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- [00:04]
A
Today's episode is brought to you by Alhena. In E commerce, customers rarely walk away due to lack of interest. They walk away because something's missing. A shade match. They can't confirm size. They're unsure about an ingredient question no one answered. Small gaps that quietly break conversion. Every day, Alhena helps brands turn these moments into growth. Their AI shopping assistant gives every customer a personalized path to the right product, answers questions instantly, and removes friction at checkout. Brands like Victoria, Beckham and Tatcha are already using it to create more revenue through increased average order values and conversion rate optimization. If you want to know more, visit Alhena AI.
- [00:53]
B
Hello and welcome back to the Glossy Podcast. I'm your host, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi, and I'm here with our international reporter, Zofia Zvyglinska and and our editor in chief, Jill Manoff. Hello, guys, it's a full house.
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C
Hi.
- [01:06]
B
The full house. The fashion team is all here and we have a guest today who I will introduce in just a moment. But first, let me talk about what we're talking about. This week. We are going to be talking about wearable technology. A few weeks ago, Meta opened up a new flagship store with a 10 year lease on Fifth Avenue where they're going to be selling, among other things, the AI powered Ray Ban glasses, which have been a big hit for them. So much so that a couple months ago, Meta bought a minority stake in Esslore Luxottica, the parent company of Ray Ban, in order to continue that partnership. So that has been quite a big hit. Also this week, Apple. There's been rumors coming out about Apple's upcoming glasses, which are definitely meant to be a competitor. Warby Parker and Google are working on something similar in light of all this. The Glossy team was talking about wearables and we were talking about why some have done well, like the Meta Ray Bans. But for every Meta Ray Bans, there's Google Glass, there are a lot of flops out there. There's a graveyard of failed wearable technology pieces out there and we wanted to discuss why. And to do that, we brought on Janie Park. Janie is a fashion and beauty tech strategist who specializes in wearable tech and AI. She also writes the substack the Digital Runway, which you should check out. She's worked with big fashion companies like LVMH and Nordstrom, and I know Janie has a lot of thoughts on this subject. So, Janie, welcome to the Glossy Podcast. Thank you for being here.
- [02:26]
D
Thank you so much. I am very honored to be here and very excited to chop it up on the intersection of what I love a lot, which is fashion tech strategy and wearables and just what's going on with the industry. So thank you so much for having me. I've been a huge fan of Glossy since its inception, so I'm very excited.
- [02:45]
B
Well, thank you so much. And we're big fans of you as well. And yeah, I think the intersection of fashion and technology is super interesting. And when we were thinking about why some wearables have done well and others have flopped, we kind of came up with five sort of rules. We were trying to find commonalities between the ones that have done well and commonalities between the ones that didn't. And so I think we should just kind of go through these rules one by one and then we can each kind of give our thoughts. And Janie, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what we came up with. Tell us if you disagree with any of this, since you're more knowledgeable on this subject. But the first one, I feel like this is an obvious one and I feel like, Janie, having seen your work, I feel like you'll probably agree it's got to look good. The big thing with Google Glass, everyone said it at the time and in every retrospective they look goofy. And the Meta Ray Bans look like normal Ray Bans. And I think that's a very obvious benefit to why the Ray Ban succeeded and Google Glass didn't, among others. So I've been talking a lot through this intro, so I'll let someone else take a first crack at this rule.
- [03:47]
D
So I like doing a little show and tell. So I did bring my Ray Ban Meta AI glasses, of course.
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B
Perfect.
- [03:54]
D
Personally, there are a couple of different styles. I like the headliner, which are more of a rounded shape. I'll just do a little demo to put them on. But I think you hit a very good point when it comes to the design. I think that is one of the number one issues that previously of what what has happened for me when I look at the business model and commercially. Why Ray Ban Meta or even Oakley Meta has worked is because Meta has stayed in its tech, you know, expertise and Slr L Exotica, which is the parent company of many different eyeglass brands, including Ray Ban, Oakley, Chanel, Prada, and the list goes on of being able to do what they do best and coming together to work on something that actually is not just tech that you wear, but wearable tech and even a term that I coined a few years ago, which is the intersection which is wearable fashion tech. Because I don't think that all wearable tech is equal. I mean, I might be alone here, but I don't consider Apple watches to be fashion tech necessarily. I don't think there's anything really wow and exciting and desirable and fashionable about that. But I think that one of the big things why this was successful was really because they hired fashion people to do their job. And fashion designers instead of tech and hardware and software engineers, which, of course you need them as well.
