Benji Frank: one pair, one vision

Ah, hipster glasses: once a novelty, now the dominating fashion in vision correction apparatuses. I thank hipsters for making glasses cool. I’ve been wearing them since I was 6, so it’s about time that I can be proud of my poor vision (here I have to brag that it’s only 20-25).

Since J. C. Penney just sent me a reminder to get my vision checked, I’ve been considering new glasses. I have a tendency to see necessities as a spending category I don’t have to consider from a moral standpoint, but I realized that that’s a copout and doesn’t move me forward on my quest toward ethical living. I considered Benji Frank early on because I knew that they have a charitable mission. All I needed was more information about production standards.

One of the founders of Benji Frank, Mohsin Momin, got back to me promptly with thorough information regarding labor rights and factory regulations (I decided to leave the entire paragraph intact since there’s a lot of good information):

Our frames use the highest quality manufacturing components and we use only Italian or Japanese acetates to manufacture the frames. This is the exact same materials that are used by leading designer brands to make the frames. You will most definitely see this quality once you receive your try 5. Before we made our decision on which factory to use to manufacture we made a trip to China that lasted a total of 28 days. We visited multiple companies and finally decided to work with the one we chose. The reason was simple, their working conditions were great and their employees worked only during the weekdays. I did ask them if they worked on weekends and they mentioned that only if there is a rush order and they pay over time if they are required to work weekends. We noticed that every single worker was an adult and there as no issue of child labor. The company was clean and well equipped, which made our decision to work with them very easy.  They also sent all of the workers home during for a month during Chinese New Year, since this is a very big holiday in China. So, we cannot manufacture our frames during that month and are told to schedule around it.

In addition to exhibiting genuine concern for the way laborers are treated, Benji Frank provides cataract replacement lenses or a new pair of glasses to someone in need each time you make a purchase through their One Pair, One Vision program.

Now that all the necessary questions have been asked and answered, it’s time to have some fun choosing the perfect pair of glasses through their free Try 5 program.

I have a week before I have to give them back. Which pair should I buy (1-5)?

* All opinions expressed here are my own. I was not compensated in any way in exchange for writing this post. It’s sad that I even feel the need to write a disclaimer explaining that I didn’t receive anything for my positive review, but blogs are so commercialized now that I feel the need to clarify my position.