Tag Archives: eyewear

Oakley Just Turned a Math Paradox Into a $997 Sunglass

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A Möbius strip walks into a design lab. That’s not the setup for a joke. It’s basically the origin story of Oakley’s Infiniloop, the brand’s latest creation and, arguably, one of the more conceptually ambitious pieces of eyewear to come out of any label in recent memory. If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a Möbius strip, that strange one-sided loop that mathematicians love and everyone else finds mildly unsettling, and thought it might look incredible on a face, Oakley has apparently been thinking the same thing.

The Infiniloop made its debut in the second chapter of Oakley’s Future Genesis series, a short film universe the brand has been steadily building that blurs the line between science fiction storytelling and real product design. The premise is ambitious, maybe a little theatrical, but it’s hard to deny that the results are genuinely striking. The sunglass was designed around a single, almost austere obsession: to use the absolute fewest number of lines to carry a lens across the face. That’s the entire brief. The whole design philosophy fits in one sentence, and sometimes that’s exactly as much as a great object needs.

Designer: Oakley

What Oakley landed on is a dual-material frame that pairs titanium on the upper line with their proprietary O-Matter material on the lower. The two meet at just a handful of delicate intersection points, and the space between them is left wide open on purpose. The result is a pair of lenses that appear to float inside the frame, their outer edges fully exposed, giving the whole thing a quality that feels more architectural than eyewear-like. It looks less like a sunglass and more like someone’s sketch of the idea of a sunglass. That’s a compliment.

The Infiniloop comes in Polished Chrome and Matte Black, fitted with Prizm Black lenses on a grey base. For anyone unfamiliar with Oakley’s Prizm technology, the short version is: enhanced color and contrast clarity, designed for performance in bright conditions. It’s the brand’s core lens system, and pairing it with a frame this unconventional is a smart creative decision. It keeps the Infiniloop tethered to functional reality while the rest of the design floats freely somewhere between a math textbook and a concept car.

At $997, the Infiniloop isn’t an impulse buy, and it was never meant to be. It drops July 14th in limited quantities, which in Oakley’s world usually means exactly what it says. Each pair also comes packaged with a collector’s set of Future Genesis Chapter 2 comics, a detail that tells you a lot about who Oakley imagines on the other side of this transaction. The collector crowd and the design-forward crowd intersect more than most people realize, and a piece like this lives right at that crossroads. Whether it ends up worn or displayed is, genuinely, beside the point.

Oakley has always been a brand that takes more swings than most. The X-Metal era gave us shapes that looked like they’d been engineered for a different species, and that specific kind of weirdness is a large part of why the brand has such a deeply loyal following. For a while, that creative ambition felt quieter than it once did. The Infiniloop feels like a reminder that it never fully went away. It’s not trying to be safe, and it’s not trying to appeal to everyone. In a market where a staggering amount of eyewear design amounts to subtle variations on shapes that already exist, that level of commitment to an actual concept is worth noting.

The geometry of infinity made wearable, shipped with comics, priced like a grail piece. Say what you want about whether any of that is practical, but Oakley has always treated practicality as a starting point, not an ending one. The Infiniloop is the kind of object that makes you feel something when you look at it, and in design, that’s rarely an accident.

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Meta Just Launched $299 AI Glasses Without the Ray-Ban Name

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Smart glasses have been trying to go mainstream for years, but pricing has been a stubborn barrier. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses popularized the category by making them feel like normal eyewear, but their entry-level price has hovered well above what many casual buyers are willing to spend on something they might not be sure they need. The market has been compelling, just not quite accessible enough for everyone.

Meta is trying to change that with Meta Glasses, its first line of smart glasses sold under its own name rather than Ray-Ban or Oakley. Developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the new lineup starts at $299, which is at least $80 less than the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 entry price, and it arrives in three distinct frame styles designed to cover a broader range of tastes and budgets.

