Artur Torres is the creator of 3MD EYEWEAR, an agency representing alternative and independent brands. \u00d3pticaPro spoke with the young Portuguese designer to find out the aim of his project, which brands he represents and how he started in the optics industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why did you decide to start a solo project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I decided to start a solo project mainly due to family reasons. I needed to spend more time in Portugal because I had been in Spain for a long time, but also because this way there is only one intermediary. I mean, I will work directly with brands and not with a distributor. I will be the only intermediary! Till then we had the optical store, the distributor, me and the brand and now we don’t. There’s the optician, Artur and the brand, which makes the process easier. When I started to outline this new project, I thought about the possibility of also taking care of distribution, that is, of being the one to invoice clients, of stocking in Portugal, but for a matter of service and investment, I chose to work with some brands as an agent and with other ones as a distributor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With which brands are you working?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the beginning of my career, I have always worked with the so-called A-brands<\/em>, the top brands in the market. I will give you some examples: Massada, JFREY, Veronika Wildgruber (Herm\u00e9s\u2019 designer)… so a number of independent brands, and at the moment that is what I still do! The first brand that I have already had the opportunity to announce on social media and that I will bring to Portugal is called Nina M\u00fbr. It\u2019s produced in Madrid using birch, a type of Finnish plywood. It presents a beautiful colour palette, and offers fully customizable glasses with adjustable temples. This is a brand with tailor-made glasses by each optician: the design, colour, size\u2026 all the details. If it\u2019s true that those who make the brands are the opticians, it\u2019s also true that certain brands help them differentiate themselves through exclusivity. That’s the case with Nina M\u00fbr. Another brand I’ve just signed a contract with for Portugal and Spain is Portrait Eyewear, an Italian brand with a strong connection to art. This brand has focused on an extremely revolutionary product since the beginning, on glasses that often aren\u2019t even that commercial. However, it has bet, in recent years, on collections with a higher sell-out yet still with a subtle alternative touch. Now, this brand gives me the possibility to work with a revolutionary brand with a commercial line at the same time, which for me is very satisfying! Needless to say, all glasses are handmade, that is for sure! In the case of Nina M\u00fbr, we can say that they are homemade glasses because everything is made in-house so there is no extra stock. The customer places the order, and the glasses are produced within a maximum period of two weeks, only in the desired quantities. It’s a first in this type of market!<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is your big goal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I intend to bring to Portugal alternative and independent brands (family businesses) together with extremely customisable brands. The brands that I will represent, and whose representation contracts are already signed, are really handmade with care and a sense of sustainability. They are independent, alternative, and will have an agent in the Iberian peninsula who is used to working with this level of brands, but with one difference: this time I will work independently, in order to give an even more intimate service to customers. In terms of retail price, none of these brands, on average, will exceed \u20ac300. What I mean by this is: they really are niche brands, but I am looking for products that can be worked on in the long term. The quality\/price ratio is very good, which I believe can give opticians the possibility of carrying out long-term work and not just introducing a brand because it is trendy one year and left aside in the next. The idea is to work with brands closely and in the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Full interview in the magazine <\/a>\u00d3pticaPro 222<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Artur Torres is the creator of 3MD EYEWEAR, an agency representing alternative and independent brands. \u00d3pticaPro spoke with the young Portuguese designer to find out the aim of his project, which brands he represents and how he started in the optics industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}