Pittsburgh Innovates

An innovative Pittsburgh eyewear company is changing the way we wear our shades.

Oakland native and inventor Dennis G. Zelazowski has discovered a better and hipper way to wear prescription sunlenses, those ugly, plastic clip-ons that sit on the frames of prescription glasses. Working in the optical shop for his optometrist father growing up, he figured there had to be a better design.

“I was always looking for a better way of doing things,” explains Zelazowski, who began working in his father's practice in 1992 and later in optical boutiques across the U.S. “The patient was always coming back for repairs. So I eliminated the prongs, eyewires and brow-bars and the problems went with them.”

He filed for patents, found vendors in Japan, put lens drilling equipment in his father's practice and filled orders by hand, one at a time, to monitor quality. Eyenovate was founded in 2005. Under the brand-name Chemistrie, the company sells its layered-lens technology to independent eye care labs across the country to over 500 optometrists and labs. The company, which employs 5 full-time, recently moved from Lower Burrell to the Strip District.

The beauty of the sunlenses is they are 100 percent compatible with all prescription glasses. A tiny, powerful magnet drilled into the corner of the lens holds the sunlens firmly in place. The lens may be cut into any prescription or shape of frame and comes in 16 polarized colors.

“It’s a superior fit and a cleaner, sleeker look,” explains Zelazowski. Lenses are also available as readers that may create glasses with a bifocal option, or progressives.

“It’s sort of a cheater that you can take off if you don’t want it,” he laughs. “Adding and removing layers is the next step in the logical progress of lens design. It has the potential to revolutionize the industry.”

To view the future of Eyenovate’s designs, view the YouTube video here.