J. Crew Chief to Join Warby Parker’s Board

As Warby Parker continues its big push into retail, it is adding a top merchant mogul to its board.

Warby Parker, the three-year-old start-up that is the purveyor of hipster spectacles, plans to announce on Tuesday that it has named Millard S. Drexler, the chief executive of J. Crew, as a director. He will become Warby Parker’s seventh board member, joining the company’s four founders and representatives from the investment firms Tiger Global Management and General Catalyst Partners.

The addition of Mr. Drexler formalizes what Warby Parker executives have described as a burgeoning mentor role, as the company moves well beyond its origins as an online retailer. The J. Crew chief has already invested in the company as part of a $41.5 million financing round that closed earlier this year.

Warby Parker is Mr. Drexler’s third directorship; he already belongs to the boards of J. Crew and Apple Inc.

“I am excited to join the Warby Parker board,” he said in a statement. Referring to company co-chief executives Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, he added, “I like and respect Neil and Dave and love what they have created with Warby Parker â€" they have completely reinvented the eyewear business.”

Though Mr. Drexler already had been having regular lunches with Warby Parker management, the company’s executives sought in recent weeks to bring him deeper into the business. In particular, they sought his advice as they continue to open new stores and showrooms across the country.

“We’re growing really rapidly and developing a major retail strategy,” Mr. Blumenthal said in a telephone interview. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have him in the boardroom for these major decisions?’”

Mr. Drexler, whose successes at Gap and then J. Crew have made him a guru of retailing, has increasingly lent his insights and infamous attention to detail to Warby Parker’s development. At his first meeting with the company’s executives two years ago, he emphatically told Mr. Blumenthal and Mr. Gilboa that they needed a physical store to complement their Web site. (There are now five stores and 10 showrooms across the country.)

During one visit to Warby Parker’s flagship store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, Mr. Drexler looked up at an electronic sign â€" patterned after an old-fashioned train station fixture â€" meant to display upcoming eye exam appointments. The offering has been a success, with a three-week waiting list.

But at the end of the day, the sign began growing blank as the day’s bookings were completed. According to Mr. Blumenthal, the J. Crew chief said that the board could suggest that business was slow. Were Warby Parker a publicly traded company, Mr. Drexler argued, an analyst might use that to suggest that the store wasn’t nearly full.

The next day, the board was rejiggered so that at day’s end, it began showing the next day’s appointment and never appeared blank.

“He’s shown that details matter,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “He’s aware of all those little details that at first may seem insignificant but have drastic impact on customers’ perceptions.”

Mr. Drexler has also contributed to management’s thinking about its wares â€" the company has rolled out more than a dozen collections of eyewear, when most optical designers do one a year â€" and bolsters its presence through a burgeoning TV presence. (Last month, Warby Parker has rolled out its second TV commercial, an ode to the company’s determinedly quirky vibe.)

One thing that Warby Parker isn’t considering yet is putting its wares in other shops, like J. Crew’s. Having its own stores means that the company can better control its customer experience, while reaping higher sales margins, according to Mr. Blumenthal.

While the start-up is adding boldfaced names to its board, the company is far from considering even bigger steps, like an initial public offering or a sale, Mr. Blumenthal said. The company still has a large cash position and enormous growth, with no plans to raise additional capital at the moment.

“We’re only three years old,” he said. “We’re not really even thinking about going public.”

There is one other milestone that Warby Parker has yet to reach: getting Mr. Drexler to switch from his well-known plastic spectacles for a pair of the company’s glasses.

“We haven’t converted him yet,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “We’ll see if we can.”