State Optical takes aim at Warby Parker with Chicago-branded glasses made in the USA

A Chicago start-up wants to ride the trendy eye-wear movement — with luxury spectacles designed and assembled in the U.S.A.
                                           

State Optical, co-founded by Scott Shapiro, Jerry Wolowicz, Marc Franchi and Jason Stanley, launched in early 2016 to tap into what they saw as a growing demand for domestic products.

Smartly dressed with a pair of his own State frames in gray, Shapiro said the company set up in Chicago to tell an authentic brand story. The brand heavily promotes the city's iconography, and features the Chicago skyline on its presentation boxes.

Indeed, frame designs are all named after streets in Chicago, such as Armitage and Ravenswood. Each frame has 21 precision drilled holes set in the temples, a homage to Illinois being the 21st state of America.

While some of the materials are still sourced from overseas (Italian acetate and hinges from Germany), all the manufacturing is done in the U.S.

According to Shapiro, that created some difficulties: Many American craftsmen had not seen a frame being made before. "Fundamentally it's going to be more difficult and expensive to manufacture in the U.S.," said Shapiro. "The cost of labor is higher even now between the U.S. and China."

Still, Shapiro insisted domestic manufacturing gives State an advantage in the quality of its eyewear. By producing the frames in the U.S., Shapiro said, the company can spot quality or production issues and correct them early.