- [05:25]
C
I think you covered it. And you can't tell that the glasses that you're wearing are anything different than a pair of Ray Bans. Chunky Ray Bans, but Ray Bans. And we didn't see, like, if you had the light on and were recording us, maybe. How obvious. Or. Yeah, let's see. But I think they look chic and normal. I'll say normal chic.
- [05:47]
D
Yeah. I mean, I think there's been a lot. I mean, I just literally read something this morning about back in the day when Google Glass came out, people made up this term glass hole. Right. So basically, these people who are wearing these glasses who look like a holes. I don't know if I can say the full word here on this podcast. You can.
- [06:07]
B
This is an adult podcast.
- [06:08]
D
Okay, just checking. We still stand on business, so I just want to make sure. But what I like about it is actually that it lights up. Let's see. Oh, actually just took a photo. So the fact that it lights up is really incredible. And I'm Korean American, I worked in asia for about 10 years. And fun fact, if you go to those countries, Korea and Japan specifically, if you use your mobile device and you take a photo, it will make an audible click. You cannot remove that. And I think that's something that's really important because people are talking about, you know, glass holes, whether or not, you know, it's a tech bro or looks maxing type of thing, or it's the fact that people are doing nefarious things, you know, with Ray Ban meta or AI glasses to take footage that they really shouldn't.
- [06:56]
E
Yeah, exactly. I think in Asia, it's specifically meant to be addressing upscale. But obviously with Ray Bans, there's been a lot of stealth recordings that I think have been coming to light, and I believe that meta is getting sued for some part of that. The fact that they don't have a light up or also that some people are blocking out the light, you know, is also A little bit of a feature. And I think in terms of other goofy devices, you know, going back to the main point, we also have things like the Humane AI pin that close down, which is confusing in its design and not particularly intuitive as a fashion device. And then also the Snap spectacles, which, again, they've been coming out with multiple issues, but none of them are quite as wearable, let's say, as the Ray Ban metas.
- [07:44]
B
Well, I think the. I'm glad you mentioned the Humane pin, because the second rule. Yes, the second rule that we came up with is that they're actually useful. That there is a reason you might want to wear it beyond it looking nice, or a reason you might wear it when you could just wear the equivalent thing that has no tech component. Like you could just wear Ray Bans, but you wear the meta Ray Bans because it has this added functionality. I think the various AI pendants or whatever. The Humane pin, to me struck me as a little bit like, what would I even need that for? The demonstrations and things that I saw seemed like I could just use my phone for that. Uh, it didn't really, you know, seem super necessary to me. Um, whereas something like a smartwatch. And Janie, really interesting point of whether an Apple watch is wearable fashion tech or not. I hadn't thought of that, but I think. I agree. But I think a smartwatch has a lot of obvious use cases, at least for me. Like, that's one of the only, like, wearable tech things that I regularly use as a smartwatch. And even then I don't wear it all the time. But that has like an obvious use case. And some of, some of them don't, I think, have a super obvious use case or a reason that you would spend a lot of money or replace some other thing that you already have with it. And some of the ones that have flopped. I think that was maybe a problem. I don't know. Janie, do you agree with that?
