Warby Parker Inc. — research brief

Educational notes for the BMC. Not affiliated with Warby Parker Inc. Facts are labeled. Public company (NYSE: WRBY), a Delaware public benefit corporation since June 2021. Financials cite SEC filings and the company's own earnings releases only. Do not invent smart-glasses prices (none announced as of the sources below).

FACT — primary

Fiscal 2025 (year ended December 31, 2025) — Form 10-K + Q4 release (Feb 26, 2026)

Net revenue $871.9M, +13.0% (2024: $771.3M). Q4 revenue $212.0M, +11.2%.
By channel: retail $631.0M (≈72%), e-commerce $240.9M (≈28%, +3.1%). Retail growth ≈17.3% (computed from the 10-K table; matches management's call commentary).
By product: eyewear $719.1M, contacts $97.2M (11.1%), eye care $55.7M (6.4%; in-person exams + Virtual Vision Test prescriptions).
Gross margin 54.0% (−130 bps) — tariffs on glasses, contact-lens mix, more doctors, shipping; offset by selective price increases on lenses (Q2 2025) and more progressives. COGS $401.3M (46.0%). COGS includes product, optical lab, customer shipping, store occupancy and depreciation, and doctor compensation.
SG&A $475.9M (54.6% of revenue, down from 59.2%). Advertising $113.9M (2024: $95.8M). SG&A includes Buy a Pair, Give a Pair donations.
Net income $1.6M — first full year of positive net income. Adjusted EBITDA $95.2M (10.9%). Operating cash flow $110.8M; free cash flow $43.7M. Cash $286.4M; credit facility undrawn. $100M buyback authorized Feb 2026.
Active Customers 2.69M (+7.0%); Average Revenue per Customer $324 (+5.7%).
Stores: 47 net new in 2025 (most ever) → 323 (318 US, 5 Canada per Q4 deck; incl. 5 shop-in-shops); 285 offer eye exams (88.2%). Company estimate: room for 900+ US stores vs ~45,000 US optical stores. Shop-in-shops with Target.
Pricing: glasses start at $95 including prescription lenses; simple, unified pricing; design in-house at NYC HQ, sell direct ("cutting out the middleman").
Supply chain: 30+ partners (frame factories, lens/accessory suppliers, DCs, labs, shippers); manufacturers/raw-material suppliers mainly in China, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, Thailand. Own optical labs in Sloatsburg, NY (~52k sq ft) and Las Vegas, NV (~70k sq ft). Components ship to optical labs in the US and China.
Contacts from third-party brands: Acuvue, Biofinity, DAILIES, Precision1.
Insurance: ~60% of US vision purchases use insurance vs 8.3% of Warby Parker 2025 revenue. Versant Health integration → 30M+ in-network lives. >50% of customers have vision insurance; most plans give ~$100 out-of-network, which can cover a $95 frame.
Progressives: 22.3% of Rx units vs nearly 40% industry-wide for multifocals.
Retention: industry-leading NPS; revenue retention ~50% over 24 months and >100% over 48 months.
Holistic customers (glasses + contacts + exams) have the highest lifetime value; ~75% of customers industry-wide buy eyewear where they get their exam.
Buy a Pair, Give a Pair: a pair distributed for every pair of glasses/sunglasses sold; 20M+ pairs, 80+ countries.
Tech: Virtual Try-On, Virtual Vision Test app, custom POS, Advisor AI recommendation tool (2025).
Google partnership (Q2 2025): AI glasses for all-day wear; Google committed up to $75M for product development/commercialization costs and up to $75M equity investment at Warby Parker's option subject to milestones. Samsung also a partner.
Home Try-On: decision in Q2 2025 to sunset Home Try-On at the end of 2025; $2.5M one-time inventory write-down.
Employees: 4,036 (2,275 full-time, 1,761 part-time) at Dec 31, 2025.
Market (10-K citing The Vision Council): US eyewear $70B; >80% of US adults use vision correction; ~50% of glasses wearers buy yearly. Competitors: EssilorLuxottica, VSP, Zenni.
Seasonality: spike in the last 1–2 weeks of the year from HSA/FSA benefit use.
2025 annual letter: kept the $95 starting price; launched 15 frame collections; eye exams +37%.

Latest quarter — Q2 2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026; release Aug 6, 2026)

Net revenue $235.5M, +9.8%. Active Customers 2.71M (+4.1%); ARPC $336 (+6.6%).
Gross margin 57.9% incl. $11.8M IEEPA tariff refund (+500 bps) and 110 bps lapping the Home Try-On write-down.
SG&A $133.3M (retail comp + tech for Intelligent Eyewear). Net income $4.6M. Adj. EBITDA $32.9M (14.0%).
352 stores (15 net new in Q2). Cash $292.7M.
FY2026 guidance reaffirmed: revenue $959–$976M (+10–12%), Adj. EBITDA $117–$119M, 50 new stores; excludes Intelligent Eyewear revenue.

