JINS Eyewear opens first U.S. flagship in San Francisco

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Apr 9, 2015

"JINS here. We want to make eyewear for everyone in less than half an hour. Because we love seeing things differently. Don't you?" reads the company's description section on Facebook, where the new opening has been garnering a lot of intention.

Indeed, Japan’s largest eyewear brand by volume, JINS Eyewear, opens its first U.S. flagship store in San Francisco on April 10th along with its e-commerce site.

The 4,900-square-foot store is located in San Francisco’s Union Square along Powell Street and will house over 1,200 different styles of JINS exclusive eyewear. All JINS frames are designed in Tokyo.

At the heart of the store will be Kanna, an intricately-designed robot that edges high-quality, aspheric lenses on-site while customers wait. That means, instead of waiting weeks for glasses, customers can browse the store, purchase and receive their prescription eyewear with custom fitting all in the same visit. From start to finish, the experience takes about 30 minutes, but shoppers are encouraged to take their time and enjoy all the store has to offer.

For the interior design, JINS collaborated with San Francisco architecture firm, Kwan Henmi, to create a gallery-esque retail setting that mixes nature with minimalist design. "This simplicity and accessibility has deep roots in the JINS brand, and are qualities that recur throughout our store design," said Denis Henmi, President and CEO of Kwan Henmi.

Concurrent with the opening of the San Francisco flagship on April 10th, JINS will launch its U.S. e-commerce site to replicate the in-store experience. Customers nationwide will be able to purchase JINS eyewear online and those in the Bay Area will have the opportunity to purchase eyewear online and pick them up in store.
 
JINS Eyewear was founded in 2001 and currently has 329 retail locations in Japan and China. The San Francisco location will be the brand’s 330th location worldwide.