Designer: Meta, EssilorLuxottica

The two base models are the Adventurer and the Fury, each starting at $299. The Adventurer leans toward a slimmer, everyday silhouette, while the Fury goes bigger with a thicker, more rectangular profile, including a striking translucent racing green colorway that reveals the circuitry underneath. Both come in standard and large sizing, and together they span 26 color and lens combinations.

Meta Adventurer

A third model called the Starfire, designed in collaboration with Kylie Jenner, rounds out the lineup at $399. Its slim, oval shape sits closer to the territory of Prada or Gentle Monster than anything Meta has put out before. The most notable exclusive is the option to use Jenner’s own voice as the on-device AI assistant for everything from navigation cues to battery alerts. It’s a fashion-forward direction for smart glasses that doesn’t really have a precedent.

All three models carry the same core hardware: a 12 MP camera, open-ear audio, and a dedicated action button for invoking Meta AI or launching a preferred feature. The addition of three-way adjustable nose pads and temple tips is a practical improvement that makes them easier to wear across different face shapes. They’re also compatible with prescription lenses, which meaningfully broadens who can actually wear them all day.

On the software side, all Meta Glasses launch with Muse Spark, Meta’s newest AI model from its Meta Superintelligence Labs. Live translation now covers 20 languages, adding Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi to the existing roster. Pedestrian navigation, which debuted on Meta’s more expensive display glasses, now works on the camera-equipped models too, making the $299 pair genuinely capable of directing you through an unfamiliar city while you walk.

A Dynamic Photo feature also debuts with the launch, capturing a quick burst of frames and automatically selecting the sharpest one. It’s a small addition but a practical one, given how awkward it can be to time a single-frame capture when the glasses are on your face and you’re not looking at a screen.

The glasses are available today at Meta.com and through retailers including LensCrafters, Best Buy, Amazon, and Sunglasses Hut. Dropping Ray-Ban from the name is a quiet but meaningful move, and the lower price suggests Meta is confident enough in its own brand to see if that’s what people were actually waiting for.

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XREAL’s $299 a01 Is Lighter and Brighter Than Its $450 Sibling

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Xbox-branded gray sport sunglasses with blue mirrored lenses and curved arms, angled for a sleek athletic look

AR display glasses have spent years trying to convince a narrow audience that the experience is worth the money. The XREAL One starts at $450. The ROG XREAL R1 pushes past $800. For a category that promises a personal big screen you can carry anywhere, the entry cost has stayed high enough that most curious buyers talk themselves out of a first pair before they’ve had a reason to try one.

XREAL’s answer to that is xbx, a new sub-brand aimed at the hesitant first buyer, and its opening product, the a01, comes to the US in July at $299. The company is quick to note that the lower price didn’t come from cutting specs. The a01 holds two category records simultaneously: the lightest AR display glasses on the market at 62g, and the brightest at 1,600 nits, both beating the XREAL One it slots below.

Designer: XREAL

The 20g difference between the a01 and the XREAL One might sound minor, but it adds up over a long flight or a late-night watch session. XREAL reached that figure through a custom ultra-light nylon body, reduced lens thickness, and a redesigned hinge and temple-tip structure. Three nose pad sizes, adaptive elastic hinges, and flexible temples distribute pressure evenly across different face shapes.

Display performance is where the a01 goes further than a $299 product typically would. Dual-layer MicroOLED panels deliver 1,600 nits of perceived brightness across 1.07 billion colors with full HDR10 support, backed by a dedicated image enhancement chip that pushes every frame through real-time AI SDR-to-HDR conversion. The 50° field of view gives you the equivalent of a 147-inch screen from four meters away, which covers most rooms.

The most technically interesting addition is the spatial anti-shake algorithm, which XREAL claims is a category first. Earlier stabilization approaches reduced blur at the cost of image sharpness and washed-out colors, an acceptable trade-off in some contexts but not when you’re midway through a film. The a01’s algorithm preserves clarity and color fidelity while keeping the image steady, so a rattling subway car or a turbulent flight doesn’t turn a crisp picture into a smear.

