Google Announces Fashion-Forward Partnerships for AR Glasses

At Google’s annual developer conference, dubbed “Google I/O,” the company introduced a partnership with fashion brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. The goal of the partnership is to work together in designing and developing consumer-oriented smart glasses which utilize augmented reality (“XR,” as dubbed by Google). Google has been a pioneer in the augmented reality industry, having introduced the first wearable smart glasses back in 2012 with the Google Glass.

Google’s glasses will utilize their new Android “XR” platform, designed to work on a wide variety of augmenting devices, ranging from fully immersive virtual reality headsets to smart glasses. This partnership is not a unique development in the wearable technology space; in 2021 Meta and Ray-Ban teamed up to launch their “Ray-Ban Stories” smart glasses, followed by the popular “Meta Smart Glasses.”

Google acknowledged the importance of design and style to consumers being at the forefront of their reasoning to partner with such fashionable brands, noting: “we know that glasses can only truly be helpful if you want to wear them all day.” Partnerships with other companies such as Kering Eyewear and Samsung were also teased, but further details remain under wraps for now.