Is anyone selling Transition Extra Active lenses?

[Craig]

I put a few employees in the lens and got myself a pair- why do you need someone else to buy your samples?- I invest in frames, edgers, people and have no issue buying lenses to see if they fit a niche for us.
We do quite well with the product and no one has been unhappy with them.
We offer them the light or dark one; most men pick the dark one and some ladies as well, but the men seem to really not care about the slight tint.
FYI, I just bought my staff a new wardrobe so a set of lenses is no big deal.

What other profession will only try something if it is free? We also have a complete display of progressive lenses in Lindberg or TAg Heuer frames as demos and they have been huge money makers for us.

You cannot sell what you do not have!

[vince]

I have a pair, they do work well as a multi purpose pair of glasses, especially if you are out doors most of the time. I feel they do take longer or too long to go from dark to clear, more noticeable in cooler or colder weather, they get very dark in cold weather. I am not sure I would sell them as a primary pair mainly due to the amount of time it takes to change clear.

[BMH]

I put a few employees in the lens and got myself a pair- why do you need someone else to buy your samples?- I invest in frames, edgers, people and have no issue buying lenses to see if they fit a niche for us.

You cannot sell what you do not have!

I do agree that you have to spend money to make money but I would be willing to bet you don't buy your frames and edgers based and a cardboard display. Frame reps bring in the actual products for us to see before we buy them (most of the time). And I am sure you wouldn't invest in a piece of equipment like an edger without some sort of hands on demo, either at a trade show or another office running the equipment.

I have invested in making my own displays/samples. I just think its a shame that we as Opticians know how to market these new products better than the companies that make them.

Now for a question Craig. I have thought many times about making a progressive lens type of demo. How do your displays deal with PD measurements and How many add powers do you display? You can PM me if you want.

Thanks, BMH

[AngeHamm]

What other profession will only try something if it is free? We also have a complete display of progressive lenses in Lindberg or TAg Heuer frames as demos and they have been huge money makers for us.

Your argument is sound on its face, and I certainly have invested hundreds of dollars of my own money into frames and lenses in order to serve my practice. But here are a few points:

1) I am an extremely high myope, and my lenses are very expensive, even at reduced cost from my very friendly labs. Buying new lenses for every new product that comes along is not financially reasonable to expect. I am an employee, not the owner of the business, so it is not reasonable for anyone to expect me to invest a large amount of my personal income into what is, in effect, product advertisement which primarily benefits my employer. That said, I have bought myself over a dozen pairs of lenses over the past two years, and I recognize how much that helps increase my sales.

2) Lens companies have gladly supplied me with comp lenses in the past. My first Transitions, Anti-fatigue, Seiko 1.74 Transitions, Xperio, Viso XC+, SV 360, and Zeiss SV Individual lenses were all supplied by the manufacturer. Why suddenly the tight fist for XtraActive? What is so all-fired holy about this product that the rules are suddenly different? I'm not dropping a hundred-plus bucks of my own money for a niche product with the same name as a huge product failure from 12 years ago.

You cannot sell what you do not have!

3) I would counter that Essilor cannot sell what we don't have, a point amply demonstrated by the fact that I and several posters on this thread are expressing similar difficulties in selling this product from a cardboard wheel.

[WFruit]

So, on the good news front, I've heard that we'll be seeing CR-39 XTRActives, as well as ST's in most materials by the end of the year.....

[Dave_Guevara]

We got an uncut from our Essilor lab pretty early after the product launch, it has an AR flaw but works fine for showing the indoor tint. We use it in conjunction with the wheel to demonstrate the different states. I highly recommend AR with Xtra-actives due to the increase in light transmittance reducing the residual indoor tint to a minimum.
I also have to comment on yellow tinted night driving lenses as someone that uses them both for shooting and driving and has clear with AR and Drivewear with AR to compare them with. Polarized yellow has very little if any benefit in most lighting conditions beyond what the yellow tint does on its own. Lighter colored polarized lenses like polarized yellow or rose or any of the fashion polarized colors do not polarize as efficiently as a darker polarized lens. The high contrast green used for Drivewear is the lightest polarized lens that polarizes well, which is why it was chosen. A polarized lens limits the direction in which light can pass through the lens limiting light transmittance in low light especially from the periphery. The idea with a contrast tint like yellow and why it works good for hunting is that it limits the amount of color information your brain has to deal with so it can focus on contrast and especially movement. On a country road with no street lights clear with AR is your best bet. City driving or highway driving in a low to the ground high speed euro-ride that lines up my windshield with the SUV in the oncoming lanes headlights, a little tint with AR is highly preferred. I only have personal experience to back up this assessment.

[Barry Santini]

What other profession will only try something if it is free? We also have a complete display of progressive lenses in Lindberg or TAg Heuer frames as demos and they have been huge money makers for us!

As I've pointed out elsewhere, I believe there is no better proof that the majority of ecps place no real value in their products than the apparently "knee-jerk" request for the lenses and frames to be supplied for little or no cost to them.

Try this thought experiment: Substitute "public" for ECP. Sound familiar, in light of all the discussion about online eyewear?

B

[eyemanflying]

So, on the good news front, I've heard that we'll be seeing CR-39 XTRActives, as well as ST's in most materials by the end of the year.....

