Ziplens merger with Lensrentals!!

For over three years Ziplens has been a huge part of my life. I've met great people, got to use the best gear, got to speak at a couple of cool events, and had an office overlooking lovely Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA. We have grown so much. We started with just a handful of lenses in our southern Maine house. I remember taking the first lens to the post office not sure if I would ever see it again. Then, after migrating south to Boston we ran Ziplens out of our 1 bedroom apartment, with two kids (we then moved to a slightly bigger 2 bedroom and grew our family by 1 more). Since then we've grown into what resembles something of a normal business with employees, an office space, and a local pickup business.

For the last few months I've been working out ideas to grow our business, and upon taking a few hard looks at trends, new gear, competition, even our own bottom line, I felt that a partnership was in the best interest for us, and more importantly, for our customers.

So over the last few weeks we've been in talks with Roger Cicala over at Lensrentals, and we've agreed to merge our operations under his business. Roger and I started around the same time and we've been in contact since our respective beginnings. Over the last few years I have grown to appreciate and aspire to the way Lensrentals conducts business. I've turned to them in the past when we've been out of stock, and we've shared news and thoughts on industry trends and bunsiness practices. In the end, it made sense that with their vast and ever growing catalogue of gear, my customers deserved better than what we were giving them on our own.

The hardest part will be breaking the bond we've built with our customers. Some of you have been with us since the beginning. I truly appreciate your support. You will get at least the same quality of service from the Lensrentals staff. Also, many of you are local and don't have cars, and getting to our office was an easy ride on the T. Please understand that this decision was not easy and we've been thinking of you.

Logistically, I will be getting in touch with many of you who have purchased and/or have outstanding gift certificates. We will be honoring these but I'm not sure how quite yet. If you have a reservation, or open order with Ziplens, it will be fulfilled on time as you planned. We have our office space until the end of March, so if you have an order you need to return locally, please still do so at our office. To our customers who have not rented from Lensrentals before, you are in for some good times. Some minor changes to what you have gotten used to here include:

1) Much larger selection including a huge selection of lighting and camera bodies (among many other items).

2) UPS shipping by default (Fedex is an option).

3) Lensrentals doesn't authorize your credit card at the time of a reservation. It is done when they pack for shipping, about 3 days before delivery.

Personally I will be available within Lensrentals and plan on contributing for a long time to the lens rental community. I do plan on spending a bit more time on being a photographer and a dad. I am available for email at lcullivan@ziplens.com if you have questions. Thanks again for your support through the years, happy holiday, and most importantly, happy shooting!!!

-Lee