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Last month, 3DPrint.com received an invite to test out Breezm’s personalized 3D printed eyewear experience. We accepted with eyes wide open and came away with eyes comfortably shaded, clad in a fashionable, customized pair of sunglasses. Overall, a great experience.
Inside the Breezm store entrance.
The process: A 30-minute visit to Breezm’s NYC flagship store for a custom scanning and glasses design experience.
The result: Beautiful, perfect-fitting glasses, personalized from frame to temple to tip. Breezm’s Personal Eyewear Report and protective carrying case included. We chose non-prescription sunglasses, but prescription lenses and reading glasses are absolutely on the menu.
Breezm Eyewear was founded in South Korea in 2017. Since then, Breezm has leveraged a couple of modest investment rounds from impressive VCs such as BonAngels, Kakao Ventures, Korea Development Bank, and Helios Ventures, and established its brand in Korea, with an impressive 15 storefronts throughout the country (and it’s a pretty small country!), including a recently opened smart loop factory in Seoul, where customers can shop for eyewear while witnessing eyeglasses being printed on Breezm’s industrial 3D-printing machines. In 2024, Breezm launched its expansion to the United States with a store in New York City, offering made-to-order, low-waste, custom-fit glasses to American shoppers.
Breezm’s 7th Avenue store is located just outside the heart of Times Square, making it both quite central and yet comfortably accessible. In any case, upon entering the store, any Times Square ruckus immediately recedes in the face of a complete focus on functional design and aesthetics. Clean lines, graceful angles, and many, many attractive pairs of eyewear.
Inside the Breezm store.
After browsing the store and getting an idea for the colors, styles, and finishing options, customers have their faces measured using scanners initially meant for the dental market, which Breezm has optimized for eyewear. It’s simple, painless, and takes less than a minute. It was so quick, in fact, that we forgot to capture a picture of the process, so we had to ask Breezm to supply us with an image.
Choosing the eye glass frame at the Breezm store.
After the scanning is complete, the fun part begins. Take a seat, have a glass of water, relax, and build your ideal pair of glasses. Breezm’s customer service is strong, and they are with you every step of the way as you design your eyewear and drive the process on a touchscreen tablet. The software makes style suggestions tailored to your unique face shape. You can also sort your options based on popularity, price, and other filters.
How long it takes depends on you. It’s reasonable to give yourself 25-30 minutes, unless you are rather confident about what you want, in which case it could probably be done in 10 minutes or less. It took us about 35 minutes, but we took our time.
3D facial scan for custom-fit eyewear at Breezm’s New York store.
Breezm uses PBF 3D printing, laser cutting, and AI-powered styling tools to produce glasses on demand and tailored to each person’s unique facial geometry. There is zero tooling and zero surplus inventory, resulting in 80-90% less waste and a significantly smaller carbon footprint than traditional frame manufacturing.
To offer maximum optionality, Breezm uses both an EOS 3D printer (for lighter colors) and an HP 3D printer (for darker colorways). After printing, the frames go through proprietary post-processing, finishing, assembly, and quality control by in-house experts.
We chose the “Alex” polyamide model, with “Cloud” silicon rubber nose pads. We opted for an all-gray color scheme — the “Gray City” color, to be precise.
Receiving the custom-fit 3D printed eyewear at Breezm’s New York store.
In Korea, the turnaround time from order to delivery is two to three weeks. For now, the US-based orders are printed and assembled in Korea and then shipped to the US, so customers should expect a three-to-four-week turnaround. We waited four weeks.
One interesting twist to the buying process is that it is recommended, but definitely not required, to come back to the store to pick up your glasses. That is because the scanning process is not 100% perfect for the tips (the part that shapes itself behind the ear). So, Breezm likes to adjust that for you onsite just to make the fit extra-perfect.
Trying out the custom-fit 3D printed eyewear at Breezm’s New York store.
We felt the fit was truly excellent even before any adjustments were made to the tips. So much so that we would recommend saving yourself another trip to the store and just having the glasses shipped directly to you. Customers can always go back to the store and get them adjusted if needed. Also, with this in mind, it should not stop any out-of-towners (who cannot easily return for pickup) from visiting the NYC store and buying a pair.
Customers can expect to come away with an informative Personal Eyewear Report, a sturdy and eye-catching carrying case, a branded lens wipe, and a nice shopping bag (at least for those who pick up their pair in-store!).
3D printed eyewear is ready.
Breezm cites data that two out of three people wear glasses that don’t fit properly. Plus, the massive materials waste from scrap and unsold eyewear each year is pretty shocking. 3D printing can offer a leaner, less wasteful supply chain, and it is an increasingly more economically viable option.
With glasses starting at $258 for frames and lenses, Breezm’s sustainable, custom-fit eyewear is also accessible. So much so that it has drawn the attention from the likes of Harvard Business School, which selected Breezm as a case study for its fall curriculum.
3D printed eyewear makes a lot of sense, and Breezm is not the only company looking to capitalize on this trend. Other consumer-facing brands include Mykita, You Mawo, and Fitz. There are also more B2B2C approaches, such as GENERA Mission Eyewear, and fully B2B efforts, for example, King Children.
Business cases and models aside, the Breezm experience is very distinctive, very cool, and very fun, and its glasses are a pretty good deal, especially considering the high prices people are willing to pay for fashion and comfort. We love our pair.
3D printed eyewear is ready.
Images courtesy of 3DPrint.com
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