- I'll bet that you happen to have noticed by now
that not everything in this world is either straight ahead
or down and in like reading this book.
A lot of times in our working life or sometimes for hobbies,
objects that we need to see at intermediate or at near
aren't that conveniently located.
They can be up there, up there, down there, down there,
over here, over there, just about anywhere.
That is where occupational lens design comes into play.
(upbeat music)
Hello and welcome to the Laramy-K
Optician Works training center where today,
I'm gonna talk a little bit about occupational lenses.
It's one of those things I'm always out
looking at social media trying to find subjects
that people are interested in.
Well, in one day, for some reason,
occupationals came up twice so I thought hey,
this would be a really good thing to talk about.
Gonna hit the white board for a minute
and then I'm gonna show you close-ups of some really
cool stuff that we do at Laramy-K.
During one of my phone interviews,
I talked with Tom Conrad of Heartland Optical
whose done a whole lot of work with occupational lenses.
And he gave me a quote that I think
is the perfect one to talk about.
If you want to separate yourself, listen.
Perfect mantra for talking about occupational lenses.
You can't buy these online!
I'm starting to get a little tired of the whining
on social media.
Online eyewear sales have been around
for about 15 years now, let's move on.
If you want to do something to fight online sales,
well then offer something that they can't do.
Same day sales and cool stuff like occupational lenses.
What do you get to do? You get to listen to people like you.
How good is that?
These are trades people.
These are people that work with their hands.
They are like you.
They're creative, they build things,
they think about how to make things work better.
Talk to them, listen to them.
Thinks you're gonna be pretty good.
Being an optician means that you're
solving problems for people, fixing their visual needs.
Where do you pick up these accounts?
Every time you see or hear the word safety,
safety glasses, safety account, safety frame,
you'll be listening for the opportunity to talk about
and sell occupational lenses.
Electricians, mechanics, plumbers, maintenance techs,
x-ray techs, everyone of those positions
within a large factory, a big plant
has things that they have to work on
that are above their line of vision.
And as we get older and we need that add power,
when I'm looking up here
and need to work on that little part
and my segment is below my eye, I literally cannot work.
I cannot look up here and use my hands
and have everything work.
It's biomechanically impossible.
That's why these occupationals.
If you get them right, you've got a friend for life.
With that said,
make sure that you set expectations correctly.
If in doubt draw it out.
It's like in our prism problems, right?
If you're not sure the person's not really quite getting it,
take him in the back, have a chart set up,
draw what you're going to be presenting them
on the outside of the lens in the correct position
and the correct spacing and put it on
and talk to them about it.
Set the expectation.
Now, watch your markup on products like this.
It is a unique product.
It is a unique skill set that you've developed
in order to sell the product.
In particular, the patience to listen,
really listen, not talk
and find solutions to their problems.
It's a unique skill set.
Charge for it, charge appropriately,
You do not want to end up losing money on the end of these.
We're about to tear this down and start talking about
the individual different kinds of lenses that are out there.
I just do want to make sure, drive home the point,
yes, freeform is being used in this stuff.
I'm gonna show you some really cool stuff
that we are doing with freeform.
But remember that freedom,
freeform is equal to freedom minus frame.
Now, what do I mean by that?
I mean that if I have my frame
and that person chooses let's say the old Double D set up
and the Double D sits like that, and like that,
well they're good to go right?
They've got the full seg, full seg
distance in the middle here, great.
Well if they got a frame that was real real narrow
for some reason and you had your D there
and the other one ended up here
well that's not gonna quite work, is it?
That's when I say even with the freedom that we have
in creating a lens using freeform,
it still has to work within the parameters of the frame.
With that said, if it can be done,
we, Laramy-K, can do it.
If you need a solution, talk to us, draw it out.
Talk to your customer, listen to your customer.
Call us, fax us or email us the drawing
and if it can be done, we'll do it.
I'm gonna wipe the board clean and I'm gonna talk about
the different lens styles that are out there.
That's to Tom who gave us that original quote
and thanks to Cody at Northern Illinois Optical
who also helped me out on this project.
In occupational lens, we can think of it as any lens
that helps someone perform a, let's put in there,
specific task.
And yes, that can be a single vision.
No reason it couldn't be.
And it does also include those office progressive lenses
that we've talked about in the past.
The most common one that we use is called the Double D.
That's this set-up here.
A lined bifocal, lined bifocal.
There used to be a lined trifocal, lined trifocal
called the quadrifocal that no longer exists
because those blanks are not made any more.
So you see these pretty often.
This distance is fixed.
I believe that's about 15 millimeters of separation.
You fit it using the line just as you would on any other
ordinary single lined style multifocal.
What I didn't know and this is kind of interesting is that
you can get different add powers here.
And how would you know which ones you would use?
Well, where are we?
We're right back to what we said originally.
Listening to your customer.
Talk about what setting they're using those glasses for.
So there's a chart there.
Probably throw that up somewhere on the website.
If we don't get around to that, just call us
and we can tell you how those are available.
Now.
There is nothing that says my D has to be there.
With the occupational, I could tell the lab
that I want it there.
If you took a prism reference chart like that
and you said I needed my D to be there,
you can draw it out, tell us and that is where
you would end up getting your segment.
Now, D's are a little bit funny when you do that
so most people actually use rounds
and that you could put where ever it happened to be needed.
Think, be creative.
Just like moving around those segments,
I can also move around my O.C.
Now this is where we come into pool players,
shooters, archers.
Those people want their optical center to be
in the line of vision that they are using.
So wherever that might be, that is where I can place my O.C.
Moving it to where that person needs it
for the perfect vision that they require.
That's making an occupational lens.
Shooters will also look for what are called occluders.
They may want this customized O.C. placement
and the other lens being frosted.
Athletes are another place.
Cyclists like lenses set up with the O.C. up
so when they're leaned over looking at ahead it's clear
but they need to look down and read a computer.
Golfers.
I have mentioned this many times before on the website.
People will spend money for that little bit of an edge
when they're serious about a sport or athletics.
Golfers, you know, thousand dollars for a single golf club.
Cyclists, $200 for a tire, right?
If you can make them something that gives them that
little edge whether it's real or imagined
'cause sports is quite a bit about the mind.
Trust me, you can make some money (laughs) here.
Talking about custom work.
I showed you this one a while ago
when I do my distance
lens power up top and plano at the bottom.
Those are a set that I made there completely by hand.
It's custom work but that certainly would fall
in the occupational lens category.
And saving the best for last.
There is an example of what we do using freeform technology.
There's a beautiful IOT progressive lens down there
with either a straight top lined multifocal segment above
or a trifocal segment above.
And we do have a little bit of wiggle room on that placement
because we're doing it in freeform.
We can move that around a little bit
so it's in the perfect spot for your customer.
Again, remembering that we're working within the parameters
of our frame.
So you have a bifocal progressive
and a trifocal progressive.
So what is the key to occupational lenses?
Well, the ability to listen.
Thanks again Tom, perfect quote.
Listen to your customers.
I'm saying be an optician.
Look to do creative work like this.
Find solutions for your customers vision needs,
specially those unique ones.
If you do that, you're gonna make happy customers
and you're either gonna make yourself money
or your employer and that is gonna make them
pretty darn happy.
Thank you so much for watching.
I hope you found something useful there.
If you did, please hit that subscribe button.
Give us a like on Facebook.
Leave me a comment and make sure that every
occupational uncut lens in your optical life
comes from Laramy-K.
And if you're not sure if an occupational design
can be created, be sure you check with us first.
Thank you and I will see you again next week.