The interchangeable front frames add a layer of personalization that most display glasses skip. The semi-transparent body uses chromatic dimming to shift between transparent and immersive viewing depending on whether you want to stay aware of your surroundings or shut them out. Swap the front frame to match an outfit or a mood, and if you’re the tinkering type, XREAL has opened the design up for 3D printing your own.

Someone catching up on a show during a forty-five-minute commute, a gamer who wants a massive screen from their handheld without dragging a TV along, or someone watching a film alone in a shared hotel room all find a more credible device here than anything currently available at this weight and brightness level. The a01 doesn’t need a dedicated ecosystem either; connect it to a phone, a tablet, or a laptop, and it works.

The a01 is already on sale in China and hits the US in July at $299, sitting $151 below the XREAL One at comparable or better specs by the numbers that matter most: weight and brightness. For a category that’s been waiting for its mass-market moment, a product that leads on both counts at a genuinely accessible price makes a fairly hard case to ignore.

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These 95g AR Glasses Replace VR Headsets with a 300-Inch Screen

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Portable entertainment has split into two unsatisfying extremes. AR glasses feel like oversized phone screens floating in front of your face, and VR headsets are immersive but too heavy, bulky, and isolating for everyday use. There is a desire for something that feels like a real cinema experience but can be used on a couch, in bed, on a plane, or in a café without suiting up or strapping a helmet to your face.

Xynavo is a pair of lightweight AR glasses built around lightweight immersion, private audio, and expandable functionality. It offers a 70-degree field of view and dual 4K micro-OLED displays, creating a virtual screen equivalent to more than 300 inches, yet weighs only 95g. The goal is to turn whatever you already own into a cinema-scale display you can wear, without the weight and noise of a full headset.

Designer: Xynavo

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $499 ($200 off). Hurry, only a few units left! Raised over $199,200.

Xynavo fits into evenings at home, where couples can use a multi-device adapter to connect two pairs and share the same screen, playing on a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck together or watching films and series side by side. Parents and children can share animated movies and family comedies, or connect a game console for interactive play, with private audio and a huge virtual screen.

Late nights or quiet weekends alone, you put on Xynavo and relax on the couch or in bed watching NBA, NFL, or UEFA Champions League games, or diving into action movies and sci-fi series. The dual 4K clarity and private audio turn it into a theater experience made just for you, without needing to dedicate a room or disturb anyone else in the house.

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On planes, high-speed trains, or in hotel rooms, you connect a laptop via USB-C or the included HDMI adapter, pair a wireless keyboard, and handle email or browsing. Then you switch seamlessly to movies or games, all while the glasses stay light enough to wear for full episodes or matches without headband fatigue. The 95 g weight makes hours-long sessions feel manageable instead of exhausting.

Most AR glasses offer a narrow field of view that feels like a big phone, while Xynavo’s 70-degree FOV and dual 4K panels fill your vision with a cinema-scale scene. The high pixel density keeps text crisp and motion smooth, avoiding screen-door effects. A +2D to -6D diopter adjustment range lets many users dial in crystal-clear focus without wearing prescription glasses underneath, making the fit more comfortable.

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Open-ear AR audio often leaks sound and struggles in noisy or very quiet spaces. Xynavo uses magnetic in-ear modules designed for noise isolation and zero sound leakage, keeping audio clear on trains and planes and private next to someone sleeping. That makes shared spaces and late-night use realistic, without headphones or disturbing people nearby.

Two built-in 3D split-screen modes, 3840×1080 and 1920×1080, let you watch a wider range of 3D content. A long press switches formats, while the dual 4K panels maintain depth and clarity across both modes. This flexibility means more 3D videos, apps, and playback sources work without workarounds or format hunting.

Xynavo connects to smartphones, handheld consoles, tablets, laptops, gaming systems, and PCs via its Type-C cable and included HDMI adapter, working as a plug-and-play external display without special apps or pairing. It is designed as an expandable Type-C vision platform, with support planned for external modules like cameras, night vision, and thermal imaging. That hints at a future where the same lightweight frame can grow with whatever you want to see next.