- [09:06]
D
Yes, I do. And I'm just thinking about this because I've tried a lot of different wearable tech and there's a lot of interesting things coming out. You mentioned a little bit earlier, Apple is coming out with four different designs when it comes to glasses. Google is supposed to launch the Google Android XR glasses that are designed in partnership with Gentle Monster as well as distributed, because that's why they're working with Warby Parker at the end of the day to really handle distribution of those glasses is happening as well. And I literally just wrote about this this Monday. Which is, again, I'm an OG K Pop fan in the house followed K pop for over 20 years. And Jenny from Blackpink was appointed the global brand ambassador not just for Ray Ban, but for Ray Ban Meta AI Glasses. And there's a whole different rabbit hole we can go into when it comes to that, but I think it's really important to make sure that the right people are in the right rooms making the right decisions to navigate the conversation, the strategy, the design, who's even being appointed. I mean, one thing that I could point out, for example, is that on the website, you know, Jenny has a curated collection of her favorite items. If she is the brand ambassador or global brand ambassador, I can't remember what her exact title was for Ray Ban or Ray Ban Meta AI Glasses. I'm very confused as to why someone in merchandising did not clock it that there was no AI Glasses in that curated collection. Like, if you are paying her wazoos of money and you're negotiating a brand partnership, and maybe it's coming or maybe it's, you know, working with her agency, I don't know. But I think that's one thing in terms of right person, right room. So I went off on a little bit of a tangent. How come the necklace? What I want to say about that, and I've gone major deep dives on this, is it boggles my mind that these companies get funded. But I think it's really because at the end of the day, you have men in the room who are funding things that we would never, ever wear. I mean, glossy. A lot of the listeners are business. We're fashion people, you know, we love wearing things that are aesthetic or represent our style. I did a TikTok a couple years ago, or sorry, not a couple years ago, last year about this and the fact that it looks like an Apple airtag on a lanyard. It looks like a high school science project. And I went to CES earlier this year, and multiples of that exact same design exists and still getting funding. So it just boggles my mind that this continues to happen. But again, right people, right room, right design, hiring the right people to do the job that they should be doing.
- [12:05]
E
And it seems like Apple is coming out with that too, right? The same kind of pendant.
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B
That's interesting because I feel like a wearable necklace is. I feel like there's a lot of design room for. There's a million different cool jewelry or necklace designs you could use. And you're right, Janie, that the one that they seem to have landed on for a lot of tech companies is a kind of ugly plastic. It looks like a badge you get for a conference or something. It's very bizarre that they don't. Yeah, there's so many more interesting esthetics to pull from. But I'm sorry, Jill, I cut you off. What were you going to say?
- [12:41]
C
No, I was going to say, I mean, consumerism. Consumerism. I just question the usefulness of a lot of this, but I'm like, I'm not a wearable tech gal girl, but I know, like, a lot of this is giving us wellness data. Like, I. For you guys. Are you taking this data and are you making meaningful improvements to your life? Like, what are we doing with it? Like, so what? And I don't know, but it just seems like a lot. And then also I just feel like obviously technology is evolving and we're moving forward, but to me, it's like the Apple Watch, the smartwatch, has kind of combined your Fitbit and your phone. And now I feel like we're going to a next step. And it's. The glasses are kind of combining your. Your watch with the tracking and the notifications, but also. And your. Your phone, the watch and the phone. So now you've got glasses and you've got your music and you've got. And so it's like, what's next? And we're just gonna keep buying into it. I mean, I don't know. This isn't itself, but it just seems like a lot of stuff.
- [13:40]
E
Yeah, Yeah, I was going to just ask that, Janie, because you mentioned obviously that your glasses come with AI, and I think that this is the big kind of differentiator. Before the Ray Ban, meta glasses were just kind of used for that photo functionality, the video functionality, and occasionally also just listening to music, which I found particularly useful. However, the AI bit is obviously the bit that's kind of advancing that area the most, Whether that's with Meta and Oakley or still with Meta and Ray Ban. Just kind of basing it on your experience. What is that AI functionality like? And is it actually useful? Functional?
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D
I am obsessed with AI. I have a love, I would say, and I have a healthy dose of fear and apprehension. And I say this as someone who is in it every day. I can't even keep up. And I write about this all on the weekly basis. It moves, I would say at. And this is something I would say is like a New York minute, is an Asian second, is a tech and AI millisecond. And the reason Why I say that phrase is I always thought that New York was incredibly fast. I love New York. I lived there for seven years. But after doing business in Asia and China, the speed at which they get things done is absolutely incomparable. So for the specifically, I would say the Arabian Meta AI classes, I have tried the live translation. It's not in all languages yet, but that is pretty incredible. Just the fact that you could travel somewhere and if you have baby level like Hola or Niha or whatever the language is, that you can actually converse with someone with your glasses. The other thing that I would say, I mean, you mentioned all, I guess, the regular use cases, but what I also really like is being able to create content off of it, like POV shots that look very different. Um, you know, going live. I mean, obviously it's a meta product, so you can only go live on Instagram. One of the most simple ones is in order to get my steps in and to have my mental sanity, given all the things that I'm juggling, I will go and take a walk outside and I will use the glasses to just brainstorm either with meta AI, with Claude, whatever AI or LLM you actually choose to use. I think that's actually a big one. Or even, you know, scanning QR codes or scanning photos. Those aren't things that you actually necessari use on the daily. I think when tech companies try to create use cases, they're not necessarily things that you would do normally.
