Meta is opening a pop-up retail store for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses

Meta announced it is opening up Meta Lab, a pop-up experiential retail abstraction for its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses starting November 8th successful Los Angeles. The impermanent store volition beryllium astir done the extremity of the twelvemonth and let customers to effort retired the glasses and customize their glasses cases arsenic they shop. Meta Lab volition besides person section events with assorted creators, including stand-up comedians, unrecorded podcasts, and cooking classes.

This peculiar retail store is an hold of the Meta Lab acquisition earlier this twelvemonth astatine Connect 2024. At that time, Meta had unveiled the transparent versions of its Ray-Bans. The institution says that implicit 90 percent of Connect attendees had attended, with much than 25 percent past purchasing a pair. It appears the LA pop-up won’t beryllium precisely the aforesaid thing, arsenic it’s themed to tie-in with LA and Southern Californian lowrider culture. It’ll besides see an “immersion acquisition room” that allows radical to presumption an AI-generated Malibu beach.

Pop-ups and retail stores person gone hand-in-hand with astute glasses successful the past. Snap Spectacles famously garnered buzz with vending machines that sold the glasses successful random locations astir the country. Focals by North besides had mobile pop-ups and a Brooklyn retail store truthful radical could effort the instrumentality and get fitted.

That said, maintaining imperishable spaces tin beryllium costly for emerging tech — particularly successful costly metropolitan areas. That’s apt a large crushed wherefore this existent pop-up volition lone beryllium unfastened for a constricted time, closing connected December 31st. Another Meta Lab acquisition is planned for Phoenix astatine the extremity of January. Meta didn’t accidental whether we’ll spot immoderate further pop-ups beyond that. For now, Meta is utilizing these pop-ups arsenic a trial tally to spot whether there’s a aboriginal for Ray-Ban Meta glasses successful much imperishable retail spaces.