July 23, 2020 — Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies in the industry and beyond are sharing their efforts to help eyecare professionals, and the public, weather these turbulent times.

Here, we share a roundup of some recent initiatives:

Essilor has doubled down on its private practice support by enriching its Essilor Experts partnership program with a new Essilor Preferred Rewards points initiative. The company also introduced Essilor Partners, giving customers flexibility to use partner brands like Kodak and Shamir in addition to Essilor premium brands. 
“2020 has been an incredibly challenging year for eyecare professionals running small businesses and we are committed to giving them every opportunity to remain competitive and help them succeed with the challenging market conditions they face,” says Sherianne James, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of customer experience at Essilor of America, “This includes creating more robust programs with rewards that celebrate loyalty, gives flexibility and freedom to choose what products are best for their practice, and ensure they stay financially whole.”

Hoya Vision Care is supporting ECPs in need of PPE and resources for effectively bouncing back. Hoya was able to procure 700 “Optical Care Kits,” including eight KN95 reusable masks, three 300 ml hand sanitizer with 75% ethanol, and three protective visors with double sided anti-fog. Kits were distributed to accounts that were considered to be in higher risk areas of the country. In addition to the safety kits, Hoya has offered other resources including 10 free ABO CE courses on its eLearning portal Empower U, tips and advice in the white paper “Bouncing Back Together,”  updated external resources from industry and government on ecpally.com, and more.

LensPen is highlighting its FogKlear offering, a dry anti-fog cloth designed as a safe pretreatment to prevent fogging on face shields, goggles, and other protective equipment. 
“Health care workers and first responders count on FogKlear to keep their face shields and goggles fog-free,” says Ryan Keating, LensPen vice president of sales and marketing. ”We’ve long said that our products are necessities, not accessories. With FogKlear’s ability to keep face shields and goggles from fogging, it’s true now more than ever.”

Reopeneyecare.com has introduced new features to further customize the user experience, including an expanded search function and a pop-up questionnaire (which appears when the website homepage is launched), allowing ECPs to personalize their website experience and curate the available content according to their specific business needs. “The website advisory board has worked closely with The Vision Council to improve the functionality of the website with search tools that ensure a seamless and more curated user experience, so that our fellow eyecare providers can find the information they need when they need it,” says Justin Manning, O.D., executive vice president for professional strategies at Healthy Eyes Advantage Inc. and the leading member of the Reopeneyecare.com advisory board. 

Silhouette is celebrating the relaunch of its cult-classic Futura Sunglasses from the '70s with stunning portraits of influential celebs Coco Rocha and Laverne Cox (pictured) by artist Ashley Longshore. 100% of proceeds from the paintings, which are currently available for auction at Charitybuzz until the end of July, will be donated to Direct Relief, a nonprofit that’s providing Covid-19 support to frontline workers.