New Brands v. Fashion Brands
As a trademark attorney that works with creative entrepreneurs, I love to read business descriptions like this one, from Warby Parker’s website page “How We Do It:”
Well, first it’s important to understand how glasses are made today:Most high-end fashion house brands don’t design or produce their own eyewear. They sell those rights to massive companies that do it all for them. These large companies design, manufacture and sell branded glasses for astronomical prices directly to optical shops and then pay fees to the fashion brands for using their name and logo. Then, optical shops mark up frames and lenses an additional 2-3 times before selling them to you.
This system doesn’t make any sense to us and it hurts you.
The take-away from Warby Parker is that start-ups can get in on the same assembly lines as the fashion brands, but bypass the traditional retail chain model. Start-ups can create a new business around a product with designer quality, but market it through social media and sell directly to the consumer at significantly lower prices, all the while developing a new brand identity in the process. All you need to see is the success of Warby Parker to realize the potential for such new branding.
