By Sarah Deeter

The concept is simply brilliant. Those favorite sunglasses you’ve worn, beaten up, and scratched need not be thrown out or lost in the bottom of your sock drawer, glove compartment, or boat box. It’s usually the lenses that are worn out, after all. The frames are fine. Now, Tajima Direct can send you new lenses that you can snap in those favorite frames and you’ll be looking like new (literally) at about half the cost of buying a new pair of sunglasses.

I took everything a step beyond and ordered new prescription lenses. Truthfully, my dog ate my last pair two years ago, and it took that long to replace them because it’s typically such a painstaking, inconvenient—and really expensive—process.

When I logged on to the website, I was greeted by Jacob Rosenberg, co-founder and mastermind behind the business model. Jacob walked me through all the steps of the process, from filling in my prescription, taking a few easy measurements, and mailing off a pair of Costa Half Moon frames with a label Tajima Direct provided. Within a couple weeks—exactly as anticipated—I had those frames back, with new prescription lenses neatly fit.

They nailed my prescription. And I have a very complicated progressive prescription—one eye is nearsighted, the other farsighted, and I need readers. These sunglasses are as good as the new pair of regular eyeglasses I ordered directly from my eye doctor… at about half the cost.

The Tajima urethane lenses themselves are very clear. They’re also lightweight, scratch resistant and impact resistant.

So even if you don’t have a complex prescription challenge, there are a bunch of reasons to consider ordering from Tajima Direct—and in those situations, you just indicate the types of frames you have—from Oakley, to Maui Jim, to Costa and others—and the company mails you the news lenses which you snap in yourself. It’s easy.

So don’t throw your glasses away if they get scratched. If you want a different tint lens for your favorite frames—turning freshwater sunglasses into saltwater sunglasses, for example—you can do that too.

Save the money. Tajima Direct is not only cost-efficient, it’s an environmentally-friendly option to “recycle” your own sunglasses. You might not sell as many brand new pairs of sunglasses as your sales reps will want you to, but you’d be doing yourself, your staff, your guides, and your customers a service by tuning them into this smart concept, run by good people who deliver on what they say they will.