- [16:18]
E
Yeah, I think that's really important. But the translation tool in particular sounds very, very interesting. I know that I've been using kind of the Google Image Translate on my phone, but even then it's not a little bit clunky. I have to take photos or at least like hover my phone over things. I think in particular Japanese beauty products. But I think there's other use cases. And I think with the evolution of AI as well, there's going to be more integration, especially as you mentioned, with Claude and chatgpt and others.
- [16:47]
B
Yeah. On that note, check out this segue. So, on the note of usefulness, I think that one obstacle with wearable is that if you have a laptop and a phone, there's very little you can't do with one of those two objects. And so a lot of times these are extra things to add a little more convenience, but it's not necessarily something you couldn't do without the device. But relatedly, that brings us to our third rule, which is pricing. And I think this is an interesting one because we initially wrote it as, you can't have it be too expensive. We were thinking about the Apple Vision Pro which sold for like $3,500, insanely expensive. And no one was going to buy that unless they were really, really, really dying to get it. And it didn't sell really well. It's still available. I wouldn't say it's a total flop, but it def. There were lots of reports that it did not sell as well as Apple helped. But I don't think it's just that it can be too expensive. I think that it's gotta be priced right because you don't want it to be perceived as cheap or unnecessary as well. So I feel like there's this sweet spot where you're kind of still positioning it as something desirable and premium but also not so expensive that people aren't going to be like, I'll just use my phone for that. So I don't know this one. I'm not 100% sure where what that sweet spot is, but I feel like there must be something in there. Janie, do you have any thoughts on the pricing of wearable tech?
- [18:08]
D
Yes, I think it needs to make sense to the consumer with where they are. At the Apple Vision Pro that you mentioned, it was retailing for 34 99. That thing is a brick. If you go in and you try it at the Apple Store, people ended up returning it because it hurt their necks. And a lot of the people who are buying it, I would love to see sales data, but of course they don't necessarily share that with us. But I imagine a lot of people who are building worlds or augmented reality XR experiences were buying it in order to build an app. Besides that, of course you have the people who are into tech or the content creators who are actually purchasing it in terms of usability. And if you want something to be a mass product, it needs to be priced accordingly. I do not think that it should be priced more than, I mean Apple iPhone prices have skyrocketed. Even though I use an iPhone, I've actually never used a Samsung as a Korean, however, I think that it needs to be at a price point that is reasonable that someone could find. You know, like with fashion and clothes we say oh you know this or girl method, you know, we'll use this or we'll wear this. You know how many uses. So it's $1 or like $15 per wear or something like that, which is a less than a price of your breakfast or your Matcha Latte or strawberry Matcha Latte or whatever. So I think those are really important. However, that being said, like just a specific use case in a pricing situation with Meta is that they did a limited edition, which was a clear glass limited edition frame, and then they also then worked with Copernic, which that is a whole nother rabbit hole to get into. But they work with Coparent and Copernic has been doing some very cool things with fashion tech, with 3D printing, all this kind of stuff. But what was wild to me when I looked at it was that the pricing of that was so premium compared to the regular Raven Meta AI glasses. But it didn't really feel overtly Copernic. And I don't know if it's a time issue or if it's a design issue or maybe it's because it's just so new that people in the room don't necessarily want to try anything wild and they'd rather stick to a core product or an assortment that actually makes sense to them. But again, it needs to make sense to the consumer. If we are paying for an upcharge, what do we get on the regular assortment versus a different design or a design collaboration as well? Again, like, you know, kind of pegging it based off of your iPhone or daily things that you're actually using at the end of the day.
- [20:49]
E
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And I think that the collaborations are basically the point where they're going to be expanding those price points. I think with the average maybe like a $500, $400 to $500 is probably like the sweet spot. I've kind of seen it kind of go for that much and I think that people are quite happy to pay that considering you're usually paying a grand upwards for an iPhone. Like I think for glasses that have similar functionality and tend to get more updates as time goes on, I think that's pretty interesting. But especially considering the Gentle Monster kind of collaboration as well as the rumoured and much lauded Prada one, which we know nothing about. Both of those, I expect, will be at much higher price points, just reflecting the kind of brand value that they're adding there.
