A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Eric from globaleyeglasses.com, to see if I would accept a review set of glasses. I'm surprised and impressed by this technique, as he must have actually read my webpage to see my plug for Zenni. Anyways, I figured it would be more hassle than it's worth, but I am currently without a good backup pair so I jumped.
The most surprising thing was how usable their website was. If you've ever used Zenni then you know that they have a zillion varieties of frames, and they are not organized at all. If you decide "I want frame 123, but not as wide," you might find it...four hours later. I am very meticulous so I spent half a dozen hours digging through their website and even so out of the 5 pairs I've ordered from Zenni so far, only 2 have really been what I wanted.
By comparison, globaleyeglasses.com was a breeze. They gave me some pop-down lists to filter the results. So I just grabbed my ruler and an old pair that fit pretty well, and I entered those dimensions into the filter. Within moments I was staring at a list of about a dozen frames that fit my requirements in terms of style, material, and (most importantly) size. It literally took me 15 minutes from when I first read Eric's email to when I had found the exact frame that I wanted. That's even faster than at the mall!
The downside to globaleyeglasses is that they seem to have a smaller variety. But I think, honestly, they have more variety than I'd ever want, and it literally saved me hours. But the real downside is that globaleyeglasses has fewer "budget" frames. It seems overall their prices are a little higher than zenni, though you can still get exceptionally good prices if you limit your selection a little.
The glasses came in the mail yesterday. They were a little more thoroughly packaged than Zenni's were, but what matters to me is the comfort and optics. It only took a little bit of bending of the nose pads and arms, and these new glasses fit as good as if I'd been wearing them for years. Their website truly did make it easy for me to find the exact right size. Except for writing this review, I literally haven't thought about them since I put them on -- they're just glasses, like they should be.
Optically they're as good as anything else. There was no moment of disorientation when I switched from the old pair to the new pair, so they must have exactly nailed my prescription. I'm not an expert on coatings, but I'll update this page if the glasses develop a bunch of scratches early on. I'm pretty hard on all my glasses though, so....
I have two nits to pick about the frame they sent.
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| Traditional nose pad wire (old Zenni) | New nose pad wire (new Global Eye Glasses) |
Traditionally, there is a tightly-folded wire connecting the nose pads to the frames. The folds let you move the nose pads around without putting any tight kinks in the wire, and it works pretty well -- I've never broken off nose pads. The new frame from globaleyeglasses has an innovative design that is much simpler and more direct -- just straight pieces of wire going from the frames to the pads. They look very neat, but they do force all of the bending to happen in a certain small area of the metal. But maybe this fancy alloy will survive that? It will be years before I know if it causes premature frame failure.
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| Spring hinge (old Zenni) | Simple hinge (new Global Eye Glasses) |
The other difference is the hinges. I confess, it doesn't matter when I am wearing the glasses, but I have always preferred the "spring hinge" style. These have a slight reluctance to open when they are closed (or to close when they are open), and they will open to wider than 90-degrees (with the same reluctance). I admit that the modern "flexible titanium" alloys provide more than enough flex within the arms, so a simpler hinge is sufficient.
Anyways, one of the things I hated about Zenni is that you had to really hunt around and read carefully to find frames with the spring hinge. I was hoping that since I chose a relatively expensive frame ($50), I wouldn't have to worry about the hinge. No dice. *shrug* Like I said, it doesn't really matter. I have a suspicion that the spring hinge design, which can be slightly bulkier, is falling out of fashion.
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