Heywear: History and Trajectory of the NYC Same-Day Optical Startup

Compiled research document (AI-assisted, 2026) — imported as a reference source

for the Heywear knowledge pipeline. Claims herein are aggregator-derived and of

mixed reliability; see the document's own caveats.

TL;DR

• Heywear was a New York City walk-in "optical studio" (founded ~2018–2019, launched retail March 2021, closed ~2024) that promised an eye exam plus made-to-order prescription glasses in about 30 minutes for a flat, bundled price (~$99, later ~$149); despite raising roughly $2.7M–$5M and expanding to multiple NYC stores, it is now permanently closed.

• It was not a smart-glasses or 3D-printed-eyewear company; its innovation was an operational one — a vertically integrated retail model with proprietary in-house software and small on-site optical labs that cut lenses while customers waited. Martin Källström (Narrative/Twingly founder) is credited as a co-founder alongside CTO Alexandre Jais, Corentin Macias, and Idan Cohen, with Jaclyn Pascocello as the operating CEO.

• The company ran a friends-and-family beta in 2019, opened its NoHo flagship in March 2021, grew to several Manhattan/Brooklyn locations, then shut down; at least one customer reported an abrupt closure that left an order unfulfilled.

Key Findings

• What it was: Heywear ("HEYWEAR") was a same-day, walk-in optical studio in New York City. Customers could walk in without an appointment or vision insurance, choose from the company's private-label frames, receive a comprehensive eye screening, and leave with finished prescription glasses in roughly 30 minutes (as fast as ~10–13 minutes in an optimal scenario). Pricing evolved from roughly $50 for an exam plus $50–$125 for frames early on to a marketed flat price of $99 for an exam-plus-frames-plus-lenses package, and later a $149 eyewear package.

• The core innovation was operational, not a gadget. Heywear built proprietary in-house software and used small (~250 sq ft) on-site optical labs to cut and assemble lenses while the customer waited, collapsing a process that traditionally takes days or weeks. Per INVISION Magazine, the company — through director of optometric services Dr. Lilan Le and CEO Jaclyn Pascocello — stated up front that it "does not perform dilations or treat eye disorders or diseases, and does not offer CLs, progressive, bifocal or trifocal lenses, or eyewear for kids." This deliberately narrowed scope of optometry is what enabled the speed.

• Founders and leadership: Crunchbase lists four co-founders — Alexandre Jais, Corentin Macias, Idan Cohen, and Martin Källström. Alexandre Jais (Stanford-trained mechanical/product engineer, ex-Facebook and Nascent Objects) was CTO/president and led software and product from Paris. Corentin Macias (ex-HCVC/Hardware Club investment analyst) led product and operations. Idan Cohen (co-founder of Boxee and Grow) was an early co-founder and CEO. Jaclyn Pascocello (former COO of Spacious, which was acquired by WeWork) was the public-facing CEO throughout the retail operating period.

• Martin Källström's role: Källström, the Swedish serial entrepreneur behind Twingly and Narrative (the Narrative Clip lifelogging camera, formerly Memoto), is credited as a co-founder. His own descriptions vary: his LinkedIn says "Led Heywear in U.S. optical," while his X/Twitter bio lists him as "Founder & CEO of … Heywear." His exact title, join/leave dates, and whether he relocated to New York for the venture are not documented in public sources.

• Funding: Estimates range from ~$2.71M (CB Insights) to $4.99M (PitchBook). Dealroom records angel seed money from Eduardo Ronzano (2019), a ~$2.1M seed (May 2020, HCVC and YADAY), a ~$1.1M seed (May 2021, Founders Future, HCVC, Tango, Stella Capital), and an early-VC round (Techmind, Jan 2022). A planned Series A was signaled in 2022 but no closed Series A is documented.

• Status: permanently closed. Crunchbase lists Heywear as "permanently closed," and Yelp lists the NoHo flagship as "HEYWEAR STUDIO - CLOSED." The exact closure date and reason are not confirmed by any dated source.

