Long winded Zenni review here:
I was shopping for glasses recently. I wanted a pair of sunglasses that would work for cycling, and a pair of light weight glasses that would work for regular daily use. Tried five different places around here, and the prices ranged from 400 - 1000.
So . . . I figured I'd give Zenni a shot. Picking frames was pretty easy because I've got my last three pairs of glasses kicking around and they all measure very close to one another so I had a good idea of what width, temple length, and size of lens works with my prescription/face. I asked my optician to give me a PD measurement during my last appointment, so that was no big deal. My prescription is pretty high, about -8.5 with some cylindrical correction, so I was a little concerned about the quality of the lenses.
The glasses came in in less than two weeks, and the lenses are very good. The sunglasses have a perfect tint for cycling in bright and partly cloudy conditions. The 50% gray tint is dark enough to be comfortable on sunny days, but light enough to see well when you enter a forested area or when it's partly cloudy. The blue mirror finish I got on the glasses imparts a slight warm yellow glow that seems to enhance detail a bit without screwing with your colour perception. (Also, they look cool.) The computer glasses are clear, the high index prescription is light weight, and the oleophobic coating helps with glare and cleans easily. It took two or three days to get used to the new prescription (things seemed a bit blurry for the first bit), but that's how it has always been with me when I get new glasses.
The frames are lower quality than frames that I've had in the past. While they're a beefy plastic frame, the sunglasses have small delicate looking hinges which make me wonder about long term longevity. The glasses are also pretty slippery (without any rubber on the earpieces) and will slide off easily. This isn't a problem as I wear them with a tight fitting retainer for cycling, but is an example of corner cutting. The earpieces on these glasses aren't very adjustable.
I've been wearing glasses since I was two, and am very used to adjusting nose pads, ear pieces, and the like. Attempting to adjust the ear pieces on the computer glasses immediately broke them . . . because unlike every pair of glasses I've ever had, the metal rod embedded in the plastic ear piece only goes 1/2 way in. The glasses broke where the metal rod ends. :P To their credit, Zenni did send me a replacement frame on their own dime when I contacted them. When I unscrewed the lenses from the broken frame to replace them, I noticed that one of the screws holding the lens in was badly stripped, and was barely able to get it out. When replacing the lenses into the new frame I discovered that one lens was cut slightly too big for the frame, and I stripped a screw getting them back in tightly.
So, all in all . . . great lenses, corners seem to be cut a bit with the frames. That said, the frames are quite inexpensive when you have problems with them it should be pretty easy to replace them. All told I'm quite happy and got pretty much what I wanted at half the price any of the brick and mortar places around here would have cost.