Thank goodness...the launch of the latest version of this product has taken forever and in my opinion has lost alot of its steam and appeal to ecp's. Although SV Trivex is a fantastic product, it is a small portion of the SV market, yet Transitions launched this well over a year ago and still yet no CR39???

Marketing...hello...are you there???

[RT]

http://www.transitionsxtractive.com/...lChart_web.pdf

1.50 index Xtractive has been available for about 6 months in SFSV, ST28, and a variety of progressive lens designs. Also, please note that 1.50 Transitions products do not use the CR39 monomer, so the term "CR39 Xtractives" is a misnomer.

[Diopterman]

Also, please note that 1.50 Transitions products do not use the CR39 monomer, so the term "CR39 Xtractives" is a misnomer.

Then why do I see that Hoya Hartford's DVI system lists "CR39 Transitions".

I know that it is not the same monomer. Why would Hoya list it like that then?

[RT]

That typo, which apparently was buried inside a locally maintained file, will be corrected the next time that the system updates. Thanks for pointing it out. Even big companies have proofreading issues sometimes.

[Crazy-bout-Optics]

So in the 8 years or so that I've been doing this I've never sold an extra active . . . . until today. A woman came in with trans 5 and said she liked the slight yellow cast to her lenses, as she has had them for 2 years or so and asked if she could get this tint in her new transitions. Of course I thought of this thread (aka slow day) and had her sit with me to look at their website online. I found their PDF and showed it to her and explained the differences. I liked the fact that I could show her on the computer the differences and didn't find the fact that I didn't have an actual demo lens to show her a hindrance.

I'll update on how she likes them once I get them to her.

~Crazy

[AngeHamm]

That typo, which apparently was buried inside a locally maintained file, will be corrected the next time that the system updates. Thanks for pointing it out. Even big companies have proofreading issues sometimes.

Sometimes??? Ever try impoirting frame information from the Frames data CD with Framemate? It's a nightmare.

[THE MEB]

I have to admit I am not getting any younger, but I am pretty sure I remember just before they discontinued x-tra active the first time, that it was found that x-tra active was a transitions with about a 10% solid tint applied by transitions. I do know, when I was told this by a lab rep, that I tried tinting the lenses of a few transitions patients that didn't mind having a slight tint always inside to cut down on more glare in their vehicle. Am I just going bananas, or wasn't the subject of transitions x-tra active being a transitions lens with a slight tint on it not germane to this discussion?

[Crazy-bout-Optics]

About 3 years ago when I was still with LC I was asked by a pt if she could have a gradient tint on her plastic transition lenses. I told her "of course", then tried to enter it into EyeNet, which it wouldn't let me do. So I told her I would do it at N/C since the system wouldn't let me add it on. When I told the lab tech to please add grey grad #1 to the lens he told me "you can't tint a transition lens" at which point I kindly asked him to step aside and I went ahead and tinted them. Pt was thrilled with her lenses and the lab tech said you can't do that or the transition won't work. SIGH! Oh LC, how I do NOT miss thee!!!

[THE MEB]

I have tinted several transition lenses into a sunglass tint. They tint much quicker than cr-39 w/scratch coat stock lenses. Typically it's a patient's old prescription, where they bought a new pair of eyeglasses because their rx changed slighly, maybe thier add was upped a quater. They make wonderful sunglasses by tinting them, I've tried both 80% grey and 80% brown both with wonderful results. I do know, because I called Transitions, that if you tint a transitions lens you lose the warranty attatched to them.

[AngeHamm]

I have to admit I am not getting any younger, but I am pretty sure I remember just before they discontinued x-tra active the first time, that it was found that x-tra active was a transitions with about a 10% solid tint applied by transitions. I do know, when I was told this by a lab rep, that I tried tinting the lenses of a few transitions patients that didn't mind having a slight tint always inside to cut down on more glare in their vehicle. Am I just going bananas, or wasn't the subject of transitions x-tra active being a transitions lens with a slight tint on it not germane to this discussion?

That may have been true of the old XTRActive, but not the new. The new is slightly photoreactive through autoglass--though not enough to supplant my need for sunglasses in the car.

[sharpstick777]

XTRactive is not selling well for 2 reasons. The first is that its not yet available in Finished SV, which means it now costs way more than it should. The other reason is the old Transition lamp won't activate the XTRactive lens. The just released a new LED Transitions Box that will work.

[Striderswife]

I just sold one this morning, and saw the activity on the thread, so I thought I'd come say so. They are few and far between, but I've sold more of these than I ever sold of Splitz or Drivewear. . .

[Ginster]

I have sold it a couple of times, both to men who wanted a darker trasition out side. I found an old transition extra active demonstrater, thank God, and they don't seem to mind the indoor color.

[Happylady]

I think it will sell if it's offered. And if you have a sample to show the indoor color.

[AngeHamm]

XTRactive is not selling well for 2 reasons. The first is that its not yet available in Finished SV, which means it now costs way more than it should. The other reason is the old Transition lamp won't activate the XTRactive lens. The just released a new LED Transitions Box that will work.

We generally use the sun as our Transitions demonstrator. It works very well.