are inspired by Caribbean, African and African-American culture, from pieces from its collection including “Kente Orange” and “The Harlem Renaissance Noir”.  At the end of January, the company announced a large-scale deal with National Vision Inc, the second-largest optical retail company by sales in the US with over 1200 stores in 44 states and Puerto Rico. In partnership with National Vision, Vontélle Eyewear launched an exclusive collection dubbed Official by Vontélle in honor of Black History Month. The pieces featured in the collection became accessible in over 900 retail store locations nationwide and marked the first time Vontélle Eyewear frames were available on the shelves of a nationwide retailer. “Glasses are not a one-size-fits-all product. The fit and style of glasses are just as important as the lenses within them,” Megan Molony, senior vice president, chief merchandising and managed care officer at National Vision, said in a statement. “We chose Vontélle for this collaboration because they share our passion for empowering eyeglass wearers to showcase their culture and personality through their eyewear.” Inside Retail caught up with one of Vontélle Eyewear’s co-founders Nancey Harris, who shared that the brand will extend its partnership with National Vision beyond Black History Month. Several pieces from the Official by Vontélle collection will continue to be stocked, and there are plans to add more stock-keeping units (SKUs) in the coming future. Best friends turned business partners Harris and fellow co-founder Tracy Vontélle Green are longtime friends, ever since they studied at Morgan State University, Maryland’s largest historically Black college or university (HBCU).   Even though they ended up following different career paths before launching Vontélle Eyewear (Green worked as the vice president of finance and chief financial officer for a hospital and Harris worked for several media networks including BET and Wendy Williams Productions), they had one important trait in common, poor eyesight. In 2019, when they coincidentally lost their glasses one after the other, they went on a hunt for some new frames, albeit with different goals in mind.  Green was seeking out a pair that would better accommodate her face shape, since she often suffered from headaches and lines on her face from uncomfortable, ill-fitting frames, while Harris was seeking out a chicer, more colorful set of eyewear. They ended up attending the Silmo Expo, an international optics and eyewear trade fair in Paris, that same year. Despite the expo having over 37,000 attendees, the two came across very few people of color, from optometry retailers to eyecare professionals, and zero Black-owned eyewear brands. It was then that they realized there was a major white space in the market that they knew they could fill.   From learning the ropes to partnering with Paramount From there, the best friends-turned-business partners got the ball rolling almost immediately.  Despite a lack of experience in the eyewear industry, Harris said she and Green were “students of everyday life” and taught themselves the in-and-outs of the business thanks to support from organizations such as the Optical Women’s Association.  Pooling together funds for the business from their own savings, they hired an attorney to file for an official trademark and logo, and an artist from the freelance services marketplace Fiverr to create the designs for the brand’s initial SKUs in 2019. Vontélle Eyewear’s site officially launched on October 1, 2020, and by June of the following year, the entrepreneurs were able to build up funds for the company to expand through grant programs including the Famous Amos Ingredients to Success initiative (2022), the Fiverr Future Collective (2023), the Skip Kickoff Grant (2024), amongst several others.  In 2021, the company struck up a three-year licensing deal with Paramount, which granted the brand licensing rights to Nickelodeon. The company was then able to produce a kids’ eyewear line inspired by popular characters from shows like Paw Patrol, Spongebob Squarepants, and more.  In addition to news of their extended partnership with National Vision, Harris also shared that the brand is launching a celebrity collaboration, dubbed Deemed, with actor Kadeem Hardison from the sitcom series A Different World. The glasses sport an aviator design with a flip-up pair of dark lenses with the company’s patent-pending magnetic clip-on feature and will be available on the brand’s site starting February 29. Additionally, Vontélle Eyewear will be adding to its Nickelodeon collection with several SKUs of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-themed glasses.  When asked about future goals for the brand, Harris disclosed that she and Green hope to open their first brick-and-mortar location by 2025.  Giving back to the community Outside of producing stylishly comfortable frames, Vontélle Eyewear has a mission to provide eyecare and eyewear to underrepresented communities and promote Black talent within the optometry field.  As Harris explained, “Vision is not just a health issue, it’s an economic and an educational issue. Diversity of thought doesn’t happen without diversity of representation. It requires different points of view, life experiences, cultural backgrounds, and coming together to collaborate to solve a problem and if you don’t have those elements, then you are missing out on something that’s very key.” Harris and Green work with the Department of Education in New York, and have plans to expand to other states in the future, to help provide facial measurements, and vision screenings, and to provide students with more affordable eyewear and prescription plans. This is a cause that especially hits home for the two co-founders whose own sons have had issues finding glasses that accommodate their facial features and personal needs.  Additionally, the founders work with the Black Eyecare Perspective, an organization to help create a pipeline for Black students to go into optometric studies and connect communities with Black eyecare professionals and businesses.  Born out of a personal need for the two founders, Vontélle Eyewear is now working to diversify the optometry field at large.