Details

Founding story and timeline

The concept originated in late 2018. Corentin Macias, then working at the Paris hardware-focused VC HCVC (Hardware Club), was struck by how inefficient the US optical market was after his own frustrating experience buying glasses — needing separate trips for an eye appointment, an optician, and a fitting. He identified the US market as underserved and began laying the groundwork for what became Heywear at the end of 2018. (The scale of that opportunity is large: per The Vision Council's 2021 industry data, there are approximately 197.6 million adult vision-correction users in the U.S. — about 75.6% of adults — with roughly 166.5 million adults wearing prescription eyeglasses.) He partnered with Alexandre Jais, who served as president and CTO and ran a development team from Paris, and they recruited an experienced American CEO, Jaclyn Pascocello. Idan Cohen and Martin Källström are also credited as co-founders.

Aggregators cite founding years of both 2018 and 2019 (Dealroom pinpoints a launch date around January/March 2019). Heywear launched softly, opening a friends-and-family beta studio in late 2019 to refine its lens-cutting machinery. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed a full launch but also opened up favorable real estate. The company opened its first public flagship in March 2021 on Lafayette Street at Bond Street in NoHo, stocking more than 3,000 lens types on-site to handle volume. Word of mouth was strong enough that the studio reportedly had multi-hour waits in its opening days.

Product and technology

Heywear's product was a service-plus-hardware retail experience, not a consumer electronics device. Its "all-in-one optical" model combined: (1) exam rooms with digital screening technology (refraction, advanced imaging, visual field and intraocular pressure checks); (2) a showroom of private-label frames designed in NYC (initially ~33 frames / 130+ style-color combinations, later 100+ styles / 175+ options); and (3) a small on-site optical lab that cut and assembled lenses on the spot. The company recruited New York designer Selin Olmsted for its launch collection. It used proprietary software (built in-house, largely by Jais's team) to orchestrate exam, lens-making, fitting and delivery. Per Waitwhile's case study, Heywear "uses Waitwhile to manage customer flow management across three separate channels: bookings, eye exams, and pickup," so that once a guest finishes an eye exam they are "instantly added to the optical lab queue." Studio associates also used proprietary Heywear software to measure customers' faces. A "hyper-local" model used flagship stores as manufacturing/fulfillment hubs for nearby smaller stores. An e-commerce option let customers reorder online with a prescription on file.

Note on the "smart glasses / 3D-printed" premise: No evidence indicates Heywear made smart glasses or 3D-printed custom frames. The face-measurement software and on-site lens-cutting lab are the likely source of that impression. Dealroom's AI-generated tag list associates Heywear with "computer vision," "machine learning," and "hardware," but this reflects category tagging rather than a documented smart-glasses product.

Business model and pricing

The model was vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer, and retail-led: Heywear designed its own frames, ran its own stores, employed its own doctors, and owned its medical-tech/software stack ("We manage directly all aspects of the customer experience," Macias said). Revenue came from bundled packages. Early pricing was roughly $50 for an exam and $50–$125 for eyewear. WWD reported a "flat price of $99 for an exam, a set of frames and lenses," with Pascocello quoted: "We're focused on making the process of buying prescription eyewear the same as buying a pair of jeans. We want to make it more accessible, and make it an impulse buy for the first time ever." Later, per Heywear's own booking site, "Our eyewear is $149 for any style," with a clear or sun lens add-on for $29 and a standalone exam for $69; multi-pair sets were priced at "2 styles for $249 or 3 for $349." Insurance was not accepted directly, though customers could seek reimbursement.

Expansion

After the NoHo flagship, Heywear opened a downtown Brooklyn store and, per 2022 WWD reporting, planned a third studio near the Flatiron Building (23rd & Fifth) around April 2022: "By June, Heywear will have five New York City locations, including soon-to-open shops in Williamsburg and the Upper East Side. The flagship store spans 2,500 square feet over two floors." Locations referenced across sources include NoHo (363 Lafayette St), NoMad/Flatiron (176 5th Ave), downtown Brooklyn (537 Atlantic Ave), and a headquarters at 32 West 28th Street. Per Accessories Council Magazine (Spring 2021), leadership stated: "They have a 5-year goal to open 100 full-scale locations throughout the United States. A second NYC location is already planned and they're looking at Boston, Washington DC and Miami next." Pascocello later told WWD the company aspired to be "within an hour of most Americans in the next five to 10 years."

