Fashion and Function with a Social Conscience

TINTS eyewear is carving out a niche of their own.

Founded by a pair of young Optometrists, TINTS eyewear was a passion project years in the making.

The owners noticed that the tinted glasses fashion trend was making a comeback, but they were disappointed to see that many tinted lenses commercially available were fast fashion, with poor quality frames and lenses.

As eye care professionals, they often prescribe tinted lenses to patients for various conditions. A rose lens is often prescribed for someone who suffers headaches, and a yellow lens helps to improve contrast, and is excellent for those who do a lot of driving.

Fashion and Function with a Social Conscience. Photo c/o TINTS
Fashion and Function with a Social Conscience. Photo c/o TINTS

At the same time, in their day-to-day practice, their patients constantly report symptoms of eye strain related to computer use. They’re often asked about “blue light glasses” and how one can protect their eyes. While searching online for computer glasses, they also noticed that many of them just looked so damn nerdy!

Thus, TINTS was born! The pair decided to marry their love of fashion, with their optical knowledge in order to make a product that can keep you looking and feeling great, all day, and all night.

TINTS eyewear provides 100% UV protection, along with blocking harmful blue light rays – see their blog post on blue light. Blue light has been a buzz word lately. The current research reports that it suppresses melatonin release, causing eye strain and blurred vision, and may lead to early macular degeneration and cataract development. (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6288536/) See their blog post on blue light: https://tintsofficial.com/blogs/news/what-is-blue-light-and-why-should-i-be-concerned

The lens colour is often a personal preference, but both yellow and rose tints help to reduce glare and light scatter, soothing the eyes and providing relief while in front of the computer screen.

The super lightweight titanium frame is so comfortable, you’ll forget you’re wearing them. They’re excellent to wear at work in front of the screen, and then out for happy hour or dinner afterwards.

A Social Conscience: As optometrists, the two have travelled in Africa, Central America and Eastern Europe on various eye care mission trips. Their most recent trip was to Malawi in 2017 with Canadian Vision Care. CVC does trips to many impoverished countries and provides vision screenings, donation glasses, and arranges tertiary eye care for the locals. CVC also used donations to build the Mzumzu School of Optometry in Malawi, where they train local optometrists. In Malawi, the TINTS team volunteered at the optometry school, seeing patients and acting as clinical supervisors for the Malawi Optometry students. They also took groups of students to rural villages where they provided eye exams for children and elderly.

TINTS is committed to giving back. They donate a portion of their proceeds to Canadian Vision Care. Over 75% of all visual impairment is preventable if caught early, and the work done in these countries helps to prevent blindness.

Melissa Thompson

Melissa Thompson writes about a wide range of topics, revealing interesting things we didn’t know before. She is a freelance USA Today producer, and a Technorati contributor.