The $100 million investment positions Google alongside fashion-forward leaders in the wearable tech race.
Google has made significant strides in the fashionable wearables market with a $100 million investment in Gentle Monster, the South Korean eyewear brand that is celebrated for its innovative designs. This marks the company’s most fashion-forward move in the smart glasses sector to date.
Gentle Monster, founded in Seoul in 2011, has become a mainstay in trend-driven eyewear, with high-profile celebrity endorsements and significant global retail expansions. The partnership tasks the brand with co-designing Google’s upcoming AI-enabled XR glasses, set for a 2026 release, integrating Google’s Gemini AI and Android XR platform with hardware support from Samsung. This collaboration is hoping to successfully merge Google’s advanced tech capabilities with Gentle Monster’s design philosophy.
The upcoming smart glasses, slated for a 2026 release, are expected to feature integrated cameras, microphones, and speakers, offering functionalities such as hands-free messaging, navigation, and real-time language translation, all powered by Google’s Gemini AI. Gentle Monster’s role will be pivotal in ensuring the devices are not only technologically robust but also aesthetically compelling, a crucial factor in consumer adoption within the fashion-conscious market. This move places Google in direct competition with other tech giants like Meta, which has found success with its Ray-Ban smart glasses collaboration.
To broaden its appeal, Google is pursuing a multi-brand strategy, working on parallel projects with Warby Parker and Kering Eyewear. This approach allows them to target diverse fashion demographics with styles ranging from mainstream to high-fashion.
As smart glasses transition from a novelty to practical lifestyle technology, design credibility is becoming the differentiator. Google’s Gentle Monster collaboration suggests a calculated move to make AI wearables culturally aspirational. Ultimately, the widespread adoption of these smart glasses will depend not only on advanced features but on their ability to blend seamlessly into consumers’ lifestyles.
