TrendSpotting
THE BIGGEST TRENDS + NEWS YOU CAN USE

SMART SPORTSWEAR On the Go

With Google Glass retreating from its consumer rollout for a re-tuning and other brands of smart eyewear finding their footing first in enterprise usage, athletes are beating a trail to smart sportswear with heads-up displays.

Leading the pack of such gamers is the Recon Jet from Recon Instruments, sports eyewear featuring a dual-core CPU, high-contrast display, and point-of-view camera that connects to smart phones and wearable sensors to deliver information instantly, just below the user’s right eye.

PERFORMANCE MATTERS: For athletes like runners and cyclists, in particular, the Recon Jet delivers race-winning information—such as heart rate, temperature, speed, elevation gain, and whether the athlete is on pace—without the wearer needing to break their form to check a wrist wearable.

VISION SOLUTIONS: Why should ECPs be interested? Rochester Optical’s proprietary Smart GOLD lenses can provide an Rx-able solution for athletes who need vision correction. The highly specialized lenses minimize eye strain, allowing the smart eyewear to be worn for extended periods of time. The lenses have an additional, optimized O.C. where the display is viewed and compensated to balance binocular vision, and they eliminate prismatic effect and off-axis aberrations.

FUTURE TRENDS: This could be just the beginning for eyewear-mounted sport technology. Already, GPS leader Garmin has launched the Varia Vision in-sight display, a sunwear-mountable unit that puts key location and navigational data within a cyclist’s line of sight. And VSP Global continues to develop its smart eyewear prototype, Project Genesis, which can track a variety of health and fitness bio data.

Recon Instruments CEO Dan Eisenhardt believes the future of smart sports eyewear lies in specificity, not generalist use cases.

“We have seen resistance towards smart glasses that are designed to be worn all the time,” he says. “However, where we have found success is by targeting markets where the right information delivered by the right device can make a meaningful impact.”

INFO: reconinstruments.com, rochesteroptical.com

The Recon Jet, from Recon Instruments

—Susan Tarrant

Enlightening New Customers

Transitions helps open pathways toward millennials

transitions Optical gathered nearly 500 industry professionals from North and South America for its 20th annual Transitions Academy in Orlando last month to present ways the brand can help its customers grow their business, in Transitions sales and otherwise.

With an event theme of “Enlighten,” Transitions Academy provided professional development and product technology workshops, as well as presentations on marketing and industry trends. Throughout it all, workshops and panel discussions focused on the reveal that Transitions lenses block a significant percentage of harmful blue light, and how best to convey that fact—plus other technical features—to a younger consumer demographic.

The closing event, the 2015 Transitions Innovation Awards, celebrated retailers who have grown their photochromic sales through Transitions branding and promotions. The winners:

Best in Training—Visionworks; Best in Patient Experience—VisionArts Eyecare Center in Fulton, MO; Best in Growth—Henry Ford OptimEyes, multiple locations in Michigan; Best in Marketing—Canada’s New Look Eyewear; and the 2015 Transitions Brand Ambassador—Eric White, O.D., of Complete Family Vision Care in San Diego.

Jose Alves, general manager, Americas, opens Academy with “Luminance Watts,” who provided laughs throughout the event

Sherianne James, vice president, global marketing, presents Transitions’ consumer marketing campaign

An Optics Test Force led a hands-on workshop on understanding Transitions technology

Eric White, O.D., who was named the 2015 Transitions Brand Ambassador, with his wife and office manager, Lorie

Attendees have a little fun creating a fashion show from random materials

3 Ways to Reach Millennials

Transitions Optical relayed several key benefits of its lenses and programs to help ECPs attract the new, powerful, millennial consumer:

» BLUE PROTECTION: Transitions lenses inherently filter between 20% to 34% of harmful blue light from digital devices and lights indoors, and 85% to 88% from the sun when worn outdoors.

» SOCIAL MEDIA: To help retailers reach millennials, Transitions has enlisted several “influencers” with huge social media followings. They will appear in digital and print campaigns throughout the year, telling their stories with Transitions. Videos and shareable social media content can be found at transitionspro.com.

» TECHNOLOGY AND FASHION: Millennials aren’t willing to make sacrifices in the products they love, so both technology and fashion are key to broadening the appeal of the Transitions brand. The 2016 consumer and trade campaigns, as well as educational videos, will focus on using blue light protection and high performance (tech), and tint colors, including popular graphite green (fashion), that can match any frame. —S.T.

Leadership Lessons

Moving from Good to Great at The Vision Council's Executive Summit 2016

What are your Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)? Jim Collins, best-selling author who penned the celebrated business tome “Good to Great,” wants to know.

According to Collins, who spoke recently to an audience of almost 350 optical leaders at The Vision Council’s Executive Summit in Orlando, a BHAG is a strategic business vision statement that defines your business’ visionary goals. Does your business have a BHAG?

(Learn more about BHAGs and two other key takeaways from Collin’s talk below.)

Held January 27-29, the information-packed Executive Summit program featured an abundance of leadership development, executive-level networking, and the latest in business strategies and economic trends. Speaker and economist Brian Beaulieu noted that our economy will see several strong growth years to come, with a recession (much smaller than the last one) on the horizon.

This year’s Summit also featured speaker Jonah Berger, Ph.D., author of The New York Times bestselling book “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.”

It also boasted the debut of YOLO, the Young Optical Leaders Organization, which brought in a group of optical leaders under the age of 35 to the meeting for networking and leadership development.

1. “Good to Great” author Jim Collins delivers a wealth of knowledge and ideas to the Executive Summit audience; 2. Mike Daley, CEO of The Vision Council, greets the crowd of attendees; 3. Jonah Berger, Ph.D., author of “Contagious,” shares specifics on why concepts and products catch on today; 4. Mike Hundert, CEO of REM Eyewear, vice chairman of The Vision Council, and the new Chair of TVC’s Show Committee, was the Summit’s Master of Ceremonies; 5. The Young Optical Leaders Organization (YOLO) gathers for the first time at the Summit

—Erinn Morgan

3 BIG Trends from Opti Munich 2016

hints of nostalgia. Eco inspirations. Fanciful specs for children.

Opti, the annual international trade show for optics and design held in Munich in January, delivered all this—plus a serious dose of eclectic extravagance. The show, which hosted 27,500 attendees and 576 exhibitors from around the globe, boasted the debut of everything from high-tech smart glasses to retro-inspired design musings.

Here, EB offers insight on key trends we saw served up on the show floor:

» VINTAGE—WITH MODERN TWISTS: Retro design inspiration was abundant. Götti mixed vintage shapes with modern, flat lenses. Xavier Garcia presented the SKINS collection, in metal retro rounds that contrasted with skins made of stainless steel foil for men and women.

Colorful specs for tots were everywhere, such as these from Tom Davies

» KIDS CRAZE: An acknowledgment of youth was a trending presence in all four halls, with more than 85 exhibitors trailblazing eyewear fashion for babies, children, and teens. Comfortable and colorful elements reigned supreme.

» NOTABLE NATURE: Many exhibitors showcased eco-inspired frames, and WooDone wooed visitors with a massive “biergarten”-style booth and its signature nature-embracing frames. But don’t think that naturalistic excludes “bling”—WooDone’s sparkly BLING coating is available on all models in its wood collection, and is made with Dolomites-sourced rock called Galena.

Street Art wall in hall C1

An artist's rendition of the show's stats

A demo of the Shamir Spark measurement system

Model Lena Gercke visits De Rigo for the presentation of the new Escada collection

—Kerri Ann Raimo

Opti Munich 2017, which will add two more halls to the exhibition, will take place January 28-30.