Fashion Icon Jack Harlow Helps Launch Snap’s Goofy $2,200 AR Glasses

Right now, onetime pop-rap hitmaker Jack Harlow is on an absolutely historic run of doing silly shit. He made a neo-soul album. He explained that neo-soul album's existence with an endlessly quotable line that he "got Blacker." In order to facetiously prove that he knows how to read, he bought books for throngs of strangers. Now, he's helping sell some augmented-reality nerd glasses that cost $2,195.

Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat and Bitmoji, has a new product called SPECS — thick-ass black glasses that promise to "bring AI assistance, work tools, entertainment, and shared experiences into the world around us," according to a press release. They're supposed to sit somewhere on the spectrum between AI glasses and headsets, so perhaps that's why they look like the kind of glasses worn by the most stereotypical nerds in cinematic history. Even if you don't know that these glasses are some tech bullshit, you might feel called by your ancestors to bully anyone who you see wearing them.

Perhaps in an effort to convince the public that you should not bully anyone you see wearing these things, Snap has enlisted a roster of celebrity "Visionaries," claiming that these people have been "working with Snap to imagine new SPECS experiences that will debut this fall." That list of names includes Harlow, as well as fellow musician Imogen Heap, basketball star Jimmy Butler, and model/actors Kaia Gerber and Hoyeon.

Snap unveiled their first smart glasses, called Spectacles, in 2016, which was the same year that they started calling themselves Snap. As someone who wears glasses, I don't think that's a good name for a company that makes those things, as it evokes an immediate and visceral feeling of glasses breaking right down the middle. I'm not a Visionary, though, so what do I know?

SPECS is the first true consumer version of those glasses, and Snap launched them yesterday during Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, though CEO Evan Spiegel has been teasing them for a few weeks. Earlier this month, he launched a Paris activation for the product with all of those Visionaries. And look at this! The SPECS can be sunglasses, too! Cool people can wear them! (Jack Harlow did come into the game as a teenage white rapper in nerd glasses, so he's presumably fine with either version.)

I don't know if I'm going to sit through Spiegel's whole 10-minute tech-show introduction of SPECS, but if you want to behold the splendor, here it is:

There's AI involved with SPECS, obviously, but Spiegel tells Endgadget that he doesn't want people to call them AI glasses. Supposedly, these things are built for a "post-smartphone future." You won't just be staring down at your screen for hours every day! You'll be staring at your screen all the time!

According to the Motley Fool, investors were not impressed, and Snap stocks fell by 9.72% after Spiegel introduced SPECS. Apparently, the big concern is that they cost too much to become staples of everyday life. Also, they look ridiculous. As we've seen from his hat choices, this is no obstacle for Jack Harlow.

SPECS are more expensive than any existing AI glasses. Meta, for instance, has Ray-Ban smart glasses that go for $350. The only headset more expensive than SPECS is the Vision Pro, which goes for $3,500. Also: Are Yondr pouches big enough for these things?