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Company: Gunnar Optiks

3D Eyewear Brand: Gunnar i-Amp3D

Key Features: Precision machined, optically correct lenses. Thicker lens blanks provide greater stability, resulting in more control over prismatic shifts and lens curvature, thereby minimizing distortion. Choice of frame styles includes Gunnar’s Phenom and Anime models. RealD compatible. Frame styles include Phenom and Anime.

For Gunnar Optiks, entering the 3D eyewear market is a logical extension of its role as a supplier of eyewear for digital applications ranging from computer use to gaming. Like its proprietary line of i-Amp digital performance eyewear, Gunnar’s new i-Amp 3D glasses incorporate technology that reduce eyestrain and enhance clarity when looking at a screen or video monitor, while adding high performance features designed to maximize the 3D viewing experience.



Gunnar Phenom

Building on the eyewear technology platform it has developed for computer use, gaming, and other digital applications, Gunnar Optiks’ i-Amp 3D lens technology was developed for both professional and consumer applications.

“We’ve made relationships with top-end professionals who are creating 3D content,” said Gunnar co-founder Joe Croft, who serves as executive vice president and R&D chief.

“We also have good relationships with some TV manufacturers,” added company president and co-founder Rob Aarnes. “It’s helped us craft our 3D strategy.”

In the optical realm, Gunnar is partnering with Revolution Eyewear to supply i-Amp 3D lenses for use in Revolution’s patented magnetic clip-on product line.

Although Gunnar sells its products through a variety of outlets including optical retailers, on-line retailers such as Fry’s electronics and Buy.com, Frames Direct.com and its own website, Aarnes stressed the company’s optical orientation.

“We do have strong presence in the consumer electronics space, but first and foremost we’re an optical company,” he said. “We want to open up our 3D technology to ECPs as well.”

Toward that end, Aarnes said Gunnar is developing prescription versions of its 3D product, and hopes to launch them in early 2011 in conjunction with Carl Zeiss Vision, which already produces Rx versions of Gunnar’s standard digital eyewear line. ■ ■