- [21:36]
C
Yeah, I'm seeing that with Sophia. About that average price point and just doing a scan of what's happening in glasses and watches and all the wearables out there, it seems like there's kind of an entry level at 250, 300 mostly 300 and then goes up to maybe 800 ish, but there's various various levels and that seems to be what the tech Companies believe in that range.
- [22:01]
A
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- [23:12]
B
Our fourth rule. Speaking of Capernaum and these other kind of collaborations, the fourth rule, which is not a hard rule universally, but I think it's very helpful, is for there to be. You know, we talked a lot about the clothes looking good or like the tech looking good, but specifically having a connection to an established fashion brand. Like, I think Meta could have made glasses that looked like Ray Ban, but they didn't. They had Ray Ban make glasses that are Ray Bans. And I think that helped a lot. We talked about Google and Warby Parker, but even Apple, and I think Apple is maybe one of the companies, one of the tech companies that can get away with just making things on their own because they're kind of a brand in themselves. But even they, they had Hermes making watch bands for the Apple Watch when it first came out, which I think they still do. And I just feel like that's helpful sometimes when it's, if it's a tech company making something that's kind of meant to look like a piece from a real fashion brand, it feels a little bit like RC Cola versus Coca Cola to me. It's kind of like the store brand. It's like, oh, we've got Ray Ban at home, that kind of thing.
- [24:18]
D
What do you guys think about.
- [24:20]
C
That's the Dr. Pepper at Aldi's, Dr. Schnee. Okay, sorry, go ahead.
- [24:24]
B
Yeah, all the Dr. Pepper ripoffs were just different. Mr. Whatever. I don't even remember their Names. Jill, I'm going to throw it to you first. Do you feel like this is a necessity or, I don't know, do you feel like that's an important part of a successful wearable tech?
- [24:41]
C
I mean, I do, but then Apple has kind of proven us wrong in the past and they're kind of about you. Tell me if you guys disagree. But like setting the trend and we're all going to do whatever they put out there because it's cool and it's modern and it's sleek and they don't feel the need. But you tell me if I miss something to bring in a collaborator or a partner or a designer, it's kind of cocky to me. And one that I think that is actually showing strength or showing belief in the fact that. That we need fashion folks in the mix. Oakley has a lot of fashion folks in the mix. They have Givenchy alum Matthew Williams hired in March as their creative director. And then Travis Scott is also a part of it, hired as their chief visionary officer. I think that they're going to make some cool glasses. So, yeah, I do think it's important.
- [25:40]
B
Yeah. Janie would have. I am, yeah.
- [25:43]
D
Fashion and tech or wearable tech. It needs to have that fashion included. So it's not just wearable tech. Like fashion needs to go in the mix of it to actually really connect the dots. I think the examples that Jill gave are excellent. I think one thing that I'll say is even in the case of Apple, I'm very curious as to what they're going to come up with specifically for a couple of reasons. So, number one, Jony, I've, who's the one who's created a lot of the Apple products, has left to create his own company, wearables. Acquired by OpenAI, the company that has ChatGPT. And now, you know, they're saying that they're not going to just have one, but they're going to have four different glasses styles. And what does that look like? The other layer that I'll add in there because I'm just a nerd like this. And I love analyzing the industry and talking about it, which is they made one of the most incredible female business brain hires with Burberry's X CEO Angela Arentz. They had her do retail. She could have done so much more with that Apple watch. But what we got was what you mentioned with Hermes, right. We're getting straps. We're not getting a specific, you know, Burberry design or just something that could be a lot more fashionable with the wearable tech. So I think that there's a huge opportunity to do that. The hires that Joe mentioned, I think that's super important. Even with Ray Ban. I mean, they got Aesop Rocky now when it comes to, you know, the creative direction at Ray Ban. And I imagine there's going to be a lot more when it comes to music entertainment. Because I think at the end of the day, what drives adoption and people interested is, you know, this connection with fashion and this normalization of technology that you could see it being used in real life versus, you know, some strange, you know, sci fi dystopian movie, which is how Hollywood puts it, versus for me, when I look at Asia or K pop or Korean dramas, they actually make it to be something that actually looks desirable at the end of the day.
