Warby Parker taps NY celebs for Pupils Project limited edition collection

Warby Parker is introducing a new collaboration as part of the Pupils Project.

In participation with a number of famous New Yorkers, including Rosario Dawson, Lena Dunham, Nikolai Fraiture, Iman, Fran Lebowitz, Humberto Leon, Mary-Louise Parker, Chloë Sevigny, Gloria Steinem, and Michael K. Williams, the company is releasing ten new pairs of frames.

All the proceeds from the sale of these frames will go towards the Pupils Project, which is a program that partners with the Department of Education in NYC and in Baltimore to provide free vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to school children in need. According to the CDC, vision impairment is the single most prevalent disabling condition among children in the United States.

Neil Blumenthal, who ran a non-profit called Vision Spring before cofounding Warby Parker explained that the company was initially designed to be able to give back to people in need.

“With all of these programs, Buy a Pair, Give a Pair and Pupils Project, we are thinking about what’s going to motivate us to come to work every day,” said Blumenthal, co-CEO of Warby Parker. “Hopefully we’ll get to a point where businesses don’t need to justify every action in terms of increasing shareholder value and focus on being good for the world.”

Thus far, Warby Parker has distributed over 4 million pairs of glasses to people in need across the globe since their launch in 2010.

By working with celebrities and influencers on this latest collaboration, Warby Parker hopes to grow awareness domestically for the issues that face some school children around vision impairment.

Each pair in the collection, which is a combination of sunglasses and regular glasses, cost $95.