​The Spina household just went through weeks of back-and-forth exchanges and refunds trying to properly fit a teenage son with winter boots and ski-pants. Local retail stores were severely depleted on these essentials in stock, variety and sizing well before the holiday and even more after, so the online hunt was necessitated.

The variety of brands on offer was plentiful, and stocked sizing did not seem to be an issue but the wave of sending back wrong sizes and suspect brand quality was… exasperating. I feel as though I will be sorting through the details on my charge card for the next half year. And except for the first name basis my whole family now has with our UPS and FedEx drivers, the exchange of human input and expertise was nil.

Contrast that, if you will, with a fitting experience playing out for our eyewear needs concurrent to this online winterized fit-fiasco. Gram needed two pairs of new Rx specs and a new Rx sunglass. A recent slight change in my progressive Rx also meant I was due anew, and my wife Kristen had been gifted a pair of sunglasses that were beautiful but just didn’t feel (fit) right.

Proudly established in his sturdy Seaford, Long Island brick-and-mortar (B&M) stronghold, Master Optician Barry Santini was… Fit to be tried. Entertaining while educating with anecdotes, Santini shifted focus on a fitting session with all three of us ending with a teenager totally beaming in his new State, Modo and John Varvatos eyewear, Kristen Spina flattered in her new eyewear-in-eyewear Blake Kuwahara shades, and myself quite literally unable to detect that eyewear was on my face unless I looked into Barry’s vintage Tura fitting mirror.

Yes, the Rxs were perfect, and that critical PD measurement made for seamless seeing with my fresh progressives. I’d also note that Bad-Ass Lab Lord Scott Balestreri had a craftsman-like hand in numerous aspects of the lens detailing including matching to perfection the rock’n’role tint on Gram’s sun specs.

So everything in this experience was totally hands-on and face-to-face.

This B&M Fitting experience needs to be the professional AND personable approach you attest to as you stay in line with the parameters of what it takes to conquer online.

Settle in as well for some added Santini in our “Fit to be Tried” special feature as he chats it up with a fit expert from the vendor side of the equation, TC Charton’s Alexandra Peng Charton. Hope this 20/20 issue fits YOUR needs.

• James J. Spina
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]