Press and recognition

Heywear received meaningful trade and lifestyle coverage: WWD ("Heywear Is Looking to Democratize the Prescription Eyewear Experience"), INVISION Magazine, the Accessories Council magazine, French Morning US ("Les Français de HEYWEAR s'attaquent à Warby Parker"), and a New York Business Journal piece on its Flatiron lease. CEO Jaclyn Pascocello appeared in Authority Magazine's "Female Disruptors" series and on startup podcasts; co-founder Corentin Macias appeared on the French "Young, Wild & Talented" podcast. Its retail design was executed with Savvy Studio, with branding by Center.

Reviews and reception

Customer reception during operation was largely positive on speed and value — Heywear cited some 250 five-star Google reviews by early December of its launch year, and reviewers praised getting multiple custom pairs in under 30 minutes. However, the closure appears to have soured some final customers; a Facebook review describes the company closing "a week after I was in there," with the customer unable to stop payment for an order.

Founders' later paths

Martin Källström returned to Sweden and moved on to other ventures — Multiply.co (as founder/CPO/CMO) and later AI projects including Kindship.ai; his LinkedIn currently lists Nūvai. Alexandre Jais became a Senior Product Manager at Zoï (a French preventive-health company) and continued in product roles. Corentin Macias continued as an entrepreneur/product leader. Idan Cohen became Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the New Amsterdam School and took other product roles.

Recommendations

• If evaluating Heywear as a case study (investor/operator lens): Treat it as a cautionary example of capital-intensive, vertically integrated retail. The differentiator (on-site labs + proprietary software) is genuine but expensive to replicate per location, and it competed directly with far better-capitalized players (Warby Parker; Zenni is named as a competitor). The benchmark that would most plausibly have changed its trajectory — closing a sizable Series A to fund multi-store scale — does not appear to have happened.

• If you are a former customer with an open order or warranty: Assume the business is defunct; pursue chargebacks/payment disputes through your card issuer rather than the company, given reports that orders went unfulfilled at closure.

• If researching Martin Källström specifically: Rely on his own LinkedIn/X statements and Crunchbase for the co-founder credit, but note that his exact title and tenure at Heywear are undocumented; do not assert he was the sole founder or the operating CEO, since Pascocello held the CEO role publicly throughout.

• For competitive/market analysis: The "same-day, one-price, walk-in" thesis remains commercially interesting; watch newer entrants (e.g., AI/3D-print custom-fit players such as Breezm) pursuing adjacent "instant, personalized" eyewear positioning.

Caveats

• Conflicting founding year and funding totals. Sources variously cite founding in 2018 or 2019, and total funding of ~$2.71M (CB Insights) versus ~$4.99M (PitchBook). These are aggregator figures and were not fully confirmed against primary filings beyond a reported SEC filing for a $1.3M raise.

• Closure date and cause unconfirmed. No dated news article or press release documents when or why Heywear shut down. "~2024" is a reasonable inference (based on founders' past-tense references and directory listings) but is unverified; the abrupt-closure detail comes from a customer review, not an official communication.

• Källström's role is ambiguous. Aggregators call him "Founder and CEO" of Heywear, while his own LinkedIn uses the softer "Led Heywear," and all contemporaneous press names Pascocello as CEO. His join/leave dates and any NYC relocation are not documented. Notably, Källström's Wikipedia biography does not mention Heywear at all.

• Some sources are low-quality aggregators (ZoomInfo, me.sh, ContactOut, Tracxn). Employee counts (11–50; "21 total employees"; "grown to 25 employees") are approximate and drawn from such profiles.

• The "smart glasses / 3D-printed" framing in the prompt is not supported by any evidence found; Heywear was a prescription-eyewear retail and optometry business, not a device maker.