Advancing Access to AI Wearables: Meta x Ray-Ban’s LA Pop-Up Store
Published 22 November 2024
Keying into the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) wearables market – due to grow by 1,050% by 2033 (FactMR, 2023) – Meta has launched an experiential pop-up store in Los Angeles, centred on its new AI smart glasses created in partnership with iconic Italian brand Ray-Ban. The pop-up hosts an AI-enhanced ‘immersion room’ and a customisation shop themed according to local subcultures.
Following the success of Meta’s previous virtual-reality-centric pop-up, the Meta x Ray-Ban venture will run from November 8 to December 31 on Los Angeles’s Melrose Avenue, with a subsequent event set for January in Phoenix (location currently undisclosed). Visitors can trial the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses in an ‘immersion room’ – a Day-Glo-esque representation of Malibu Beach. The room features 17ft fibreglass palm trees alongside AI-generated visuals of a low-poly geometric landscape reminiscent of retro computer graphics. Visitors can capture the space by taking photos and videos with their Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
The Custom Shop space allows visitors to personalise the products in a way that’s thematically aligned with local subcultures. Throughout November, customers can engrave their glasses and cases with a tattooesque font – emblematic of Los Angeles’s Mexican-American lowrider subculture – alongside displays of related work by artists including lowrider car model maker Armando Flores, photographer Estevan Oriol and filmmaker Danny Hidalgo. From December, the Custom Shop will reflect the city’s DIY, thrifting and upcycling culture, featuring dressmaker Joe Ando, stylist and model Wisdom Kaye and chef influencer Frankie Gaw (known for his creative remaking of classic American meals). For more on localised subculture initiatives, see Hyperlocalism in Civic Commerce: Socialising the Retail Revolution.
The pop-up will also host events with prominent figures from Meta’s influencer ecosystem, including a live podcast recording by British influencer Madeline Argy (3.1 million followers) and a cooking masterclass with Chinese-American chef Cassie Yeung (631,000 followers).