From buying departments to brand development teams, Eileen Estrada’s 20 years of eyewear experience guided her to create Eyeporters—a project that began as a direct-to-consumer packaged eyewear brand. Now, Eyeporters is a women-owned design- and product-focused wholesaler consistently producing eyewear for eyecare professionals on their own terms.

“The product development process [can sometimes be] as long as 12 to 14 months. Because of this, I am consistently focused on growth and evolution. This is the company mindset for our business, partners, and in-house staff.”

Here, she talks about private label’s trajectory through the industry and Eyeporters’ place in it.

EB: Why should ECPs consider private-label eyewear?

EILEEN ESTRADA: One of the fastest-growing segments in the optical retail business, private label allows ECPs to have a visual voice for their market and clientele. Its purpose is to showcase products that the specific store or group sees as a growth product opportunity. It allows ECPs to differentiate their boards, enabling them to have pricing that cannot be compared with brick-and-mortar and/or online eyewear retailers while controlling the product life cycle and having a product margin of 7- to 10-time markup.

EB: What makes Eyeporters stand out against competitors?

EE: We have buying analytical experience that allows our focus on design to be based on history. My experience in buying built a thought process of understanding the customer by numbers—for example, sell-through and salability—so we can design collections that speak to the end consumer.

On the other side, our goal is to understand the flow of the market and the industry. We maintain a steady travel schedule to visit our factory partners and stores to ensure we keep up with, and are ahead of, global and domestic industry trends. This allows us to keep design and development consistent. We work with eyewear in mind when the end customer is not yet there.

EB: How is Eyeporters impacting the eyewear industry?

EE: We are inspiring ECPs to set themselves apart from the competition. We are launching a software with a focus on product development and product life cycle management. It was created to maintain a library of products and minimize communication regarding a specific style between product developers, suppliers, and customers.

EB: What mantra do you live by?

EE: “Work in progress.” We are always in the creating, recreating, and developing mode—open-minded, collaborative creation.