Theme
Ray-Ban has produced a Ferrari-themed version of its Meta Wayfarer Sunglasses
These AI-enabled Smart Glasses retailed for $500
Resellers are flipping them for more than double that
Did you know Ray-Ban is making glasses with AI in them? It turns out the Google Glass dream is alive and well as part of partnership between Meta and Ray-Ban. Recently they produced a special Ferrari-themed variant of their Wayfarer frames. These were super limited and very popular. After selling out, shipping issues held up many peoples’ orders, but in the end resellers were able secure tons of profit.
We all remember the Google Glass. A big-ass camera mounting on a thick frame, recording everyone around you without their consent, and operated by obnoxious voice commands.
“Glassholes” were a hated minority through the early 2010s, despite the tech not really catching on. Mashable even published a guide on how to use them responsibly.
As always, things got worse and not better. Between the Vision Pro and Wifi connected surveillance in the home, car, workplace, street, bedroom and toilet, it’s easier than ever to have your private moments recorded by someone else.
Virtual assistants are another piece of tech that’s been getting headlines lately. Ray-Ban has combined forces with Meta to produce an AI-integrated pair of shades.
The collection was known as “Ray-Ban Stories” until it was rebranded to the significantly more boring Ray-Ban Meta collection. Unless you look closely, these can pass for a standard pair of Ray-Bans. They’re a little blockier, and there are two cameras mounted on the outside of the frame, but credit where credit is due: these are not the ugliest sunglasses ever made.
What we’re looking at is the Meta Wayfarer, one of three designs in Ray-Ban’s smart glasses portfolio. They can be used to take pictures and record video, listen to music or phone calls, and integrate with a Meta account to post stuff online or ask WebMD about that weird thing on your foot.
And for the dork that needs a bit more branding before they pull the trigger, Ray-Ban has collaborated with Ferrari to produce an exclusive run of Meta Wayfarers with Scuderia badging.
Feature-wise, these are the same as the standard Wayfarers. They did get a sizable prize bump from $380 to $500. No alternate colors are available.
Ray-Ban produced these for the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. The glasses first went up for sale through Ray-Ban’s site in April, limited to just 1,000 pairs.
Despite what you might think, these were not a hard cop. The Scuderia Meta Wayfarers sat in stock for several days following their release. If you wanted a pair and had a few hundred in your pocket, all you had to do was buy one.
Some buyers reported issues with shipping. It’s not entirely clear what the issue was, but it seems like the packages may have been mislabeled. DHL ended up marking some of them as “dangerous goods”, potentially due to the lithium batteries used in the glasses.
That resulted in delays, and the packages being stuck in transit. The upshot here is that customers who complained to Ray-Ban could potentially get a refund, and after the shipping issue was resolved they would still receive the package.
A $500 pair of sunglasses for nothing? That’s a pretty good deal, especially when you see what they resell for.
How much do you think these are worth? Only 1,000 pairs, sure, but they sold very slowly. Smart glasses are still a pretty niche product, even if they’ve got a Ferrari badge slapped on them.
Well, right now the Ray-Ban Wayfarer Scuderia glasses are reselling for more than $1,000. There haven’t been a ton of sales, but the ones that are selling are creeping towards $2,000 as of this writing.
That’s pretty good. If your package got caught up with shipping issues and got a refund, you would be walking away with nothing but profit. We’d consider a free $1,000 worth clicking a few buttons and maybe doing a little Karen-ing.
If you want to learn more about reselling opportunities like this, subscribe to our newsletter. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen sunglasses resell; last April we covered an exclusive collaboration between Jacques Marie Mage and Jeremy Strong that netted resellers thousands.
Expect to see these blow up on TikTok
Start calling your local Cinemark
