Jins Eyewear, San Francisco

Jins Eyewear, one of Japan’s largest eyewear brands, opened its first-ever U.S. store, in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood. The 4,900-sq.-ft. space features more than 1,200 different styles of Jins' exclusive frames.



Jins, which specializes in fashion-forward frames at affordable prices, collaborated with San Francisco architecture firm Kwan Henmi to create a gallery-like store environment that blends nature with minimalism. A futuristic "robot" located in the heart of the store edges aspheric lenses on-site, with prescriptive eyewear delivered to the customer in about 30 minutes.



"Eyeglasses are small, delicate objects that might get lost in a large space, but we made sure that they are easy to touch and try on, by organizing them in a system of simple, well-lit, repetitive grids," said Denis Henmi, president and CEO of Kwan Henmi. "This simplicity and accessibility has deep roots in the Jins brand, and are qualities that recur throughout our store design."