2 years of OPTIK!

Two years ago today we opened our doors to OPTIK! European Eyewear. Looking back at those two years, a lot has happened in our boutique. A lot of changes and a lot of growth. We have learned many things about our clients, our products, our marketing strategies and all the things that we thought might work but did not. We look at all the changes as positive experiences because it allows us to adjust and grow even bigger as a company. In this short time, we have received awards and many positive reviews from our clients, which we cannot be more thankful for.

Take a look back at our last two years of this wonderful dream come true!

January 4th, 2017- Opening day 

We opened our doors at 10:00am and happily greeted some familiar faces. Our favorite Optometrist, good friend and former colleague Dr. Arciaga and his wife were among the first ones to visit our store and purchase a new pair of sunglasses. Another familiar face, Licensed Optician Natalie Martin made our day a brighter one by being the very first customer of OPTIK!. She purchased a beautiful pair of sunglasses, in which she got her prescription made into ( may I also mention that this was also our most expensive Sunglass frame in the store- and she snatched it the very first day! :) )

Our first champagne toast with our first customers! Cheers!

Proud Owner Edin Jakupovic, testing out our product in front of the store :)

Anja Jakupovic on opening day

April 2017- We traveled to New York for Vision Expo to explore some cool new Independent Eyewear

Vision Expo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in NYC

Things quickly got busy and we started preparing for our Grand Opening event.

June 9th,2017 Grand Opening Event

Anja & Edin Jakupovic

We hired Jake and Mirela with Kapok Marketing, a local St. Pete Marketing group to help guide us with everything Marketing related for our business. Huge thanks to everything they have helped us with! If you also need help with Marketing strategies for your business, we highly recommend you reach out to this wonderful team! www.kapokmarketing.com

Full house with lots of shoppers, friends and family and local business owners.

Throughout the first year we had several events such as a local ladies only Book Club event/ Trunk show with our frame rep and a Holiday Meet and Greet in December for our Parkshore Plaza residence.

Fast forwarding to 2018-

We turned ONE!

It seems like we blinked and one year passed by! WOW that was quick!

In 2018 we introduced some very special Independent Eyewear lines that we found at Vision Expo in NYC. One of them was FHone by German designer Stefan Flatscher.

Stefan visiting our store for the first time!

 We were just as excited as Stefan to place our very first FHone order for the store! :)

June 2018- Stefan came back for our first "Meet the Designer"  Event

We introduced a fabulous eyewear accessory in 2018. ANY DI Suncover cases.

ANY DI is our number one selling accessory in the store, featuring fine leather, gold plated detail and funky designs to carry your new Independent Eyewear in. It is the trendiest way to keep your sunglasses and eyeglasses safe, and not having to carry large eyeglass cases with you.

Exclusive to OPTIK! and we cannot keep them on the shelf.

Summer 2018- We received a fantastic surprise by being named one of America's Finest Optical Establishments in 2018 by Invision Magazine. Invision Magazine is a industry magazine that focuses on small optical businesses and sharing ideas and new concepts to our profession. We pride ourselves with receiving this amazing award! Thank you so much Invision Magazine for allowing us to be part of this great experience! Stay tuned for a exclusive Interview feature of OPTIK! in the February Invision Edition. We will post it for everyone to see! :)

October 2018- We traveled to Paris for one of the biggest International Trade shows in the world. SILMO!

We came back with....

Vuarnet- Sunglasses with glass mineral lenses from France

and

Mykita- Stainless steel, high end, completely screw-less eyeglasses and sunglasses handmade in Berlin, Germany

Meeting with Mykita designer at the Silmo Expo

Among the many changes that we went through in the first two years, we decided to dedicate our luxury optical boutique to only luxury product.

What do we mean by that?

Product that is NOT mass produced. Product that cannot be found at any big box store or at the mall. True Independent Eyewear, made from the finest materials.

We eliminated any product that did not fit this description. Some clients told us we were crazy for not carrying  the "big designer known name brand" products, but instead of taking it to heart we decided to educate them on why we chose this way of running our business. We are always happy to explain the difference of our products vs. a "labeled" product and what makes our chosen products so much better.

It was proven to us over and over again that our independent products are so much better in quality and design and they keep our customers loyal to us.

Our clients do not mind spending the money on fine, quality products - and we believe they should NEVER waste their hard earned money on mass produced, cookie cutter Eyewear ever again!

2018 was a fantastic year for us and we cannot wait to see what 2019 will bring us!

Cheers to a fantastic year and a happy 2 year anniversary to OPTIK!

Dreams do come true!