Intelligent Eyewear (warbyparker.com)

With Google (Gemini) and Samsung; "coming this fall" (2026). No price announced in sources checked.

SECONDARY

Retail Dive (Aug 7, 2025): Home Try-On let customers try five frames for five days at home; most recent users lived within 30 minutes of a store; ~300 stores at the time.
Earnings-call color (Q4 2025 via Alpha Spread; Q2 2026 call recap): marketing ~12.6% of revenue; pre-orders and store demos for Intelligent Eyewear planned for fall 2026.

INFERENCE (labeled on the canvas)

Warby Parker has flipped from "online disruptor" to a store-led model: stores are both the main sales channel and the main marketing/acquisition tool — which is why Home Try-On was no longer needed.
Putting store rent and doctor pay inside COGS means its gross margin reflects retail + clinic costs, so it isn't directly comparable to pure product brands.
Contacts, exams, and insurance are about raising revenue per customer and visit frequency around a low $95 entry price.

Not found — do not invent

Intelligent Eyewear price/unit sales, number of Home Try-On users, store-level economics (payback, sales per store), insurance-plan names beyond Versant Health, number of optometrists.

Teaching arc

From DTC disruptor to store-led, one-stop vision shop — in-house design + direct selling make $95 glasses possible → the free Home Try-On box was retired at end-2025 because 323–352 owned stores (72% of FY25 revenue) now do the try-on → contacts, eye exams, and insurance lift revenue per customer ($324 → $336) → Buy a Pair, Give a Pair (20M+ pairs) builds the mission into the model → AI Intelligent Eyewear with Google/Samsung is the next bet.

