This week a look at how fashion got involved in technology conference CES. Scroll down to use Glossy+ Comments, giving the Glossy+ community the opportunity to join discussions around industry topics.
Fashion industry attendees at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas from January 9-12, included EssilorLuxottica, Walmart, Perfect Corp, Virtual Brands Group and UX AI company Pre AI, the latter of which recently worked with Bally.
“This year, CES is a lagging indicator of the macro trends that have carried over from last year,” said attendee Michael J. Miraflor, vc at venture capital firm Hannah Grey. “The economic state from last year, combined with a lot of experiential, marketing and UX people being laid off, has definitely affected the experience here at CES. The conversations are a lot more practical.”
For its part, luxury and mass-market eyewear company EssilorLuxottica, which owns Ray-Ban and Oakley, as well as eyewear licensing for brands including Coach and Armani, presented smart eyewear and hearing aid technology. In the first nine months of 2023, the group’s revenue totaled €19.15 billion, or about $21 billion.
The highlight of the Group’s debut at CES was the unveiling of Nuance Audio, an eyewear prototype featuring integrated hearing technology. The Group started exploring ways to combine audio and eyewear 18 months ago, and it acquired Israeli company Nuance Hearing in late 2022 as one of its first steps in reaching the goal. The deal was estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
The glasses, which look like a standard pair of modern glasses, feature hidden microphones across the frame and others toward the temples, as well as speakers in the arms. The volume of the glasses can be adjusted for various settings and can be controlled through the glasses themselves, an app or a compact remote. Equipped with a quick charging feature, the glasses take 2.5 hours to fully charge, which can be done through a wireless charging pad. Once charged, the glasses can be used for almost a full day.
The glasses will be available in two models — one more square and one more rounded — with each offered in three sizes and two colors, black and burgundy. The company plans to make them available over the counter in the U.S. by the end of 2024. Due to regulatory differences, a European rollout won’t happen until 2025. Although EssilorLuxottica declined to share the price, D’Alena said the glasses will be priced at about a quarter of standard hearing aid prices in the U.S., which average $4,600, so about $1,150. The models will be released under the new brand Nuance Audio, with EssilorLuxottica owning the rights to the technology and being able to license it out to other brands.
Aimed at individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss, the glasses aim to overcome the stigma often associated with traditional hearing aids. “Today, there are 1.6 billion people in the world with a hearing impairment,” said Davide D’Alena, global head of marketing for Nuance Audio, quoting World Health Organization February 2023 research. “This number will go up to 2.5 billion by 2050. There is going to be this big increase because of usage and attitudes, with the new generation playing more video games, music and movies.”
He added, “Out of that 1.6 billion, there are 400 million people who have a moderate to severe to profound hearing loss, which is the main target for the traditional hearing aid industry.” As such, the real opportunity for the glasses is the remaining 1.2 billion people with mild to moderate hearing loss who are not being served today.
“There is still a strong stigma surrounding the hearing industry, as there probably was 50 years ago for eyeglasses or vision correction,” said D’Alena. “People don’t want to wear traditional hearing aids. There is a strong association that if you’re wearing traditional hearing aids, you are old or you have some deficiency.”
What’s more, he said, getting a hearing aid is typically a long and cumbersome process involving an appointment with an audiologist and fittings. With Nuance Audio’s glasses, however, someone can set up their hearing aid in one minute, he said.
EssilorLuxottica may eventually opt to equip eyewear styles by its various brands with the Nuance Audio technology, but that is “not in the plans, for now,” said D’Alena.
According to EssilorLuxottica, a few hundred people tried on the product at its CES booth.
“[The technology] is very impressive because it is invisible,” Miraflor. “It continues the trend that we’ve seen year over year at CES where brands are making a concerted effort on the engineering and design side to make their technology blend into the background or not be so obvious.”
He added, “Aesthetically, it is maybe one of the best examples on the show floor of truly useful technology being integrated into an everyday object in a way that is fashionable. … This is opening people up to the idea of spatial computing.”
In addition to the Nuance Audio frames, EssilorLuxottica showcased its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, equipped with built-in cameras, open-ear audio, AI-driven features, and capabilities for hands-free calls and livestreaming. The re-designed glasses, first introduced as Ray-Ban Stories in September 2021, were released in September 2023 and come in two styles, the Wayfair and the Headliner, in a variety of lens and color options.
“This is the first wearable that Meta has launched with Meta AI deeply integrated with the product,” said Janelle Tong, product manager at Meta. “We’ve seen incredible use cases around it, with everything from information gathering to creativity.”
In the U.S. in December, Meta launched an Early Access program for 100 customers who signed up online to beta-test uses of its multimodal AI.
“People wearing the Meta AI glasses have been able to [leverage AI] by saying, ‘Look and tell me what I’m looking at,’ or, ‘Look and tell me what this says in English,’ or, ‘Tell me what style or color this matches,’” said Tong. “Through this really easy access with multimodal, you will be able to understand how to match outfits better or better understand the world around you. Meta AI is something that we’re continuously updating over time, on a monthly release cadence — for everything from making things feel more natural to other insights like capturing audio.”
According to EssilorLuxottica, a few thousand CES attendees tried on the Meta x Ray-Ban glasses.
Finally, EssilorLuxottica also introduced its Helix division supporting doctors. It operates Vision(X), a digital platform aimed at helping the optometry industry with operations and customer interactions through digital tools, including tele-optometry and data services.
How will AI change how fashion thinks about product value?
Another big conversation among fashion companies at CES was about AI. With generative AI image and text tools moving from hype to testing stages, attendees vocalized concern about the effect on the value of fashion products over the next few years.
“The concern I have with AI that — is in a world where everybody can create everything at any time, at zero cost and almost instantaneously — how do you retain value in products?,” said Justin Hochberg, CEO of virtual products company Virtual Brands Group, which counts Forever 21 among clients. “Does that mean logos, like Gucci and LVMH use, have to become more dominant? How do you retain brand equity in a world where you know the product can be easily replicable? That’s the question mark.”
Luxury products and those leveraging craftsman may prove winners. “Sophisticated consumers will come to care about that human in the loop as much as they care about things like sustainability,” said Miraflor. “It will be a new consideration that people will incorporate into their buying decisions.”
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