- [27:59]
E
Yeah, no, I agree with that. I think it's actually also kind of pointing to the rise of dupes around kind of tech. I just had a quick scan of Amazon to see if there was any smart glasses from other companies and there are. So obviously having these integrations of these fashion companies allows them to almost trademark that design and make it something a little bit more unique. I do think it's also interesting how many fashion people are now going into text. So for example, like what we talked about with Oakley, but also with Loewe CMO going to nothing, for example, that's something that is also going to be changing the environment there. And I think there's a big rise with all of These brands around 90s eyewear design and kind of nostalgic eyewear design, something techy and silver and kind of cute. And I think that Oakley is kind of really leaning into that. And I'm interested, I guess, with traditional fashion brands like Prada, like, will they be able to kind of replicate that cool factor? Like if there will be a silver meta Ray Ban Prada frame, will it eclipse some of the cooler kind of Oakley styles? Because that's the other thing with all of these collaborations. I mean, I think Gentle Monster is kind of poised to be the cool one there. But most of these will rely on that either kind of classic facet or. Or the cool factor to actually spread and become popular in the fashion circles too. Because obviously the spread of Meta and Ray Bans has only really been possible because of the fact that fashion people were wearing it, influencers were wearing it, creators were wearing it, and it kind of spread slowly and surely.
- [29:35]
B
Sophia, Another great segue, because our last rule was going to be, you got to have the right people wearing them. And this is a hard one because I'm not talking about paid partnerships, because a lot of these companies do, you know, like, Whoop had Cristiano Ronaldo as one of their first kind of like big celebrity ambassadors. And that's one thing, but it's another to be like, are people actually wearing these outside of the ad campaigns? Janie, you talked a little bit about Jenny from blackpink earlier, and I think that's a good example where she's part of the campaign. But then when it was like, on the stuff she's actually wearing, the glasses weren't there, which I think was a missed opportunity. But it's interesting cause I've been seeing so, like the Ronaldo example with woohp, that was clearly a paid thing. But now you see I'm a big soccer person. So now, like Erling Holland, you see him with the WHOOP armband all the time. And they have not promoted that at all. I think that's completely organic. I do not think he's an ambassador for them, although he could be. So. Yeah, I feel like that's a big part of it is like, are people actually wearing this? Are cool people wearing it? Is it influencing? Is it getting on the people who are influencing others with their purchase decisions? And that can be a make or break, I think, for a lot of wearable tech. What do you guys think?
- [30:48]
C
I have so much to say about this. You go first, Joe, and then I'll shut up. Speaking of whoop, Rory McElroy just won the Masters and had this major whoop moment. If you've seen, there were tons of stories about the whoop data. And I was like, why are there stories about what his whoop data said? Like, where? How do they have it? But apparently he's an investor in the company, and I don't know, they made it happen. I think regardless of cool person or not cool person, a lot of the ones that we have listed here that failed, I've never heard of them. And they need a marketing moment. They need marketing. And so we saw the success of the Oura Ring just because it had that little appearance in and just like that, the Sex and the City show. And I remember that they had great sales following that, and it started to pick up traction. So they need people. I found it fascinating that I did a little research that no smartwatch John Mayer has not. He's the watch influencer of our time, and he hasn't talked about smartwatches since 2022. He kind of like gave his sign off on the Apple Watch Ultra at the time and GQ kind of wrote about that because he said, you know, this is something I like. You know, there hasn't been mention of John Mayer in relation to a smartwatch since 2022, so he would be great. I also think what would be fantastic is for these, you know, we're all vain. I think that we need to see the, the. The reason to wear it beyond functionality. I, I'm so about this and I. My cheese stands alone. But I think that these smart glasses folks need to align with somebody beauty and talk like, I'm not looking down at my phone anymore. I don't have tech neck. Like, the fact that it's a cure for tech neck, I think that would be fantastic and I think that would be effective because again, we're all vain. What do you guys think?
- [32:40]
B
Well, I could say really quick that one of the only pieces of wearable tech that I regularly use is my Apple watch, and I don't wear it all the time. And the two occasions I wear it is for exercise because I do enjoy looking at the data and then also if I just don't want to look at my phone, but I would like to at least be somewhat aware of, like, notifications if I'm waiting for a text or something. Been trying to look at my phone less and the watch is like, you can't like really scroll, you know, Instagram or whatever on the watch, but you can see if, like somebody's calling you or something. So I find it useful for that. And I feel like that is not often. I don't know, maybe it is. I feel like I don't often see people say that as a selling point of like a smartwatch is you don't have to use your phone as much. But for me, that is a useful thing.
