Building on the success of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, Mark Zuckerberg is now in action an attempt to make AI clothing fashionable. Yesterday (June 23), Meta launched a new in-house line called Meta Glasses, starting at $299. While still produced with Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica, the new glasses ditch the Ray-Ban brand entirely. Key to that effort is a high-profile collaboration with Kylie Jenner, whose custom-designed “Meta Starfire Kylie Edition” frames bring one of social media’s most influential figures directly into the company’s wearable strategy.
At launch, the lineup includes three styles—Adventurer, Fury and Jenner’s Starfire edition—ranging from square to multi-oval silhouettes.
The specs are similar to the Ray-Ban Meta models, although the Meta promises slightly improved battery life. The glasses include built-in cameras, earpiece speakers and microphones, allowing users to capture videos of up to three minutes in 3K resolution, take calls, send texts and access live translation in more than 20 languages. Voice commands via “Hey Meta” activate the company’s AI assistant with real-time questions.
For Zuckerberg, this release is as much about image as it is about technology. Meta Glasses debuts Muse Spark, Meta’s latest multimodal AI model. Going beyond Ray-Ban and partnering with Jenner, who has over 382 million Instagram followers, also gives Meta a direct line to younger, style-conscious consumers.
“This is the first step for Meta to become more relevant in the world of fashion glasses,” said Peter Bristol, VP of Industrial Design at Meta, during a press conference.
Meta’s announcement comes a few days after Snap launched its own AI-powered glasses, SPECs, and ahead of Apple’s much-anticipated entry into the segment.
Industry observers see Meta’s pricing and positioning as a calculated move. “It was a very smart and strategic move for Meta to drop these cheap yet powerful Gen2 smart glasses within 72 hours of Snap’s announcement. They’re a tenth of the price of the specs but with faster functionality and impact, fashion and functionality,” Matt Maher, CEO of M7 Innovations, told the Observer via email.
Still, Maher cautioned that Apple remains a “real 800-pound gorilla,” citing its development of the Siri ecosystem and strong reputation for privacy as potential advantages for future wearable startups.
Meta currently leads the smart glasses market with an estimated 82 percent share, and EssilorLuxottica has reported selling more than 7 million Meta AI glasses by 2025. But the broad category is always in flux. Recent devices like the Humane AI Pin, Rabbit R1 and Apple Vision Pro have struggled to gain traction, highlighting the difficulty of turning experimental hardware into everyday essentials.
Zuckerberg’s bet is that style can succeed when pure technology falters. Whether that’s enough to turn smart glasses into a true fashion staple is still an open question.
