Media Mentions
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Creating an innovation nation
CEO Magazine, June 2019, by Vanessa Gavan
In 2003, Bruce Jeffreys co-founded the GoGet car-sharing service in Sydney because he didn’t want to own a car, he just wanted to drive one. His next act was prescription eyewear.
Custom eyewear startup Dresden Optics sets its sights on sustainable expansion
In the Black, May 2019, by Nicola Heath
Bruce Jeffreys was a long-time glasses wearer who was dissatisfied with everything about the eyewear business. The glasses he relied on were expensive and easily broken, especially with young children in the mix, and ordering a replacement pair took weeks.
Find Out How Dresden Is Disrupting The Shady Eyewear Industry
Style Democracy, May 2019, by Erin Davis
One single (massive) company, Luxottica, controls the majority of the global eyeglass industry. And it’s not exactly the most loved company in the world.
Looking for new glasses? These companies are focused on disrupting the eyewear market
The Los Angeles Times, April 2019, by David Lazarus
Dresden’s position is that everyone can afford glasses if you offer only one style and mass-produce it as cheaply as possible.
These eco-conscious brands deserve some recognition
Best Health Magazine, April 2019, by Melissa Greer
Uniquely, the brand offers just one universally-flattering frame style, but in four sizes (from extra small to large) and hundreds of colour variations (16 standard colours and hundreds of blended colours).
These glasses are really cheap, but are they any good?
Stuff.co.nz, March 2019, by Debrin Fox
These cheap glasses are comfortable, light and oh my word, I didn't realise how blind I was. Can you tell there is a 'but' coming?
Sustainable Vision: greener glasses for everyone
Today.design, March 2019, by Kai Brach
Q&A with Dresden founder Bruce Jeffrey. "We essentially approached selling glasses like selling t-shirts: a design that fits most people that you can get in a few different sizes. That’s it."
Dresden Vision eyeing up the 'broken' glasses market
Stuff.co.nz, February 2019, by Debrin Fox
A new glasses company has placed itself at the bottom end of the market in an industry it describes as "broken". Offering just one frame shape, Dresden Vision accepts it is a bit different.
Discount eyewear business Dresden opening second store, sees need in isolated Māori communities
NZ Herald, November 2018, by Anne Gibson
A discount eyewear business, selling on-the-spot custom-made prescription glasses from $63/pair, has debuted in New Zealand with an Auckland store but will soon open its second shop in the city. Matt Martel, Dresden's NZ general manager and e-commerce head, said the business which opened a fortnight ago at 132 Ponsonby Rd had leased new premises on the Vulcan Lane/High St corner in the CBD.
The GoGet co-founder's mission to turn plastic waste found on beaches into reading glasses is ramping up
Business Insider, September 2018, by Sarah Kimmorley
Sustainability and environmentalism are now key issues in purchasing decisions by consumers. From the plastic bag ban in supermarkets, to Keepcups for coffee, and even Nike’s sneaker made from rubbish found in the office, the trend has ramped up with a ferocious speed.
PODCAST: Dresden’s eye for disruption
Westpac.com.au, July 2018, by Siobhan Toohill
Bruce Jeffreys admits the link between the two start-ups he’s founded doesn’t seem obvious. Before turning his hand three years ago to Dresden Optics, a prescription eyewear trader, Jeffreys was the force behind Australia’s first car sharing service, GoGet, which hit the market in 2003.
Eyewear startup Dresden Optics is realising a global vision with $4 million from Investec
Smart Company, June 2018, by Stephanie Palmer-Derrien
Sydney-based startup Dresden Optics is disrupting the optometry trade – chipping away at a global health issue one pair of glasses at a time. Now, with $4 million in equity funding, founder Bruce Jeffreys is taking the brand global, and even he says he was surprised by the size of the market.
Dresden Optics was a startup born out of principle. Jeffreys, along with co-founder Jason McDermott, took issue with the easily breakable and unsustainably made glasses readily available on the market, as well as with their price point, and the sheer mystery around costs when you walk into a shop.
Fashion: Dresden Vision
blogTO, May 2018, by Tanya Mok
Dresden Vision is revolutionizing eyewear by offering customizable, eco-friendly glasses made of recyclable materials, with frames that are virtually impossible to break. Proving that glasses don't need to be expensive to be sturdy, Dresden Vision offers frames starting at $49 – almost $100 less than other glasses from affordable retailers of the same prescription.
Dresden Optics open first mobile eye lab at Tamworth's HCF
Northern Daily Leader, May 2018, by Chris Bath
Imagine being able to get prescription glasses for $49 within 15 minutes of getting your eyes screened. Well that is what eye health innovators Dresden Optics are offering with HCF, and they have chosen Tamworth to roll out their first mobile optometry service.
Dresden Optics want eye care to be accessible to everyone.
SBS News Australia, January 2018, by Abbie O'Brien
"My god, you're walking around with Arnhem Land on your eyes."
Rhonda Townsend is thrilled to learn that her new pair of spectacles are made from recycled materials; everything from milk bottle tops and beer keg lids to discarded fishing nets that wash up on the beaches of Arnhem Land.
Dresden Optics is trash. Buy a pair today
Medium, June 2017, by Daizy Maan
Heard of Dresden Optics? German inspired, made with love in Australia. The story starts in 2016 when I had my new prescription and was looking for my first pair of glasses. I stumbled across the guys behind Dresden at the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne in a hipster portable truck offering glasses within an hour.
From environmental ruin came a grand vision for Dresden Optics
The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2017, by Stephanie Gardiner
A tangled mess of ghost nets lurk in the Gulf of Carpentaria, trapping fish, mammals and turtles. Eerily named for their ability to kill sea creatures years after the fishing lines are lost or tossed aside, ghost nets clump together and form huge floating rubbish islands.
GoGet co-founder's latest vision: Dresden Optics
The Australian Financial Review, September 2017, by Sarah Thompson
Bruce Jeffreys, who made his fortune with car sharing service GoGet, is seeking to disrupt a new industry: eyewear. Jeffreys invested a large part of his share of the $50 million sale of GoGet to Archer Capital in 2014 to start Dresden Optics, a glasses manufacturer and retailer that sells prescription glasses at $49 and has six Australian stores making about $2 million in turnover.