Does Hubble = Trouble for Contact Lens Companies?
Hubble contact lenses are part of the new trend of direct-to-consumer businesses. Its business model is very much like that of Warby Parker’s or Zenni Optical’s in eye care. Is Hubble cheaper in price compared to others? Well it sure seems so, but is cheaper always better? For some people it is, but for many, I think it’s all about the cost to quality ratio.
Now many of you may be thinking, well this post is just an optometrist being sour about not being able to make a contact lens sale. While this may be true for some eye care practices, it does not apply to our practice because we only want to fit the best contact lenses, not the cheapest.
Comparison Shopping
Let’s look at the comparison here. Contact lenses are often judged by how much oxygen is able to transmit to the eye. The higher the DK number, the better. Here are a few examples
High End 1-Day Lenses:
Alcon Dailies Total One: 140 DK
Acuvue Oasys 1 Day: 103 DK
Mid Level 1-Day Lenses that are popular:
Acuvue 1-Day Moist: 28 DK
Biotrue Dailes: 42 DK
Hubble contact lens: 18 DK
Conclusion
Hubble contact lens DK value of 18 is one of the lowest out there, but then again, it is one of the cheapest in price. It is, however, not some state-of-the-art lens material like they claim. In fact, the material they use has been out for a long time and IS definitely passed its prime. So do yourself a favor, as great as their advertising is about $1 a day for contact lenses, don’t compromise your eye health to save maybe up to a dollar per day, if not just a few cents. Hubble contact lenses really aren’t that cheap. For example, $2 dollars a day you can get the high end lenses such as Dailies Total One if you wanted to, and for even less, you could get BioTrue, Acuvue 1-day Moist, or any other brand name lenses. The difference is so small, that you could easily make that up by ordering a small instead of a med/large coffee the next time you’re at your favorite coffee shop :-). Just a thought.
Recent Comments