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $499 ($200 off). Hurry, only a few units left! Raised over $199,200.

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ND filters adjust the tint on your sunglasses with a retro futuristic look

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I’ve been wearing transition eyeglasses for several years now. It’s become handy as I don’t need to bring sunglasses or have graded ones made to replace my eyeglasses when the sun is too high. However there are also some inconveniences to it as it sometimes takes long for it to turn back to “light” once I get out of the sun. I sometimes wish there was a way to control how much light gets in or out.

Designer: Lombell

Lombell has created sunglasses that utilize what photographers have been using for some time now: neutral density (ND) filters. Professional cameras are able to adjust the opacity of their lenses through these filters. So why not apply this technology to sunglasses? The titanium-frame sunglasses use ND filters to increase or decrease the amount of light that can pass through your eyewear, giving you more control over it.

The ND filter that they used has 9-stop variables and lets users adjust accordingly through the graded markings on the lens, making your sunglasses darker or brighter. It is also able to block more than 99% of UVA and UVB light no matter what level you’ve put the filters on. If you’re also like me that always need prescription lenses, you can replace the back piece of glass with one.

The ND filter sunglasses can also be a fashion statement as you exude a retro feel with them, especially for those who actually don’t know what camera filters are. It can actually even be cool when you’re adjusting the filter, like you’re a robot or android. And it’s also pretty cheap at just $89.99 for the regular lenses or $99.99 for prescription lenses.

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Limited Edition Oakley Moonveil is a futuristic cape merged with sunglasses for extreme conditions

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Oakley is no stranger to creating innovative lifestyle products that are of the highest quality. Their groundbreaking sunglasses are vouched by the best athletes out there for a good reason. Now, the American company has unveiled a limited-edition cape that fuses with their high-end glasses.

Fit for a futuristic world, the Oakley Moonveil design is limited to just 100 pieces and carries the original concept art from Dark Horse’s Genesis comics. The artwork is done by Oakley product designers and carries a Moonveil image on the backside. There’s no word on the pricing of this exclusive piece, however, the availability is promised in September 2024, directly from Oakley’s website.

Designer: Oakley

Oakley has created a brand new headwear category in the industry with this product that foresees a better life outside the bunkers in the future after the Doomsday effect settles down. The unique headwear will be featured in the Future Genesis Chapter One, and according to Brian Takumi, Oakley’s Vice President of Brand Heritage and Creative, “We are connecting the worlds inside and outside of Future Genesis through a vision of empowerment and revolutionary innovation in design.”

In-house designers were able to blur the boundaries of innovation with this self-contained piece. Using State-of-the-art Physiomorphic Geometry, the design got the freedom in form, resulting in an enhanced wearing experience. Adaptability and flexibility are at the core of this jet-black cape with integrated sunglasses. The rotating system of the knitted cape allows the user to toggle between the dual Prizm lenses. One of them is the Prizm 24K lenses for maximum eye protection when the sun gets too harsh. The other is Prizm Low Light lenses which enhance vision with in-built light transmission for low-light conditions.

The front of the balaclava-style cape has a zipper placket for a tailormade fit that allows the wearer to quickly switch between styles. It can be adorned in an open style or zipped-up protection configuration for harsh weather or a sense of secrecy. The headwear cum eyewear will be perfect for athletes, photographers and mountaineers who venture out in extreme weather conditions. The level of flexibility and attractive styling of the cape makes it one of Oakley’s best-ever creations.

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The Pixelated Interiors of this Bucharest eyewear store feels like Minecraft in real life!

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In the bustling streets of Bucharest, Lunet Eyewear has unveiled its latest spectacle, a whimsical wonderland that blurs the lines between reality and imagination. Romanian practice Bogdan Ciocodeica Studio has once again pushed the boundaries of interior design, this time crafting an optical oasis that celebrates the essence of blurry vision.

