About Off the Wall

Eyewear Emporium

This Is How Our Story Began

 A vintage velvet couch rests between wooden shelves of eyeglasses at Off The Wall Eyewear Emporium. Local art and sunglass holders with moustaches decorate the walls. The shop on Elmwood Drive opened in November 2017 with some quirky not-so-common eyewear products.

“They say that people want to be in the same group as everybody else. Everybody wants to conform. I’m like, ‘nah! That’s not true.’ There’s always a little bit of something in everybody who likes to bend the rule just a little, so I’m trying to bring in that option,”  owner Steve Charlebois.

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The Ottawa native’s romance with eyewear started with a strange incident 25 years ago. Charlebois and his friend had walked into an eyewear store in Ottawa. Seeing his long hair and clothing, the owners thought he was planning to steal something. But a friendship developed instead.

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“One day, the one guy just said, you should do this. Because I started helping out at their store, just for fun. I didn’t even get paid,” he said.

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Charlebois listened. He went to optician school at Georgian College in Barrie, Ont. and worked at a lens crafter owned by Italian eyewear giant Luxottica. That brought him to the east coast, where the company closed its operations during the 2008 financial crisis.

Eventually, Charlebois and his wife ended-up in Moncton. He had found work as an instructor for Oulton College’s optician program, which he helped launch by writing the curriculum. But after a few years, Charlebois decided it was time for a change.

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“I thought about going back to school and changing careers entirely, and I was like, no. I’ve planned [the shop] for 10 years,” he said.

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A decade ago, Charlebois and his wife had wanted to open a similar eyewear store in Barrie. But the lack of funding and knowledge about where to find it deterred them. Once in Moncton, they found support from people who directed them to organizations like 3Plus, which helped them with the business plan. Thus the store was able to open November 1, 2017.

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Off The Wall Eyewear Emporium carries retro eyeglasses by Shuron, as well as brands like Zeal, Tokado, Ronit-Furst, The Vinyl Factory, Spectacle Eyewerks, Andy Wolf, Ray-Ban, Modo, Dandy's, Outspoken, Nano, Gwen Stefani, DP69, and Eco. The shop also sells contact lenses, sunglasses, motorcycle goggles, swimming goggles, safety glasses and provides repair and lens fitting services.

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