Sources

# Warby Parker Inc. — research brief Educational notes for the BMC. **Not affiliated with Warby Parker Inc.** Facts are labeled. Public company (NYSE: WRBY), a Delaware public benefit corporation since June 2021. Financials cite SEC filings and the company's own earnings releases only. Do not invent smart-glasses prices (none announced as of the sources below). ## FACT — primary ### Fiscal 2025 (year ended December 31, 2025) — Form 10-K + Q4 release (Feb 26, 2026) - **Net revenue $871.9M**, +13.0% (2024: $771.3M). Q4 revenue $212.0M, +11.2%. - **By channel:** retail **$631.0M** (≈72%), e-commerce **$240.9M** (≈28%, +3.1%). Retail growth ≈17.3% (computed from the 10-K table; matches management's call commentary). - **By product:** eyewear **$719.1M**, contacts **$97.2M** (11.1%), eye care **$55.7M** (6.4%; in-person exams + Virtual Vision Test prescriptions). - **Gross margin 54.0%** (−130 bps) — tariffs on glasses, contact-lens mix, more doctors, shipping; offset by selective price increases on lenses (Q2 2025) and more progressives. COGS $401.3M (46.0%). COGS includes product, optical lab, customer shipping, **store occupancy and depreciation**, and **doctor compensation**. - **SG&A $475.9M** (54.6% of revenue, down from 59.2%). Advertising **$113.9M** (2024: $95.8M). SG&A includes Buy a Pair, Give a Pair donations. - **Net income $1.6M** — first full year of positive net income. Adjusted EBITDA $95.2M (10.9%). Operating cash flow $110.8M; free cash flow $43.7M. Cash $286.4M; credit facility undrawn. $100M buyback authorized Feb 2026. - **Active Customers 2.69M** (+7.0%); **Average Revenue per Customer $324** (+5.7%). - **Stores:** 47 net new in 2025 (most ever) → **323** (318 US, 5 Canada per Q4 deck; incl. 5 shop-in-shops); **285 offer eye exams (88.2%)**. Company estimate: room for **900+** US stores vs ~45,000 US optical stores. Shop-in-shops with **Target**. - **Pricing:** glasses start at **$95 including prescription lenses**; simple, unified pricing; design in-house at NYC HQ, sell direct ("cutting out the middleman"). - **Supply chain:** 30+ partners (frame factories, lens/accessory suppliers, DCs, labs, shippers); manufacturers/raw-material suppliers mainly in China, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, Thailand. Own optical labs in **Sloatsburg, NY** (~52k sq ft) and **Las Vegas, NV** (~70k sq ft). Components ship to optical labs in the US and China. - **Contacts** from third-party brands: Acuvue, Biofinity, DAILIES, Precision1. - **Insurance:** ~60% of US vision purchases use insurance vs **8.3%** of Warby Parker 2025 revenue. Versant Health integration → **30M+** in-network lives. >50% of customers have vision insurance; most plans give ~$100 out-of-network, which can cover a $95 frame. - **Progressives:** 22.3% of Rx units vs nearly 40% industry-wide for multifocals. - **Retention:** industry-leading NPS; revenue retention ~50% over 24 months and >100% over 48 months. - **Holistic customers** (glasses + contacts + exams) have the highest lifetime value; ~75% of customers industry-wide buy eyewear where they get their exam. - **Buy a Pair, Give a Pair:** a pair distributed for every pair of glasses/sunglasses sold; **20M+** pairs, 80+ countries. - **Tech:** Virtual Try-On, Virtual Vision Test app, custom POS, **Advisor** AI recommendation tool (2025). - **Google partnership (Q2 2025):** AI glasses for all-day wear; Google committed up to **$75M** for product development/commercialization costs and up to **$75M** equity investment at Warby Parker's option subject to milestones. Samsung also a partner. - **Home Try-On:** decision in Q2 2025 to **sunset Home Try-On at the end of 2025**; $2.5M one-time inventory write-down. - **Employees:** 4,036 (2,275 full-time, 1,761 part-time) at Dec 31, 2025. - **Market (10-K citing The Vision Council):** US eyewear $70B; >80% of US adults use vision correction; ~50% of glasses wearers buy yearly. Competitors: EssilorLuxottica, VSP, Zenni. - **Seasonality:** spike in the last 1–2 weeks of the year from HSA/FSA benefit use. - 2025 annual letter: kept the **$95** starting price; launched 15 frame collections; eye exams +37%. ### Latest quarter — Q2 2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026; release Aug 6, 2026) - Net revenue **$235.5M, +9.8%**. Active Customers **2.71M** (+4.1%); ARPC **$336** (+6.6%). - Gross margin **57.9%** incl. **$11.8M IEEPA tariff refund** (+500 bps) and 110 bps lapping the Home Try-On write-down. - SG&A $133.3M (retail comp + tech for Intelligent Eyewear). Net income $4.6M. Adj. EBITDA $32.9M (14.0%). - **352 stores** (15 net new in Q2). Cash $292.7M. - FY2026 guidance reaffirmed: revenue **$959–$976M** (+10–12%), Adj. EBITDA $117–$119M, **50** new stores; excludes Intelligent Eyewear revenue. ### Intelligent Eyewear (warbyparker.com) - With Google (Gemini) and Samsung; "coming this fall" (2026). No price announced in sources checked. ## SECONDARY - Retail Dive (Aug 7, 2025): Home Try-On let customers try five frames for five days at home; most recent users lived within 30 minutes of a store; ~300 stores at the time. - Earnings-call color (Q4 2025 via Alpha Spread; Q2 2026 call recap): marketing ~12.6% of revenue; pre-orders and store demos for Intelligent Eyewear planned for fall 2026. ## INFERENCE (labeled on the canvas) - Warby Parker has flipped from "online disruptor" to a **store-led** model: stores are both the main sales channel and the main marketing/acquisition tool — which is why Home Try-On was no longer needed. - Putting store rent and doctor pay inside COGS means its gross margin reflects retail + clinic costs, so it isn't directly comparable to pure product brands. - Contacts, exams, and insurance are about **raising revenue per customer** and visit frequency around a low $95 entry price. ## Not found — do not invent - Intelligent Eyewear price/unit sales, number of Home Try-On users, store-level economics (payback, sales per store), insurance-plan names beyond Versant Health, number of optometrists. ## Teaching arc **From DTC disruptor to store-led, one-stop vision shop** — in-house design + direct selling make $95 glasses possible → the free Home Try-On box was retired at end-2025 because 323–352 owned stores (72% of FY25 revenue) now do the try-on → contacts, eye exams, and insurance lift revenue per customer ($324 → $336) → Buy a Pair, Give a Pair (20M+ pairs) builds the mission into the model → AI Intelligent Eyewear with Google/Samsung is the next bet. ## Sources - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1504776/000150477626000006/wrby-20251231.htm - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1504776/000150477626000003/warbyparkerincearningsrele.htm - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1504776/000150477626000015/warbyparkerincearningsrele.htm - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1504776/000110465926050446/tm2612757d2_ars.pdf - https://s28.q4cdn.com/987131352/files/doc_financials/2025/q4/Warby-Parker-Inc-EarningsDeck-Q4_2025_V2.pdf - https://www.retaildive.com/news/warby-parker-ends-home-try-on-program-focuses-stores-digital-q2/757070/ - https://www.warbyparker.com/intelligent-eyewear