- [33:22]
C
Yes, it is at the smart glasses. But there was just a great story in Financial Times about the rise of these glasses that runners are wearing on marathons. And they had this graph in there about what Harry Styles wears. And they are kind of innovative glasses where they're lightweight and they protect from all these things and they have a special grip on the nose and they're interesting, but obviously they're not kind of the smart we're talking about, just innovative. I thought that was a great ad for those glasses.
- [33:54]
B
Zofia, you have any thoughts on the subject of influence?
- [33:59]
E
Yeah, I mean, I think that we are still a while away from seeing maybe traditional beauty influencers wearing some of these. I think the moment that Alix Werle Wears an aura ring. I think it kind of explodes in sales. But I'm wondering how quickly that will be able to go over to smart glasses. I think, especially with the fact that so many people are still relatively reticent about using AI within the glasses, and especially in terms of that ease of use, they don't know how to use it. They don't know how easy it is to use. I think once they begin to kind of address that selling point and kind of focus creators on maybe promoting that, then maybe creators in particular, I think would be a great avenue for it to kind of spread the message and post that. And I think just in my experience, I was at Shop Talk Luxe in January and I used the glasses to take some photos and videos of the event, just because I don't really want to be doing that with my phone. And it also just. It makes it a little bit more natural that I'm taking video the way I'm seeing it rather than kind of the way that my phone is seeing it. Like, it's a slightly different perspective. So I found it useful for events. So I could imagine something like that doing well at Coachella, for example, or the Oscars. But I'm wondering if that might be a little bit too obvious kind of a moment, and maybe it needs to be a little bit more niche and a little bit more cool. But, yeah, I do think there are some creators and influencers that I think could do very well here. And with Jenny in particular, I think it opens up a whole new sphere of influence in Asia that has had smart tech integration much earlier and also is a lot more kind of tech savvy. So I guess that barrier to entry is a little bit lower too. But I don't know what you think. Do you think it's the same kind of here?
- [35:52]
D
Sorry, I'm just absorbing everything because I have. I could literally rip off of everything that each of you said. And it was just like, so on point with where we are at with the times when it comes to fashion, the sentiment in the market. But to answer your question, Danny, as I'm thinking about it, I was like trying to think through different categories to structure what I was going to say. So, number one is the creators, like, creators are a distribution channel. People think it's just social media and marketing, but with live shopping or even affiliate links, they are a way to drive sales. And to your point of what you just said about Alix Earle, I mean, she is the it girl of this generation right now. And so for her being Able to just say, for example, if you're an emerging wearable company, I would literally be chasing her for an investment to be an advisor, just so we can get her social platform to actually share about it without paying her. But she's an investor. She'll get equity or something like that. The second thing is entertainment. So I mentioned earlier about Korean dramas and they're currently on Netflix right now. There is Boyfriend on Demand, which blackpink from Jisoo was on. She was wearing a virtual reality headset. And we know, you know, meta just shot down their whole meta horizon, like virtual reality metaverse situation. However, the thing that I mentioned earlier, where Hollywood has a lot of different movies and media subservience, Ex machina, like Fifth Element, all of these movies from different generations, that portrays technology as something bizarre and kind of black mirror ish. I guess that's more kind of our vernacular and the vocabulary that we use. Whereas Korean entertainment positions it as something cool. Right? Boyfriend on Demand, it was weaved into the whole plot. Another example is Xoxo Kitty. That's the name of the drama. Or is it XO Kitty? I can't remember.
- [37:56]
E
Xoxo Kitty.
- [37:57]
D
Okay, yeah, Xoxo Kitty. So there is a dress that actually lights up. It got very mixed reviews online. But something like that, again, is something that can actually move the needle with people when they're looking at media and normalizing it. And even something like, for example, where Amazon, if you have a show on Amazon video that it can actually drive sales, so you could actually have shoppable content as you're showing media. So I think these are the kind of things that I think about as someone who actually writes about, you know, what's next when it comes to, you know, AI, fashion, tech and wearables. And on the other side, working with clients to help them with their marketing, their strategy and their storytelling of what it actually looks like to reach people. And the last thing that I'll say is recently there was an influx of tech bros infiltrating, you know, fashion weeks. And one of the big ones was Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla sitting at Prada. For me, as a marketer and someone who stands on business, I was like, why did his team not tell him to wear glasses? Was he trying to be respectful and not too tech bro? But at the same time, that is your moment to normalize it, put it on your socials or meta socials to be like, hey, this is my perspective as, you know, one of the biggest tech companies and the CEO and What it actually looks like because he didn't get invited because he's the CEO and the founder of Meta. He got invited because Meta and sl, or Exotica have a partnership. Prada is one of the brands within Slo Exotica. There is a commercial reason as to why he is there. But again, are people really pushing, you know, and connecting the dots in a way that actually makes sense to drive adoption and can think through? You know, Korean, we call it ppl, but like, basically product placement to, you know, having someone like Zuck actually wear them at the front row to normalize this whole situation.
