Smart glasses have struggled to earn cultural legitimacy. With its new store in Denver’s industrial RiNo district, Oakley is betting that performance, rather than lifestyle, will become the unlock for widespread adoption.
When Essilor-Luxottica-owned Oakley opened its new flagship store in Denver this month, it marked a bigger step than just a retail expansion. The space, modeled after its brutalist Foothill Ranch headquarters, is being used as a live testing ground for Meta’s latest smart glasses hardware. Athletes, running clubs and local brand ambassadors have been invited to trial in-store the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses released in July, by capturing footage during workouts and evaluating comfort, fit and grip under real conditions.
“We’ve had athletes come in to test the product, film with it and give us real-time feedback,” Luigi Ocone, svp and gm of Oliver Peoples, Ray-Ban and Oakley, told Glossy. “We’re using the store as a lab.”
While official sales figures are still pending, Luigi confirmed that the September 4 smart glasses launch at the store was “very successful” and exceeded internal expectations. “People were very curious, and they wanted to come and see the glasses for themselves in-store,” said Ocone. “The response has been very strong, and people went to check it out.”
Oakley activated local engagement from day one, launching a weekly Denver Run Club and hosting real-time product testing with local skateboarding groups — both part of an ongoing feedback loop where athlete insights are fed directly back to Meta. “We’ve also seen organic [engagegment], with people playing tennis, doing paragliding, doing golf, biking, filming their POV and sharing through Meta’s platform,” said Ocone.
Oakley’s retail experiment arrives as Meta repositions itself in the smart eyewear market. After a tepid response to the first-generation Ray-Ban Stories in 2021, the company has taken steps to clarify brand alignment across its product tiers. Ray-Ban now leads lifestyle positioning, Prada is reportedly being developed for fashion-focused consumers, and Oakley is emerging as the performance-driven offering.
“Performance has always been integral to the Oakley identity,” said Ocone. “Our consumer is very tech-savvy. They’re used to performance being part of the design. For them, a smart glasses experience doesn’t feel alien — it feels like the next evolution.”
That evolution is being supported by one of Meta’s most significant hardware investments to date. Earlier this year, Meta invested €3 billion (approximately $3.2 billion) in EssilorLuxottica, its long-time smart glasses partner and the parent company of Oakley. The deal gave Meta a 3% equity stake and a strengthened position as it builds toward a multi-generational roadmap of wearable devices.
Momentum is growing. According to EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri during the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call, Meta’s smart glasses sales have more than tripled year-over-year. Over 2 million units have sold since 2023, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noting in his 2025 Q1 update that monthly active users have quadrupled.
The Oakley Meta HSTN glasses are aimed squarely at Oakley’s core consumer. They feature an eight-hour battery life, 3K video recording from a centered 12-megapixel lens, fast-charging capabilities and IPX4 water resistance. Open-ear audio and a companion Meta AI app enable hands-free communication and on-the-go assistance. Oakley’s proprietary PRIZM lens technology, designed to enhance contrast and filter visual noise, reinforces the brand’s utility-first identity.
“You can’t deliver on performance if you don’t start with function,” said Ocone. “Oakley has never compromised on fit or grip.”
That reputation already holds weight in elite sport. According to The Guardian, more than 800 athletes wore Oakley eyewear during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. At a recent Fanatics-hosted launch event for the Meta HSTN, global athletes including footballer Kylian Mbappé were filmed using the product during live training sessions, putting the glasses through real-world paces and connecting the technology to elite performance narratives.
Inside the RiNo flagship, the brand has leaned into experience-driven retail. The PRIZM wall simulates changing environmental conditions like snowy landscapes or strong sunlight, allowing shoppers to see how the lenses adjust to contrast and color. Smart kiosks guide users through frame and lens configurations while in-store staff facilitate hands-on trials. “It’s where the product becomes real for people,” said Ocone. “It’s not about explaining the tech. It’s about letting them feel it.”
Oakley’s positioning as a functional entry point stands in contrast to upcoming market entrants. Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster and Warby Parker are working with Google on its Gemini smart glasses, expected in 2026, while Apple is preparing a pair of consumer glasses set for release in 2027. Prada is also working with Meta on a fashion-forward version of the technology, although release dates have not yet been confirmed.
Meta is planning to unveil two more wearable devices at its Connect conference on September 17. One of those is Hypernova, its first consumer smart glasses with a built-in display, developed in partnership with Oakley parent EssilorLuxottica. The device, priced at around $800, will include a right-lens display and a new wristband built by CTRL Labs that reads neural signals through the user’s hand movements. Hypernova is expected to offer more advanced AR functionality and sets the stage for Meta’s long-term ambition in the wearable computing category.
This could affect the product range for branded glasses, like the ones from Oakley. The brand is no stranger to technology-first innovation — it holds 600 of its own eyewear patents. It recently announced it will be providing visors for the Axiom space mission.
For Oakley, the next stage isn’t about pivoting into tech but rather evolving what its customer already expects from performance gear. “The difference is that Oakley users already see their eyewear as gear,” said Ocone. “We’re not asking them to wear something new. We’re improving something they already trust.”
That framing may prove essential as wearables enter a new chapter. Luca Solca, senior analyst at Bernstein, said smart glasses “have definitely ceased to be an oddity and are becoming mainstream.” He predicted that traditional eyewear will be “superseded by more functional smart products, in a similar vein to what smartphones have done to traditional phones.”
