a Westerleigh eye care facility celebrates 20 years—its owner’s focus divided between good commerce and community boosting

by Jessica Jones-Gorman • Photos By Amessé Photography

When Christopher Williams was just a freshman at Susan Wagner High School, he took a job at Cohen’s Fashion Optical in the Staten Island Mall to earn a little side money and stay busy after school. What he didn’t realize was how interested he would become in the optical practice itself.

“I started in September of 1980, cleaning the store, running errands, and doing other small jobs,” Williams said. “I worked there for five years, through high school and after graduation before deciding to take my state boards and get licensed.”

What started out as a part time occupation eventually became Williams’s calling. He stayed with Cohen’s for a little more than a decade before branching out to a smaller, private shop. After five years in the practice, he decided to open his own place on Victory Boulevard.

“I chose Westerleigh because it was close to my home and I was familiar with the neighborhood,” Williams said.

“Lenses are digital now. [Old] manufacturing processes used to limit how exact you could go. But today it’s all done with a laser zapper…no grinding at all, making accuracy greater and allowing us to offer alternatives not available before.”

“My original location was a little kiosk within an ophthalmologist’s practice. I moved down the block to a larger, independent space about three years after I first opened, and we’ve been serving this neighborhood ever since.”

For the past 20 years, Williams Eye Works has become a landmark in the North Shore community, supplying eyewear for scores of clients who come from both near and far for the optician’s recognized service. And in that time, Williams has seen a major transformation in the broader industry.

“This business has changed incredibly since I first started,” he noted. “As society becomes more eye dependant, eyewear has become more widespread. Twenty years ago, only some professions made heavy use of computers to the point of eye strain. Today, no matter what you do, no matter what profession you are a part of, you are using a computer or handheld device, so the incidences of eyeglass needs have just climbed. Life is much more visually demanding now, and that has created a constant stream of new markets.”

And thanks to technology, lenses have drastically updated in just the past five years to serve that growing market. “They [lenses] are actually digital now,” Williams said, describing the latest eyeglass manufacturing process which has all but obliterated the old-fashioned method of grinding glasses into specific curves. “Those former manufacturing processes used to limit how exact you could go. But today it’s all done with a laser zapper…no grinding at all, making accuracy greater and allowing us to offer new products and alternatives that were not available until this point.”

It’s a process that has helped with all sorts of progressive lenses that were traditionally associated with distortion and discomfort, the practitioner explained.

And it’s also opened up an endless amount of specialty lenses for wearers to choose from.

“I can design a progressive lens that’s tailored to your needs, not preset like a traditional bifocal,” Williams said. “If you’re a golfer who requires a small reading area or a professional who works at a computer all day, we can create a lens that is specific to what you do.”

And in that last two years, blue blocking technology has also helped eyeglass makers provide a better product.

“For a long time blue light has been known to be harmful,” Williams said. “It creates a lot of eye stress, and for years there was not much that could be done about it. But for the past two years, lenses and coatings have been developed that reduce and eliminate blue light and that has been a crucial innovation for customers and the eyeglass industry itself.”

Williams, who sells a variety of brands from designer to affordable—Prada, RayBan, Gucci and Christian Dior included—says it’s an innovation that works with any style too.

“Trends in eyewear are like getting your hair cut long or short. There is really no particular style that is absolutely ‘in’ right now; it’s just sort of what fits your face and style,” he noted. “Plastic frames are much more popular than metal right now, but that comes and goes.”

And new developments in equipment allow Williams to offer customers the best new shapes and sizes in frames.

“Because of new technology, the lens fits the frame perfectly now,” Williams said. “There used to be limitations for people who wore very thick lenses but now it’s hard to tell a wearer that they can’t wear wrap Oakleys or any other specialty frame. Between the ability of digital lenses and the capability of inhouse equipment to fit a frame, things are much more exact. All of the crazy shapes and sizes that the eyeglass wearing public wanted in the past are now possible.”

Williams is contagiously happy to offer this updated technology to customers who support both his store and local charitable endeavors.

“My whole life is centered around the store, Boy Scouts, and Rotary,” he said. “I got involved with the Scouts in 1995 when my son joined his local Pack, and at one time I was a Cub Master, but today I serve as Council President for Staten Island.”

For Williams, it’s an obligation to give back the community that has offered him so much.

“The people of this neighborhood and this borough have been so supportive over the years,” he said. “I definitely feel a strong obligation to give back for all of that support.”

And the constant growth his store has experienced over the past 20 years is something Williams hopes to continue. “I think online retailing is a tricky thing for the eyeglass market, but it is also the way people want to shop,” he observed. “I see a strong future blending those two…possibly advising customers on an online purchase or pulling a Prada frame in a certain color so they could try it on for size first. I’m not adverse to a consumer looking things up online. I actually embrace the idea of blending the businesses.”

Williams says that’s just another component to good customer service.

“My goal is to maintain a high patient retention rate,” he concluded. “The eyeglass wearing public constantly needs new and updated products. It’s my job to provide them with the best.”

Williams Eye Works
1884 Victory Blvd. / 718.273.5000 / williamseyeworks.com