Founded in 2000 as Coastal Contacts by Roger Hardy and his sister Michaela Tokarski, who bought the keyword "contact lens" from
AltaVista, which meant that all searches for "contact lens" were accompanied with Coastal Contacts'
banner ads. In the first day, they had 30 orders; within the first month, they had $68,000 in sales. In 2004, Coastal Contacts raised $6 million in an
initial public offering, which they used to expand into the
United Kingdom and parts of Europe. By 2009, the firm increased their revenue to $140 million. In 2014, French lens manufacturer
Essilor acquired Coastal.com and appointed Roy Hessel as CEO. Hessel, a former venture capitalist, founded online eyewear retailer
Eyebuydirect in 2005. Aside with his role with Clearly, Roy Hessel is also since 2016 VP of America for the Essilor Online division. In August 2017, he appointed a new Managing Director at Clearly to help him in designing and implementing the strategy of the company. In 2015, Clearly Contacts re-branded itself as Clearly, while also making brand name changes in other global markets such as Australia and New Zealand. In the United States, they are known as Coastal. In September 2017, Arnaud Bussières joined Clearly as Managing Director. He became CEO in January 2018. In 2018,
Essilor merged with the
Luxottica Group to become the largest eyewear retail group in the world. In 2019, Clearly acquired Australian online retailer OzContacts. In 2022, Coastal.com, the brand's U.S. based website, was merged into Eyebuydirect.com. == Products ==