Review: ordering glasses online with Firmoo

Glasses from ther internet, whatever next?!

Apparently Firmoo have given away over ten thousand pairs of free glasses to bloggers, so I’m not special. Even though I’m not special, I did take Firmoo up on their offer because I’ve been genuinely interested for a while to see what internet order glasses are like but haven’t been willing to take what I perceived as a risk in spending money on something that hasn’t either been measured up or fitted by a professional.

The first thing that struck me about the Firmoo website was how simple it all was. There weren’t hundreds of confusing options to get in way of actually looking at frames. Yes, you can upload a picture of yourself and have the site sort of put the frames on your face but it isn’t necessary because if you’re a spec wearer you’re going to have a pretty good idea already of what suits your face. Once you’ve chosen a suitable pair of frames there isn’t a great deal more you need to do. There are several options you can chose to enhance your specs but since they come with a non scratch coating anyway, they’re not strictly necessary. However a copy of your prescription alone isn’t enough because it doesn’t (or at least mine didn’t) contain what’s referred to as your PD or Pupil Distance. PD is important because it allows the focal point (the sweet spot if you like) on the lenses to be correctly positioned. If you get your focal distance wrong you might have an issue with seeing properly with your new specs. Firmoo recommend you get someone else to help you with this part but since I’m contrary at best, I decided to do a selfie with a ruler held above my eyeballs and then zoom in to look at the distances involved.

My ruler work evidently worked because the spectacles that arrived soon after from China via FedEx (delivery is circa $18) were very good in terms of actual vision. Obviously having not tried the actual frames on, the specific fit wasn’t perfect. Firmoo recommend you get your local optician to adjust the glasses to fit better but in reality I thought it was a bit cheeky to stroll in and say “Hi, I’ve decided not to spend several hundred pounds in your establishment, but could you fit these for me instead please?” Having 3 children has made adjusting glasses second nature for me as I’m always getting whacked in the face and having to bend them back into shape. Truth be told, the arms were a little tight and the left nose piece needed slight adjustment to make them sit level and that was pretty much it.

What I wasn’t really expecting at $60 was such a well built pair of glasses. The titanium frames were both solid yet elegant, the hard case was an unexpected bonus, as was the soft case and the cleaning cloth.

If I had to be critical, perhaps the arms could have been a couple of millimetres longer but that’s nothing serious and I would state that the specs fit well and I am more than happy with them. In fact the glasses are as comfortable and give me as good vision as the pair I bought on the high street for £240 a couple of years ago when I manfully took a football in the face for the team (in the days before I played football squinting).

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