Photo: Joe Scarnici via Getty Images for Snap Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story Silicon Valley has spent the past year stealing from fashion’s playbook , leaning on brand collaborators and fashion ambassadors to make its controversial AI smart glasses look less techie and more stylish. See Meta’s latest AI glasses, which have gotten smaller and more similar to normal spectacles over time. But Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is taking a different approach: doubling down on the tech itself, and betting that Snap’s new Specs AR glasses can establish an aesthetic that gains a cultural credibility of its own.
The glasses, which have been in the works for 11 years, officially launched on Wednesday — the culmination of five previous generations of Spectacles, including two generations of AR prototypes released to developers in 2021 and 2024. Designed in-house with a much bulkier, heavier construction than ordinary glasses, Specs look like a tech product first, accessory second.
“It’s really important that the style is distinctive for us. We want Specs to stand out,” Spiegel says in an interview at Snap’s Los Angeles HQ a day before launch. “More than the look of Specs, it’s their capability that’s most important, and what will determine whether or not people end up using them in their day-to-day life.”
But will anyone wear them? Spiegel’s is a view that runs counter to the general consensus on what it will take for smart glasses to go mainstream, if they ever do — that the fundamental requirement is wearability. Unlike phones, these new gadgets sit on your face; they’re far less interchangeable than a pair of shoes, and disrupt both eye contact and your field of view. It’s why Meta partnered with EssilorLuxottica’s Ray-Ban and Oakley, and why Google has partnered with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, outsourcing the design component to established eyewear brands that lend them the fashion credibility they lack themselves. But Spiegel is confident that the tech he’s spent the last decade investing in can stand up on its own.
A much bulkier design that feels heavier to wear than those of rivals Meta and Even Realities, the new Specs — glossy, thick-rimmed aviators — are more obviously tech-enabled glasses. But they’re smaller than the tech world’s first big consumer augmented reality bet, Apple’s much-hyped but slow-selling Vision Pro headset. Spiegel says that Snap intends to reduce the weight of the glasses over time to improve their wearability, but has no intention to partner with external brands on the design.
Kaia Gerber is one of Snap’s chosen “creative visionaries” for the launch of its Specs AR glasses. Photo: Steven Meisel, courtesy of Specs.
For Spiegel, the stakes extend well beyond whether consumers like the look of Specs. Smart glasses are emerging as one of tech’s fastest-growing hardware categories: market research firm IDC expects shipments of displayless glasses (like Meta’s mass-market AI smart glasses) to reach 27.3 million units by 2030, while the more advanced display glasses category Snap is targeting is forecast to quadruple from three million units to 12.2 million. First-mover Meta currently dominates the wider market, but Snap is making a different — and arguably riskier — bet on what comes next. Rather than primarily putting an AI assistant, camera and audio into familiar eyewear, Spiegel wants Specs to become a new kind of personal computer: layering AI, work, entertainment, and shared digital experien…