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Google is — once again — betting on smart glasses.
On Tuesday, the tech giant announced three partnerships with eyewear brands: Kering Eyewear, Warby Parker and South Korea’s Gentle Monster. The brands will fuse their products with Google’s tech, including artificial intelligence functions and augmented reality. The smart glasses will be based on Google’s Android extended reality operating system and will enable users to interact with Google Gemini hands-free. The product is expected to debut post-2025, offering both prescription and non-prescription lenses.
Big Tech companies are in a race to create the best pair of smart glasses for a market that hasn’t fully embraced them yet. They need to be functional but inconspicuous, add enough value that a phone or smart watch can’t provide and strike the right balance of techy and approachable. Google, as we know, has tried this before. Google Glass was released in 2013 before it was scrapped two years later. More than a decade on, tech companies are trying to fill the smart glasses void. Meta is leading the charge, with its most recent iteration of smart Ray-Ban glasses. Apple, Amazon and Snapchat have also been racing to take their slice of the pie. This week, Apple announced it plans to release smart glasses at the end of 2026 as part of a push into AI-enhanced devices.
“Every major tech player is now chasing the same holy grail: a wearable device so powerful, so stylish and so intuitive that it becomes the one thing you never leave home without,” says Matthew Drinkwater, head of the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion. “The real competition is for relevance, for who can create a product that feels inevitable, not optional. The more players that enter the field, the faster we’ll get to that culturally defining moment where smart glasses move from curiosity to necessity.”
If Google gets it right, its smart glasses could be just as technologically advanced as Apple’s Vision Pro headset, but as stylish and wearable as the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The question is: will it work?
Will Google’s push catch on this time?
Google Glass failed because its futuristic design wasn’t wearable, the camera quality was dubious, concerns about the ability to record others without their consent caused public backlash, and consumers at the time felt that the $1,500 price tag was too high for a product that had little practical use.
“Timing, fashion and context all worked against Google Glass, but so much has changed since that moment,” says Drinkwater. “We’re far more ready now for a new wave of wearable technology.”
Google’s latest iteration seems to be a more consumer-friendly attempt. The hope is that partnering with eyewear specialists like Kering Eyewear, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster will enhance the design and appeal of the glasses. There’s also the benefit of modern AI capabilities, which should provide more tangible benefits to the wearer (such as real-time assistance and translation delivered via Gemini AI integration). Drinkwater predicts innovation around voice interaction, computer vision, miniaturisation and design will heat up as competition grows.
Google’s version will need to match up to Meta, whose smart glasses partnership with Ray-Ban has been one of the first budding success stories in the space. Since launching in October 2023, over two million units have been sold, Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica’s CEO Francesco Milleri said during the company’s Q4 2024 earnings call. The product is popular partly because it doesn’t stray too far from the typical look of a pair of sunglasses. It also has functionalities such as voice command for calls, messages and taking photos, open-ear speakers that allow users to listen to music or a call without passers-by overhearing, and integration with Meta AI. Starting at $299, they’re also relatively affordable.
“Meta’s early collaboration with Ray-Ban positioned it well to introduce AI features under the guise of a lifestyle accessory,” says Charles Du Manoir, founder of London-based investment and consultancy firm Desygn Capital, an investment and advisory platform that partners with entrepreneurs building consumer brands across sectors including fashion and tech. “Anticipating competition, Meta is likely already developing next-gen devices and furthering collaborations across EssilorLuxottica’s portfolio, ensuring it remains aligned with evolving fashion trends.”
It’s not without issues. Users have reported that the battery life isn’t sufficient for full-day wear, that there are connectivity issues with the iPhone and that the camera lacks features like being able to take landscape photos or switch between front and back cameras. All of this is having an impact on long-term user engagement, experts say.
Google’s augmented reality proposition could be a game-changer. While AI improves the device’s ability to understand and respond to the wearer’s surroundings and actions, AR would overlay information. In fashion, this could be used in retail, content creation and digital communication. “Imagine smart glasses that recognise your wardrobe and suggest styling options based on what you already own,” says Drinkwater. “Or stepping into a store where every product you look at instantly reveals sustainability credentials, availability in your size, or even an AR try-on of alternate colours and silhouettes — it will be like turning every surface into a screen and every moment into an experience.”