Designer: Bogdan Ciocodeica Studio

Drawing inspiration from the very purpose that brings customers through its doors; the quest for clarity in a world of blurriness. Lunet’s newest store is a testament to the power of narrative-driven design. The concept is bold yet intuitive, as pixelated furnishings dance against translucent latex curtains, inviting customers into a realm where perception is questioned and celebrated.

Situated in the heart of Bucharest, this marks the third collaboration between Bogdan Ciocodeica Studio and Lunet, with previous ventures in the capital and Cluj-Napoca setting the stage for innovation. Unlike its predecessors, this store avoids the classic trappings of color and metallics from their previous designs, opting instead for a playful and pixelated ambiance that invites visitors to explore its depths.

At the forefront of this visual symphony are the shelves, strategically punctuated with pixel-style cutouts that mimic the blocky form of their digital counterparts. These tall wooden structures serve as both showcases and canvases, housing Lunet’s eclectic range of eyewear while simultaneously blurring the lines between art and function.

But the pixelated magic doesn’t stop there, gridded tile flooring lays the foundation for this playful palette, while cutouts in chairs, rugs, and service desks continue the theme with finesse. Each element, meticulously crafted and thoughtfully placed, converges to create an environment that is at once nostalgic and futuristic, those columns and arches created by the shadows seem like a modern interpretation of Romania’s architectural heritage.

In between the wooden pillars, the walls are painted in a burnt sienna color with translucent latex curtains draping gracefully between shelves, these ethereal veils add depth and texture to the space, enveloping patrons in a cocoon of visual intrigue as they navigate the store’s diverse offerings. They also have a touch of industrial aesthetic, a mix of brushed metal and mirror cladding, keeping in line with the original concept of the first Lunet store.

At the heart of Lunet’s pixelated playground lies a seating area, where wooden chairs with pixelated edging offer leisure amidst the chaos. Beneath them, a burnt-orange rug adorned with pixel-shaped openings provides a whimsical peek into the store’s underlying grid, inviting guests to linger and explore.

In the eye test room, brick-red walls set the stage for surrealist graphics that challenge perception and defy convention. Here, Lunet invites patrons to see beyond the ordinary, to embrace the blurred lines between art and reality as they embark on their optical journey.

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These quirky 3D printed spectacles have a unique sinewy design with no metal hinges

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Eyewear fashion, I believe, is a constantly evolving realm and a new contender has emerged, disrupting the status quo with its bold and distinctive design. Tangled Eyewear, as its name suggests, embraces the beauty found within the chaos, presenting a captivating blend of disorder and elegance that challenges conventional aesthetics. If you’re a fashion enthusiast, you’re going to love what’s coming!

Designer: Aleš Boem

When you first see Tangled Eyewear it definitely appears as a statement piece, commanding attention much like a messy situation draws our gaze. However, upon closer inspection, its intricate design reveals a harmonious fusion of chaos and sophistication. The chaos and elegance of its tangled frames serve as a poignant reminder that beauty can emerge from the most unexpected places.

The concept of an ‘organized mess’ is a familiar one to many, particularly in today’s fast-paced world. Just as we might navigate through the chaos of a cluttered room with ease, Tangled Eyewear invites us to embrace the beauty found within the tangle. Its intricate design echoes the complexity of modern life, yet within its chaos lies a hidden order waiting to be discovered.

Tangled Eyewear pushes boundaries with its embrace of disorder. Through high-end 3D printing techniques and unconventional shaping possibilities, each pair of Tangled glasses is a testament to the creative potential found within apparent disarray. The result is a dynamic design that captures the eye and sparks conversation.

What sets Tangled Eyewear apart is its commitment to both style and functionality. The ergonomically modeled frames cater to both prescription and sunglasses wearers, ensuring a comfortable fit without compromising on design. With frames and sides hand in hand, Tangled Eyewear offers a seamless blend of form and function.

