Japanese Eyewear Firm Opens LA Prototype

The U.S. unit of JINS Holdings Inc. (Tokyo) has opened its latest concept store in Los Angeles’s seaside Venice neighborhood. Founded in 2001 with more than 700 stores worldwide, JINS said it is bringing its designed-in-Tokyo range of frame styles and functional, design-forward eyewear to the Los Angeles community.

The 1200-square-foot store, on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, is outfitted with a several state-of-the-art services, including a new digital shopping experience and custom prescription eyeglasses created on-site in 30 minutes.

That digital-first experience begins with scanning displayed products outfitted with RFID tags and QR codes, followed by an on-site consultation with staff to select the preferred lens style and receive fitting and adjusting services. After processing, customers can pick up their prescription frames at an in-store locker in 30 minutes or choose to have it shipped to their homes.

That process, in turn, takes place in a store interior that reflects the intimate, cozy scale and textures of tea houses unique to Japan. The space features custom fixtures including a large-scale, Japanese cypress wood table top using the “naguri” process to create waves to display the eyewear. The natural wood decor pieces are juxtaposed against the exposed original brick of the building, invoking the deep historical connection to the streets of Maebashi in eastern Japan, where JINS was founded.

“We made use of the existing architecture to create a space that has the essence and philosophy of Japanese design, such as a tea ceremony room, by paying close attention to the size and height of the fixtures to express a cozy Japanese sense of scale,” Fumiko Takahama and Tomohiko KomatsuTakahama, designers of the space, said in a project description. “We abstracted the space by painting the walls, ceiling, and existing structural beams white to lower the spatial center of gravity and used wood, plastering, and terrazzo to complement the existing red brick, a common element of Maebashi. By carefully selecting the material textures and colors, we designed a comfortable space that is in harmony as a whole.”

With more than 500 stores across Japan, the company began it global expansion with its first overseas store in China in 2010, followed by those in the United States and Taiwan in 2015, and the Philippines and Hong Kong in 2018. With 765 operational stores worldwide, JINS said it will continue its growth with a new store in Vietnam this summer.