Yang Wei, associate professor at Nottingham Trent University, who leads its Smart Wearable Research Group, predicts that Google’s smart glasses will be more high tech than Meta’s — more akin to the Apple Vision Pro. This isn’t a guaranteed win, though, as Apple’s device has primarily been adopted by tech consumers and gamers given the steep price point ($3,499), immersive experiences and spatial computing features. These functionalities make it less accessible to the average consumer. “Some people might say, ‘I don’t want the vision things, I just want simple interpretation,’ which Ray-Ban can do,” he says.
The success of Google’s smart glass also depends on the price point, which Google has yet to announce. “If Chanel sunglasses are £700, why would I spend over a thousand on smart glasses?” says Wei. “If you push the price too high, consumers won’t accept it. Consumers might not even see the benefit of having the tech. They might think, ‘Why would I pay that much when I could spend just a few hundred on an Apple Watch?’”
In Wei’s view, the most practical functionalities that consumers are likely to seek are calendar functions — such as how many meetings you have or a summary of your day — along with displays that might summarise your emails, for instance. “It’s quite simple,” he says.
Putting fashion at the centre
The winner of the smart glasses race won’t just have the best tech. The bigger questions are whether the product is easy to use, whether it can hit a sweet spot of practical functionality and whether people actually want to wear it.
As tech companies fight for dominance in the market, there are opportunities for fashion and accessories brands to position themselves as experts in style and taste. “Both Meta and Google have identified glasses as a medium to integrate and normalise AI-driven technologies into daily life. However, success hinges on more than functionality — design credibility is essential,” says Du Manoir. “By aligning with established eyewear brands, both companies are leveraging fashion’s cultural cachet to ease consumer adoption.”
Take Coperni, for instance. In March, the French label — which is known for experimenting with tech on the runway — was the first fashion brand to collaborate with the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, creating its own version that debuted at Paris Fashion Week. A selection of models wore the glasses down the catwalk, filming their POV. The glasses themselves came in exclusive shapes, offering new takes on the tech in different styles.
Warby Parker’s shares jumped 18 per cent following the announcement that it was partnering with Google. “Since our launch, we’ve set out to transform the optical industry by leveraging pioneering technology to design better products and experiences. We think there is tremendous opportunity to do just that with smart glasses and believe multimodal AI is perfectly suited for glasses, enabling real-time context and intelligence to augment a wearer’s surroundings as they move through the world,” Warby Parker co-founder and co-CEO Dave Gilboa tells Vogue Business. “The eyewear we wear and the technology we use are core parts of our identities and daily experiences. Since these products are intended for all-day wear, it’s crucial that designs fit into the everyday life and style of consumers so they look and feel great,” adds Neil Blumenthal, who is also co-founder and co-CEO.
Kering Eyewear and Gentle Monster open a pathway to the fashion-forward crowd. Kering Eyewear develops goods for 14 brands including Gucci, Saint Laurent, Cartier and Balenciaga. Sunglasses are typically considered an entry-level product for luxury brands, popular among aspirational consumers, so the collaboration could appeal to a wide base of customers. While Warby Parker would likely offer a stylish but wearable look and Kering Eyewear’s portfolio would provide the luxury appeal, the Gentle Monster products would cater to the consumer who likes unique and avant-garde designs. By partnering across this spectrum, Google is able to serve a variety of fashion-forward customers depending on their personal tastes.
On Google’s part, Du Manoir says its chosen partnerships are “tactically astute” and provide geographical and demographic reach, from Kering Eyewear’s hold on luxury to Gentle Monster and Warby Parker’s respective connections to the Asian and US markets. “These are not just fashion statements — they’re market strategies,” he says. “In the early stages, smart glasses are likely to be perceived and purchased as high-end tech products rather than fashion investments. However, as production scales and prices stabilise, consumers will begin to prioritise familiar brand values: design, quality and cultural relevance.”
Regardless of which tech giant wins the smart glasses market, fashion is likely to win alongside. “It’s very difficult to develop something on your own. If your USP is a high-tech version of smart glasses, you can move on your own, but for most you’ve got to have a wearable element to justify your viability,” says Wei. “If you’ve got a fashion brand working with you that has years of experience on designing items, knowing how customers think and what they need, that partnership is quite key to user acceptability.”
Ultimately, the true test isn’t technological, it’s cultural — and that’s something fashion brands (particularly those with a strong heritage or brand story) can provide. “Can you create something that people don’t just use, but identify with?” says Drinkwater. “The greatest challenge in the smart glasses space will be to design a product that becomes irreplaceable, not just because of what it does, but because of what it means.”
This article has been updated to add the announcement that Apple is launching AI-powered smart glasses in 2026. (23/5/25)
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