One of the most impressive aspects of Tangled Eyewear is its versatility. Whether you’re attending a lavish party or a corporate event, these frames are sure to make a statement. The key lies in the choice of color, with options available to suit any occasion or outfit. From vibrant hues to understated shades, Tangled Eyewear offers a solution for every style dilemma.

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Magnifying glasses turn into classic magnifying lens when not in use

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One of the things that I have to accept as a person that’s getting older and that has bad eyesight is the fact that I can’t read books with small fonts anymore. I’m not yet at the point where magnifying glasses are actually needed but I know we’ll eventually get there. There are more convenient ways now of using magnifying lenses instead of the old school way of actually holding a lens in one hand with the reading material on the other hand. This concept for magnifying glasses is something I may eventually want or need.

Designer: Jongcheol Yang

The VAN magnifying glasses concept fixes the problem of unnecessary parts that may cause inconvenience or even dizziness to those that need to use this kind of glasses. The idea is for this to be similar to reading glasses in a sense that you only wear them when you need to use them. The magnifying part is only placed on the lower part where the magnifying lens is located. And when you’re feeling dizzy or you need to rest your eyes, you just have to look straight ahead since the lens part will not be there anymore.

The other cool thing about this concept is that if you don’t need to wear the glasses, you can just fold up the front and then the “legs”. It will then turn into the classic magnifying glass that we’re used to and then you can store it in your bag. They don’t show it in the product renders but maybe if you just rotate the lens itself away from the stem, then you can use it like a regular magnifying glass without having to wear it as actual glasses.

It’s an interesting concept for sure, particularly for people who already have a hard time reading things that have small prints. Of course it’s another thing to add to things you need to bring and to mind. But at least it solves some of the issues that come with current magnifying glasses.

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Lightweight, stylish Brillant Labs Frame AI-assisted glasses lets you engage more with the world

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The idea of putting a wearable on the eyes that takes immersive interaction up close and personal is a mantra every tech company wants to recite. After the bigger ones like Google and Apple doing their bits in VR and AR glasses, a startup, Brillant Labs has developed a pair of AI glasses called the Frame that promises to put the power of generative AI in front of a person’s eye. This, as the company says, will introduce a paradigm shift in an individual’s daily living.

The Brillant Labs Frame is designed as the first-ever glasses with an integrated multimodal AI assistant. This assistant is built in-house and can learn with the usage to carry out tasks for you. On that point, some of us would remember the Rabbit R1, but the little rabbit is a handheld and the Frame is a circular pair of spectacles that resembles – in design – the ones made extraordinary by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Jobs.

Designer: Brillant Labs

With a primary focus on AI capabilities, the Frame is backed by AR John Hanke, CEO Niantic, company behind the popular Pokémon Go. The dual combination of technology is accompanied by a small display. The 640 x 400p micro-OLED display can show graphics and text overlayed on a real-world environment. In the middle of the Frame is a camera and the battery powering it is stationed at the back.

The Frame weighs only 40g and to ensure it is a new leap in wearable technology, it comes with the always-on AI assistant called Noa. The assistant taps into generative AI models like GPT-2, Whisper AI, and Stability AI, to generate text and graphics from the images captured by the camera, in response to the user query. The multimodal generative AI assistant therefore performs real-world visual processing and real-time speech recognition and translation to permit a user to engage more with the world around.

Courtesy Noa, the Frame will bring new experiences to everyday life, in workplaces, or even in classrooms. This is as the glasses can respond to what you ask by voice or text, and also to what you are seeing through them. So, you can, in real-time have the Frame tell you the price of jeans you are looking at in the store (by checking up online) and take notes of the content you are reading from your textbook.

Brilliant Labs has left the Frame as an open-source project with files for hardware and software available through GitHub. Additionally, it comes with support for prescription lenses for an additional price of $99. The lightweight, stylish, and visually distinguishing Brillant Labs Frame itself costs $349 and is now available for pre-order. Shipping is likely to start from April 15, 2024.

 

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