
On Tuesday, North—the brand behind the recently unveiled Focals smart glasses—celebrated the official grand opening of its first U.S. retail location on Court Street in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood. The North Showroom opened its doors at 11 a.m. and began offering customers the first-ever retail experience entirely dedicated to the smart glasses market.
At the store, visitors can experience what its like to wear Focals, a custom-built smart glasses product that embeds a holographic display onto the lens in a way that only makes the information (or the appearance of technology) only visible to the wearer.
Beyond trying on the glasses for the effect, customers were also able to begin the fitting process for ordering their own pair of Focals. As the company detailed in a pre-briefing last month, the experience is highly customized to ensure that the wearer—who will be dropping close to $1,000 on a pair of these—has the best fit possible. The fitting process, which is available by appointment only, involves a 16 camera setup that works to create a 3D model of the user’s face. This ultimately helps North get the exact measurements they need, but it also allows the customer to get a unique perspective as to how the glasses will look on their face.