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VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Kits Eyecare Ltd., a North American online retailer of eyeglasses and contact lenses, has named former Coastal Contacts executive Rob Long to the role of chief marketing officer. Long joins Kits from Dyson Canada, where he sat on the leadership team and led the direct-to-consumer division. Kits was founded in 2018 by Roger Hardy, who previously had launched one of the groundbreaking brands in omnichannel eyecare, Coastal Contacts Inc., which owned Coastal.com, Clearly.ca and Lensway.se. Hardy is currently the chief executive and chairman of Hardy Capital. 

“Rob is a proven growth marketer with extensive e-commerce and optical industry experience,” Hardy said in the announcement about Long’s appointment. “We are thrilled to have him join the team, and I am personally excited for the chance to work with Rob again to serve customers in eyecare.” (Hardy and Long worked together at Coastal Contacts before it was acquired by Essilor.)

Along with his experience at Dyson and Coastal Contacts, Long worked in Shanghai to lead EyeBuyDirect, a leading glasses retailer, through a successful rebrand and site redesign, according to the announcement.

“I couldn’t be more excited to return to the optical industry, and to further the mission of the Kits team to build the world’s best eyecare company for customers,” Long said. “The opportunity that we have to improve the eyecare experience for customers is significant, and we’re excited about the innovation we will bring to customers in the months ahead.”

In 2019, Kits (and investment firm Hardy Capital) acquired LD Vision Group, as VMAIL reported. LD Vision manages “a family of brands that has delivered 2.7 million orders to more than 1 million customers across North America,” the announcement said.

The addition of Long to the Kits team is the most recent in a string of new hires “as the team continues to expand expertise in technology and operations,” Kits said. Jason Classon (a co-founder of Flickr and founder of Gradfinder.com) was named vice president of technology. Scotty Turnbull (a former director of lab operations at Coastal Contacts) was named head of lab operations, Eoin Lyons was named director of marketing operations, and Craig Culpan was named director of operations.

Also on the Kits leadership team are co-founders Sabrina Liak (a former Goldman Sachs executive) and Joseph Thompson (a former Procter and Gamble marketer).