1. Eyewear For All. This speaks to our new dynamic product line: sunglasses, prescription glasses, bendable frames, traditional but fun frames (Pops), a size for every face in the family including babies, and a style or color for every personality in the family and every activity (sports, outdoor, reading (blue light), boating, skiing). But it also means for people that have special needs and disabilities where our frames can help save money and be an efficient solution. Providing free glasses to kids in need is our favorite part of our charitable programs - we donated over 100 pairs of prescription glasses last year and hope that program grows exponentially in the future.
2. Inefficiently Exceptional. Sure, we want to be efficient, but sometimes when you are dealing with a parent learning about glasses for their kid for the first time, or someone trying to understand why there is a high prescription fee for their glasses, or why we need the pupillary distance measurement to process their order correctly, we need to take that extra time to really walk them through and be friendly. We go out of our way to make sure every customer experience is positive, even if it costs us some money in the short term on free shipping or a questionable replacement request... This also speaks to how we produce and ship our products. Making them in Italy is not the most efficient way to do it from a cost perspective, but we do it anyway because we think it is important. Putting the lenses in ourselves and doing our own packaging is a pain in the butt, but it allows us to better quality check each order. Pick and pack in house is not what a big ecomm brand would do, but we do it anyway because we like being responsible for what we put in the packages and how customers receive our products. Home try on kits cost us money, but we think they are important for customers to feel confident in an important life decision like choosing glasses for their kids. The goal is every customer being "wowed" every time.
3. Families First (aka "There Are No Sunglasses Emergencies"). We are family brand - both who we sell to, who our product is for, and who works here. We make a product that is for the entire family, but we hope also supports families in some small way. As owners, Julia and Scott are proud of making our office an accommodating and supportive place. We are parents, we know how hard it is, and we're all in it together. It takes a village is a real thing - hopefully making affordable eyewear for families in a stress free interaction is a small relief for a parent that otherwise might be dreading that process.
4. Small Communities, Big Impact. Being part of small communities that can benefit from our product and support was part of the plan from inception with the autism tie in our brand has (you can read about that here if you don't know about it!), but it has obviously grown from there. We had a mom reach out asking about making Bendees in a larger size for kids that do not have arms and could use glasses with a built in strap. While we can't make every ask happen, our founder Scott replied asking for more details and filed it away for someday when we might be able to do a charitable project. We have tremendous responses from small communities of all kinds: albinism, Down Syndrome, kids with emotional and physical challenges; even the world's smallest man, Nick Smith, wears our baby size glasses because he could not find another frame to fit his face! Giving glasses to kids in need in our community (San Diego but also with our Pay it Forward program) is probably the simplest example of how we can do something relatively easy for us - provide a pair of glasses to a child - that might have a HUGE impact on their lives. We continue to look for ways to make a big impact with small efforts.
5. A Real Small Family Business. A lot of ecommerce brands say they are small businesses. Maybe compared to Nike. Very few in our space are who we are: a handful of people under one roof doing everything. Every pair of sunglasses or prescription glasses we have ever sold has been touched by our team in our office and packed and shipped by us. Not some warehouse somewhere. We see, feel, and interact with our product and customers every day. Every website order is pulled, assembled and packed right under our roof. Every product, email and piece of marketing material has been designed in house. We cut no corners. We are proud of that. The perception of Roshambo Eyewear from an average customer seems to be that we are equivalent to Jonas Paul, Pairs or Babiators, with endless resources and teams of people ready to jump on every little problem or project. It is great that we can punch above our weight class a bit, but communicating the message of being an actual small business with a handful of real, really great people is powerful and worth focusing on and might help us turn into a Big Business someday. And if it doesn't, we like being a small family business too :)
