The two giants in their respective fields have partnered with an aim to develop innovative iconic wearable devices
Luxottica Group SpA, one of the leaders in the design, manufacture, distribution and sales of premium, luxury and sports eye-wear, and Google Inc, announced recently that they have agreed they will join forces to design, develop and distribute a new breed of eye-wear for ‘Glass’.
Through this relationship, Luxottica and Google will match up high-tech developers with fashion designers and eye-wear professionals. In particular, the two corporations will establish a team of experts devoted to working on the design, development, tooling and engineering of ‘Glass’ products that straddle the line between fashion, lifestyle and innovative technology.
Luxottica added that the two major proprietary brands of the company, Ray-Ban and Oakley, will be a part of the collaboration with Glass; however details about these new products will be disclosed at a later stage.
“We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Google, and are proud to be, once again, setting the pace in the eye-wear industry, as we have been, with more than 50 years of excellence,” said Andrea Guerra – Chief Executive Officer of Luxottica Group.
“We live in a world where technological innovation has dramatically changed the way in which we communicate and interact in everything that we do. More importantly, we have come to a point where we now have both a technology push and a consumer pull for wearable technology products and applications. Seeing such a future, over the last years, Luxottica invested heavily in building-out our technology platforms and digital solutions to combine with our products excellence. We believe that a strategic partnership with a leading player like Google is the ideal platform for developing a new way forward in our industry and answering the evolving needs of consumers on a global scale. We believe it is high time to combine the unique expertise, deep knowledge and quality of our Group with the cutting edge technology expertise of Google and give birth to a new generation of revolutionary devices,” he added.
“Luxottica has built an impressive history over the last 50 years designing, manufacturing and distributing some of the most successful and well-known brands in eye-wear today,” said Astro Teller – Vice President at Google and Head of Google X. “We are thrilled to be partnering with them as we look to push Glass and the broader industry forward into the emerging smart eye-wear market.”
The first collection generated by this partnership will combine high-end technology with avant-garde design offering the best in style, quality and performance. The company aims for these ‘forward-thinking’ devices to be the result of a new and unique strategic approach reflecting attention to detail, uncompromising quality and technology nurtured in the global market.
