What a week! I am now away on holiday for two weeks, and getting ready was a real rush.  I arrive back with just 24 hours to Silmo, so I obviously had a lot to get sorted!  3 hours before I left the office I was still designing some spectacles for the show, around 8 of our 19 staff were packing a 6500 pcs Silmo invitation mail out and I also had a little film to make for one of our Opticians who was having an event while I'm away (sorry I couldn't make it Xie Eyewear).  I THINK I just about finished everything.

I wanted to post some images of the 6500 pcs mail out chaos but I'm at home preparing some Mp3's for the holiday and this photo just popped up from the photographer at this week’s photo shoot for a magazine piece in Europe.

See you all at Silmo.

Once again I was off on another flight with my old friend BA.  When you start recognising check in staff and perfecting your Terminal 5 journey down to the minute, you know that you need to take a break.

Anyway, off to Sunny Denmark and a great chance to test some of the new policies we will be launching at Silmo. Telling an Optician in Denmark that they can design their own collection is rather pointless.  They are now world leaders at it.  Malene here is one of our best accounts in Denmark and has had particularly good eye for design.  She created 10 frames for her practice and sold them all in a matter of weeks, using our Bespoke system, long before it was a service we were recommending.  If anyone is in any doubt about the difference from Danish tastes and... well, everywhere else really, have a look at this frame.

I have to say, I think this looks amazing.  I will ask Malene if she minds me putting this one in the collection.  I have a feeling that this kind of frame is influencing the rest of Europe.

I know that I've done Silmo already but I thought I'd just post these images of our stand......

The computers you can see on the stand are these little beauties........ touch screen glory!

You can also see in this picture, a working version of the NEW function on Supertool, where you can design your own frames!

Here are a few new photos for you to have a quick look at.  Whilst most people have been sunning themselves on the beach, we have been extra busy creating lots of lovely new things for the new season.  First of all, you can see some new Retro fitting templates.  There are 20 new Fitting Templates in production at the moment and we will be sending some of them out for free in the next month and the rest will be available to purchase.  Basically, you don't need EVERY fitting template, for example, you might only ever do 1 retro frame, so why have the full set of new retro fitting templates?  But then you might ONLY do retro frames, so you will LOVE the new set!  There are also some new standard nose fittings, just to tighten up your ability to offer a perfect nose fitting to the masses.

I am thinking to price them at either cost price or just below cost price, i.e. I don't want to make any money on the Fitting Templates, just the bespoke frames you make with them! 

Another Horn frame just in.  We are fantastic at manufacturing horn! This is a frame which you will not see till Munich but trust me.......... you are going to love it!

Sometimes people ask me what we do with our returns. Most of the time we can't re-sell them as once they have been under hot lights and a shelf for 12 months, who is going to be happy getting that in their delivery? Since we have our own factory, we are sometimes able to recycle the product.  Below you can see a nice little round eye.  This is basically TD001 through to TD011.  My first EVER collection.  There was 120 pcs left over, and we converted it to this frame by snapping off the temple arms, a bit of polishing and a new eyeshape...  What comes around...... 

Finally, this is not a new joint, rather a new colour.  This is the first shot of the new red colour in action! This frame is to be released in September.  It is actually very similar to another frame we recently launched, I was just not very happy with it, so I did it again, only better.

Finally, the KING of the new frames.  This will not be out till October, but everyone who has seen it LOVES it.  During the world tour, I used this to Bespoke over 10% of my personal consultations.  Magic!

'Ha! I can't resist it.  This is the first look at our Horn Collection.  I think you will agree that the quality speaks for itself.  The style, well, I didn't want them to look like anyone elses frames (although I know most our sales in horn will be the classics) and so I am also delighted to offer this sneak preview!  Don't worry, there will be lots of nice simple retro styles as well.....

The last stop of the world tour: Switzerland. I say last stop although, as I write this, I should be in Denmark but I have to admit that enough is enough (Denmark is postponed for three weeks to ensure my long-suffering wife remains long and suffering and not free and single).

Switzerland was a real surprise to me, as a country it is simply beautiful and I plan to return here on holiday. It is the most spectacular stop of the world tour and, whilst I was lucky to criss-cross it as I visited opticians, I also know I’ve only seen a small part of it.

On to business, we have some of our best opticians in the world here. One I would like to mention is BODO OPTIQUE in Romandy. This optician is a classic example of the effectiveness of design school. Quite how effective it was with this optician is amazing and his sales performance had slipped under my radar. Basically, BDS (Before Design School) he was selling around three Bespoke frames per month. Since design school he is now selling seven per week (he casually asked me how many points he needed for two iPhones on our Summer promotion)! I wasn’t sure if I was delighted or scared. Delighted of course.

I visited the usual mix of successful opticians and unsuccessful opticians and the same pattern emerged. Not to repeat myself, I will save my findings for the next blog post “World Tour Feedback” where I will reveal the secrets and success of our business; what I have learned and what I will be doing to improve.

I also visited a lens lab, REIZE OPTIK AG. Again, I was amazed. I have seen a few high tech labs in my time but this one took the biscuit. They are a fantastic company and we are considering working together in Switzerland. I have to say that if anyone wants a recommendation for a lens business...this is the company! I was pleased they let me take so many photos of their production, since many of their ideas will soon find their way in to our Bespoke production line.

My last appointment was perhaps the most challenging. One of our accounts had new owners and the new owners did not like the idea of our Bespoke service. My last stop on my world tour was to be an Optician who wanted to send everything back. Yikes! I went to see the problem.

“It looks too much like Oliver Peoples.”

“We don’t have the customers here for Bespoke.”

“No-one knows how to use it in the shop.”

“Good!”  I thought “I am on safe ground, the same old comments.”

TD – “Did you know you can use the system to design your own frames?”

Optician - “No.”

TD – “Do you know the customer for this shop well yet?”

Optician - “Yes we think so, anyway, we know our own style.”

TD – “Well, why not use the leftover vouchers to create your own mini collection and, while you are at it, what do you think of these NEW frames?”

The result was another happy customer, NOT sending everything back. 

I went to the airport and sat down feeling exhausted. I could barley squeeze the cork out of the bottle of Moet. One felt like one had earned a little celebration at the end of two months on the road. I went home to several days of sleep.