Press Release - Slow Food Eyeglasses come to Halifax

Ocean Optometry, Halifax (July 02, 2013) - Eyeglasses, like many other products, can often travel thousands of miles before arriving at the final retailer for sale. A more environmentally responsible alternative has arrived at Ocean Optometry.

 “When we first met with Drift Eyewear and were introduced to the range, we were blown away by the ethos of the company and the ingenious design solutions at which they have arrived,” commented Dr. Euan McGinty.  Drift Eyewear’s hand-made frames have created a unique solution in eyeglasses combining a natural acetate front and timber sides.  The frames take their design ingenuity from the architectural world as well as from nature.

“While wooden frames aren’t new”, optician Michael Bonang added, “Drift’s solution has allowed for the combining of more fragile reclaimed or sustainably sourced woods with perfectly managed weight distribution throughout the frames. This makes the frames comfortable and well-fitting”.

Drift Eyewear frames have an acetate front, definitely the look of the season, and timber sides.  “We felt that these frames also provided a great connection with the Maritimes”, said Dr. John Wilson, “There are several different options for the temples. I t was great to see a maple wood option and we were incredibly excited by the range called 12 Meter which uses reclaimed boat timbers”.

Ocean Optometry is an independent optometry office recently opened on Blowers Street in downtown Halifax.  Working with other independent companies is incredibly important to their business and Drift Eyewear is a perfect fit for this philosophy.  Being pioneers in eyewear fashion, Ocean Optometry is delivering options which have never before been available, not just within the HRM, but the across the whole of Atlantic Canada.  Assistant Erin Hensler explained, “Drift Eyewear supplies only a few retailers in the whole of Canada and none east of Ontario.  From initial order to arrival, we have waited almost three months for these frames, but when you are selecting a hand-made, small-run speciality product it is definitely worth the wait.”

The range is available to view at:

Ocean Optometry

5240 Blowers Street
Halifax
Tel: (902) 446-4470
ww.oceanoptometry.ca

We're now open for business

Ocean Optometry opens its doors!

After what seems like a lifetime of preparation, we are finally opening our doors for the first time in a few short minutes.  In the clinic today is Dr John Wilson, with Erin and Mike there to keep everything running smoothly.

All of the preparation will hopefully serve us well, everyone is really fired up to ensure we provide the highest level of attention to detail and service quality possible.

If you would like to make an appointment then please feel free to call on (902) 446-4470 or use our contact form, you can also now call in to the office as we are open!

Many thanks to everyone involved in getting us to this point.

Gatecrahsers, Glasses & Getting Funky

On Friday night we had our opening party to celebrate getting everything together.  It was a great success, with many friends joining us to share in the celebration and we partied into the late night!  We attracted quite a bit of attention and some passing revelers called in, some taking a little time to browse around, with a promise to call back when we were open properly!

The office simply looked amazing!

With the bright, airy open dispensary it made a great area to have a party (and has given us inspiration for future events!).  Several hours of funky tunes were already selected in our play list, which kept everyone grooving along.  We were also visited by Snap Halifax, who knew it would be that kind of a party!

Our photographer-in-residence, Brad Avery, spent a lot of time with everyone, getting a great selection of photos for us to view later.  Brad has some great ideas of photo shoots when some of our ranges come in, so it is going to be exciting working with him as our go to guy for Ocean Optometry images.

We were even gatecrashed by a local star of screen and stage - once we have the photographic evidence we'll update our news!

Here's a photo from the night with the Ocean Optometry eye geeks crew altogether:

John, Erin, Mike & Euan

Remember, we are open for real from the 8th of April, please feel free to send us an e-mail or give us a call for an appointment.

It's started!

John, Erin & Mike hard at work.  Euan's supervising!

We all arrived at 7.30am this morning, keen and eager to get into the finishing week and to meet with the truck delivering our equipment.

Guess what ... no truck!  They'd forgotten and should be with us, oh, about an hour ago!  Never mind.

We got cracking with putting together some of the furniture and cleaning up the windows.  The first collections of frames have already arrived, but we're good and not opening the box until we get some of this work done first.

We've got some great Eye Tunes to keep us motivated this morning - so far it's been Fat Boy Slim and The Human League.  I suspect it's going to get more 'eclectic' as the day goes on!

Vision East Expo - Sunglasses! Sunglasses!

While it was almost all work at Vision Expo in New York, there were some moments to enjoy trying on some of the cool new eyewear (for research purposes, of course!).

Here are a some pictures:

Mike modeling an ic! berlin.

Euan sporting the special edition ic! berlin "Splash"!

Euan, John & Mike all featuring the ic! berlin special edition "Psycho" collection - only sold as a set of 3!

John, Mike & Euan - a little more relaxed on the last day.  Safe in the knowledge that we now had some awesome collections to open with!

Euan, John and Mike had a hectic visit to New York.  The trip started very early on a cold Friday morning, but we were all full of excitement and energy, this was going to be a trip like no other!

The sole purpose of this trip was to meet with the best eyewear providers in the world in one single location so that we could put together the most wonderful collection of spectacles in a single location.  Read all about our trip in the various news posts.