Good Morning Internet

I’ve never heard of this com­pany, and there is no evi­dence that they are asso­ci­ated with the out-of-business-for-decades Pan Am air­line, but Pan Am Brands has res­ur­rected the iconic globe logo for a series of slick-looking travel acces­sories. I’m par­tic­u­larly fond of the pass­port cover, but I’m wary of pur­chas­ing from a com­pany I’ve never heard of (and has no proven track record online). But an $18 pass­port cover, espe­cially one that looks this cool, might be worth a try.

Pan Am Pass­port Cover — via Kempt

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A few years ago, I started buy­ing glasses online and haven’t looked back since. The prices are far cheaper than what I had found in doc­tors’ offices or eye­wear store­fronts, and the qual­ity has been just as high. An excel­lent resource for research and ven­dor reviews is the blog Glassy Eyes, which turned me on to a cou­ple of great online retailers.

This time, I tried some­thing new and went with a com­pany called Warby Parker, which I first heard of from Put This On. Warby Parker’s selec­tion is great and very well-priced at $95. I picked out a pair of frames called Hux­ley, entered my pre­scrip­tion, and checked out.

Within an hour, I got a phone call from Brian at Warby Parker. He believed I might have made a mis­take when enter­ing my pre­scrip­tion because of the huge dif­fer­ence between my right and left eyes (+0.75 sphere and +1.25 cylin­der in the right, +5.00 sphere and +1.50 in the left). He said they rarely see a dis­crep­ancy that large between eyes, which I can believe. I’m special.

No, I assured him, my left eye is actu­ally that much weaker than my right eye, but thanks for point­ing out my short­com­ings. (My exact words were, “Thanks for double-checking!”) I’d never had a com­pany con­firm my pre­scrip­tion before, so I was simul­ta­ne­ously bewil­dered, embar­rassed, and impressed with their swift attention.

Brian emailed me a cou­ple hours later. He said it would cost an addi­tional $30 for the high-index lenses needed. That’s a pretty stan­dard charge, and the new total ($125) was still far lower than what it would be at a glasses shop, so I agreed.

A lit­tle over a week later, I received a voice­mail from Katie at Warby Parker. She apol­o­gized for the delay, but they were finally giv­ing up. My pre­scrip­tion was out of their lab’s range.

How­ever, In order to apol­o­gize for the delay and ulti­mate inabil­ity to ful­fill my order, they sent me the the Hux­leys for free so I can have the lenses made by another com­pany. A cou­ple days later, the frames arrived via Pri­or­ity Mail, and they looked fan­tas­tic. The hinges felt sturdy, the plas­tic durable, and they looked sharp on my big head.

Though they weren’t able to com­plete my order, Warby Parker gave me some of the most per­sonal, atten­tive cus­tomer ser­vice I’ve ever encoun­tered. I always felt like some­one was han­dling my pre­scrip­tion with care and that their pri­mary con­cern was mak­ing me happy. I don’t remem­ber the last time a com­pany made me feel that way. Swoon.

If you’re look­ing for a pair of glasses, I highly rec­om­mend you check them out. Their frames are of excel­lent qual­ity, and you will have peo­ple like Brian and Katie work­ing to make sure your pre­scrip­tion is done right. My only hope is that they can part­ner with a lab capa­ble of ful­fill­ing stronger pre­scrip­tions for those of us with weak eyes.

So, does any­body know a good place that can put lenses into exist­ing frames?

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I am obsessed with this bag. It’s the Sad­dle­back Leather Company’s brief­case, Made with high-quality boot leather and backed by a one hundred-year war­ranty (yes, that’s 100), this is the last bag you would ever need. Sure, it’s a lit­tle on the pricey side, but when I think about all the mes­sen­ger bags and back­packs I’ve pur­chased that lasted only a few years before ulti­mately wear­ing out, I could eas­ily spend just as much on sub-par bags in the next decade. The large size is big enough to hold my lap­top, charger, and all the writ­ing mate­ri­als I carry around. Plus, it looks really, really sharp, so I could haul it to all kinds of sit­u­a­tions, from for­mal to casual.

I mean, just look at it! It’s the kind of bag Indi­ana Jones would use. This bag could kick Jack Bauer’s bag’s ass any day. Time to start saving.

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