How we test & research

Our first survey is live now

The Glasses Habits Survey 2026 — our first reader survey, on what glasses cost, how they fit, and how people actually choose them — is open from October 20 to November 3, 2026. It takes 2–4 minutes and it's anonymous. Everyone who completes it gets 10% off at GoOptical.online, and can enter a draw for a $50 frame credit at Go Optical LLC. Results will be published here, with the full method, after the survey closes.

Take the Glasses Habits Survey →

More about the survey — what it asks, and how we'll report it: The Glasses Habits Survey 2026.

Why we publish our own numbers

Ask the internet what a pair of glasses costs, how often they fit badly, or whether face-shape rules work, and you'll mostly find retailer blogs quoting each other — the same undated statistic, passed hand to hand until nobody remembers where it started. We started 4 Eyes Club to cover eyewear properly, and that means sometimes the honest answer to "what's the source?" has to be us: a survey we ran, a public dataset we re-analyzed, or a tally we kept ourselves. Every month we publish at least one long-form piece built on original data like that, with the method printed next to the findings — starting with our analysis of where Connecticut buys glasses.

Surveys: our readers, counted honestly

Our surveys are short (under four minutes), and we recruit the people who read us: through the club letter, our social channels, and — from October 26, 2026 — a QR code at the counter of Go Optical LLC in Manchester, Connecticut. Before any survey launches, this site's privacy policy names the tool running it and what we collect: answers to the questions, an optional first name if you're willing to be quoted, an optional email if you'd like a follow-up. We never ask for health records.

Every survey story prints its sample size, its dates, and how people were recruited, in a "How we did this" box on the page. And we'll say the quiet part out loud: our respondents are self-selected. People who answer a glasses magazine's survey are people who care about glasses. That's a real sample of our readers — it is not a national poll, and we will never dress it up as one. Small breakdowns get flagged as too small to read into, and percentages always travel with the number of people behind them.

Public data: back to the primary table

Half of "original research" is refusing to cite a summary of a summary. When we use public data, we go to the dataset itself — the CDC's Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System and National Health Interview Survey, the National Eye Institute's statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Surveys, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns counts of optical stores, FDA device authorisations — and we link the primary table in the article, so you can check our arithmetic against the same numbers we used. Where the public data is national and the interesting question is local, we cut it ourselves: what changed in Connecticut, in New England, in towns like ours.

In-store data: the fitting tally

From October 26, 2026, the fitting table at Go Optical LLC keeps an anonymous tally: how many fittings, the PD ranges seen, which bridge-fit issues come up, which frame shapes, colors and materials people actually try, and what adjustments they come back for. Counts only — no names, no prescriptions, no personal records of any kind, and signage in the store explains the tally and what it's for. After the first hundred fittings, we'll publish what they taught us. That tally is ours alone — counts we keep ourselves, at our own fitting table.

How we test products

From Issue #2 onward, frames and lenses we review get bench checks before anyone writes a verdict. Printed dimensions are verified with calipers (lens width, bridge width, temple length) and the frame is weighed on a gram scale. Hinges, screws and nose pads are inspected and adjusted the way a fitter would. Then James Stone wears the frame for at least five working days and logs pressure points, slippage, and every adjustment made. When we publish scores, they break down as fit 40%, build quality 30%, optics 20%, value 10% — and the wear log publishes with the review.

Issue #1 predates the bench: its product coverage is research and reporting, not lab testing, and the magazine doesn't pretend otherwise. The protocol above is the standard every product review is held to from Issue #2 on.

Fact-checking: every number, twice

Before a data piece publishes, every figure in it is re-checked against the raw survey responses or the primary source — not against the draft, against the data. Headlines carry the key number, and the number has to survive that second pass. If we get something wrong anyway, we fix it the way we fix everything: a dated correction note on the page and an entry in the Standards corrections log. Health-related content carries a "talk to your eye doctor" note, because fit and style are our beat and medical advice is not.

What we never do

• Invent data, quotes, or sources. If we don't have a number, we say so and go get it — or the piece doesn't run.
• Buy data without disclosing it. If a dataset costs money or comes from an industry body, the article says where it came from and who made it.
• Present sponsored numbers as our own. A manufacturer's figure is labeled as a manufacturer's figure, linked to their release, and never laundered through our charts.
• Publish a voice we don't have. People are quoted by name only with their permission. Nobody is made up, and nobody is paraphrased into saying something tidier than what they said.

Who's responsible

Every data piece carries a real byline. Research stories are written and edited by James Stone, Founder & Editor-in-Chief — the same person who designs the surveys, checks the numbers, and answers for the corrections. Health-related content is additionally reviewed by Audra Poach, Lead Optician, Go Optical LLC, our Optician Oversight, before it publishes.

Questions about a number we printed? hello@4eyesclub.com. If we're wrong, we want to know first.