- [40:09]
C
Oh, you're so right.
- [40:10]
B
Yeah.
- [40:10]
C
Epic fail. And they should have an appearance in Devilverse Prada to one of these wearables, right?
- [40:16]
D
I, I, I literally went ham when the whole front row came out with Meryl Streep and some of the other characters. And I was like, they're wearing sunglasses. If I was working on partnerships or marketing with, you know, just say Meta, for example, I would have gotten a product placement. And the second thing is at least have them wear it on the front row. And I remember when I first started the Digital Runway back in early 2024, it was really because I didn't really find a business perspective or industry analysis from someone who's actually worked in traditional as well as kind of the emerging tech industry. And I was talking about back In February of 2024, after going to Fashion Week, saying, we need, you know, these glasses. And I was shooting with those glasses at that time to be at Fashion Week, having a moment, being product seated so that people can actually, you know, wear those glasses to capture. Because you go to any fashion show, you literally see a sea of people, Jill, to your point of tech neck and literally taking videos, and all you see is a sea of phones. And maybe this is a way to prevent people to use their phones. But also you could make a lot of money with Meta or another wearable company to actually get them to partner to do something like that. That's free game, by the way.
- [41:42]
C
Write it down.
- [41:43]
B
We could do a whole conversation on wearable tech in movies and tv. I mean, one immediately comes to mind is her the Spike Jonze movie, which had a big influence, I think, on the consumer imagination of both AI and wearable tech. And clearly the AI companies themselves, like OpenAI, has been very obviously, to their legal detriment, like, influenced by that movie. But yeah, there's so much more we could talk about. This has already been an amazing conversation and we're pretty much out of time, but Janie, I want to ask you if I could put you on the spot with one more question which we did not prepare you for, but hopefully it's not too crazy. Do you have any expectations, like hopes or expectations for the future of wearable tech? Anything you think we might see in the future or that you would like to see in the near future doesn't have to be meta Ray Ban, even though we spent a lot of time on that. But just in general across the category, what do you expect we might see in the next year? Any big developments?
- [42:36]
D
What I would like to see, I would say is what I mentioned earlier, that intersection of wearable tech with fashion in the middle interconnected the two. So wearable fashion tech and I think in terms of interconnectivity of the design, we had a lot of great points during this conversation to talk about it, but whether or not it's the design, the partnership, the usability, even the way that it is perceived by, you know, not just media, but creators and, you know, anywhere around the world who'd be excited to use it and desirable. The way that I see it, if I'm going to like, you know, shoot ahead for. It could be a couple of years, it could be a decade. But the interoperability of wearables, of being able to. Because right now I'm manually plugging my data from, you know, my ultra human ring to Apple health and different things like that, to have AI maximize, you know, my health data for longevity, for, you know, traditional Chinese medicine, whatever it is. But to be able to actually do that all encompass in one, I think that would be really cool. To be able to see some sort of like a personal dashboard of what that looks like. And also to be able to co create and to design, you know, wearable tech on your own. Kind of like how people are doing cyber decks, but being able to, you know, create your own wearable, whether or not it's with a company, you can do personalization like Nike ID and this kind of an experience. I think there's so many different things that could happen in the future. Again, you need the right people in the right room and the right collaboration to really spark innovation. I think that really comes from diverse.
- [44:19]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Janie, you have been such a fount of knowledge about this topic and you were a great person to have on to discuss wearable technology. Thank you so much for joining the Glossy Podcast.
- [44:30]
D
Thank you so much. It was so fun.
- [44:36]
A
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- [44:39]
B
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A
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B
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- [44:43]
A
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- [44:46]
B
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- [44:48]
A
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- [44:51]
B
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