Are the lenses truly different between major eyeglass chains?

July 25, 2018 5:26 PM

I'm going to choose between Pearle Vision and LensCrafters because those two chains are the most convenient for me, but I'm curious if their thinnest and "most high-tech" lenses are truly different from each other or just rebranding of the same lens technology and material. Are there any eyeglass industry experts who know? Specifically, Pearle's PEARLETHIN HD versus Lenscrafters' LC-HD ENHANCED VIEW.
posted by oion to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

Both are owned by luxxotica, who has a near Monopoly on glasses in the USA. As to whether those two lenses are different I can't help.
posted by TheAdamist at 5:28 PM on July 25, 2018 [9 favorites]

Best answer: I haven’t bought glasses from Lenscrafters in years, but in the last few years I’ve had super-high-index lenses from Pearle, Costco, and Zenni and the difference in thinness and quality is negligible but the difference in price is in descending order, by significant jumps.

My prescription is -13 so I would say I’m fairly sensitive to how thick/heavy lenses are. Feel free to memail me with any specific questions.
posted by padraigin at 8:53 PM on July 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Both are owned by luxxotica, who has a near Monopoly on glasses in the USA.
Um, not exactly. They make more frames and sunwear and have a more commercial presence. Once they finalize their combination with Essilor (who makes more prescription lenses), then much closer.

What you can do is call each store and ask them what the material index is of their lenses that they'd make for you in your prescription. That material index will tell you if they are using the same material in them or not. This webpage, if you scroll down, gives a good breakdown of the benefits of each kind of material the lenses are made out of.

I don't know specifics about those two particular lens brands, but the HD in them on both looks like it refers to the new digital surfacing technology that's been around for about 10 years now. This is a much more precise technique that, depending on the brand of lens, can be catered down to your very specific body mechanics (reading distance, height, dominant eye, face shape, etc). Instead of having to run through a bunch of machines to get the prescription ground into the lens, there are fewer machines with more precise abilities. There are different digital calculator brands, and these digital lenses can be tweaked to the preferences of the lab creating these lenses, so even if both Pearle and Lenscrafters use the same material and the same brand of digital calculator, they still might be technically different lenses.

Looking at the marketing jargon on these two specific lenses, I would say the LC-HD Enhanced view looks slightly more technical regarding the frame profile. But that is just my guess.
posted by jillithd at 7:12 AM on July 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Info like this might help you. I don't know that you'll see a major difference between Pearle or Lenscrafters. I've gotten glasses from Pearle and I don't recall any problems with the lenses. Never bought from Lenscrafters because they were too overpriced. It's true that almost all the frames in the U.S. come from Luxottica so Lenscrafters $400 frames aren't any better than Pearle's $200 frames.

Now, I buy from Warby Parker, $99 per pair. I also buy from Classic Specs which may be going out of business because they've had an all-sales-final winter clearance sale for a year, but I still bought some sunglasses recently and I love them. No difference with the glasses I've bought at the store.
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:01 AM on July 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Fortunately I already have my frames, so the only cost will be the exam and lenses, both covered in full by my insurance (whew!). It seems like the differences should be negligible, especially since I'm not taking into account cost. This info will hopefully be helpful to others too. Thanks everyone!
posted by oion at 12:04 PM on July 26, 2018

Now, I buy from Warby Parker, $99 per pair. I also buy from Classic Specs which may be going out of business because they've had an all-sales-final winter clearance sale for a year, but I still bought some sunglasses recently and I love them. No difference with the glasses I've bought at the store.

Quick note about Classic Specs! Something hinky is going on there, at least in their online store. I was lured by the winter clearance for their gorgeous Jason Wu collab even though their website was behaving very strangely. Every attempt to place an order led to an error message. After three attempts (on different browsers), I gave up. To my surprise, a week later, a pair of glasses arrived. Just one pair. When I checked my credit card statement, I found that they charged me three times. I tried contacting them to get a refund. A week later...I received another pair of glasses. I did a return-to-sender through USPS and got my credit card company to cancel the charges. A week later...I received a third pair of glasses. I never got any responses to my emails, and none of the phone numbers I found connected to anything. I can't even call it a scam -- the one thing they actually managed was to send the product.

Reddit has a lot of questions (and answers) about lenses.
posted by grandiloquiet at 3:36 PM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]