healthy?

You work-out and exercise, you eat healthy, your have regular check-ups with your OBGYN and primary physician, but are you also paying special attention to your vision?

Research suggests that you should be.

A 2008 study by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute consistently shows that more women are diagnosed with major eye diseases than men. Of the more than 3.6 million Americans age 40 or older who suffer from visual impairment, including blindness, 2.3 million are women.

This disturbing research prompted Prevent Blindness America to designate April as “Women’s Eye Care and Safety Month” in an effort to encourage women to make vision health a priority and schedule an eye exam that includes dilation.

Dry Eyes? You’re Not Alone Ladies

The study found that in addition to more diagnosed cases of major eye disease, women are more prone to dry eye syndrome, a condition where not enough natural tears are produced, or the composition of the tear layers is compromised.

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