Gunnar Optiks Partners with Carl Zeiss Vision to Produce Digital Lens Technology
Gunnar Optiks, a manufacturer of digital performance eyewear, is partnering with Carl Zeiss Vision to co-develop, co-market and co-brand the next iteration of Gunnar’s i-Amp prescription lens technology.

Gunnar Optiks is the first company to develop a total lens and frame solution addressing the needs of digital device users. According to Gunnar, i-Amp lens technology works with and enhances the properties of the human eye when viewing a digital screen.

“To date, we’ve developed the best lens concept in the world for this application. Now we need the talents of the best lens maker in the world to take our ophthalmic technology to the next level,” says Joe Croft, Gunnar’s co-founder and executive vice president of research and development.

Fred Howard, president, Carl Zeiss Vision, Americas, says Zeiss sees the partnership as “a natural fit and a logical alignment. Gunnar has a unique understanding of the visual demands of a digital lifestyle, which has made the company a force in this industry almost overnight,” Howard notes.

The two companies have agreed upon a co-branding strategy. “Since Gunnar has made an immediate impact on younger consumers immersed in the digital world and the Zeiss name carries weight in the optical industry, we each bring something to the table,” says Howard.

Gunnar’s web site, marketing literature, and product branding will carry the Zeiss logo and an explanation of Zeiss’s role in co-developing, designing and manufacturing i-Amp enabled prescription lenses.

ELOA Intros PracticeBuilder Elite

Essilor Laboratories of America (ELOA), the largest network of optical laboratories in the country, is expanding its rewards program, ELOA PracticeBuilder, with the launch of a new version, PracticeBuilder Elite. Beginning last month, the program offers special quarterly product promotions, new product training, dedicated customer service and year-end bonus rewards, such as travel vouchers and electronics.

Accounts qualify for PracticeBuilder Elite by growing through the standard PracticeBuilder program and achieving a minimum of 50 premium jobs per month. As part of a unique set of benefits to being in the Elite program, accounts will have exclusive access to ELOA MarketBuilder, a new online tool that allows Eyecare Professionals to market directly to patients in any zip code. ECPs participating in the PracticeBuilder Elite program will also get to choose the quarterly promotions they participate in and how they are rewarded. Increases in premium jobs and net sales will determine the size of the year-end bonus rewards.            
 —Andrew Karp