It’s a major milestone kind of week for the team at North. The company, which only recently announced its Focals augmented reality smart glasses and physical retail locations, celebrated the first shipments of the custom-made product to its showrooms in Toronto and Brooklyn.
Back in October, we detailed the way in which North planned to flip the script on shopping for smart glasses by taking an approach that was very customer-centric. The result of their efforts is a shopping experience almost entirely tailored to the client’s wants and needs and a product that looks nothing like some of the bulky or ultra-high-tech smart glasses we’ve seen over the years. Shortly thereafter, North opened its first U.S. showroom in Brooklyn and began accepting preorders for their product.
The process of preordering Focals means having to go into one of their showrooms (currently only the Brooklyn one here in the U.S., and a Toronto location), getting custom fitted for the glasses, and waiting for them to ship to the store. The entire experience—which is not unlike shopping for real, plain-old spectacles—puts the customer at the center of everything and allows them to pick and choose from a menu of different options until they land on a design, look, and feel that’s all their own.
According to North, once they received those preorders, the work got started in their Ontario-based manufacturing facility on creating the custom-ordered glasses. And now, here at the tail end of January, those orders are being filled.
And, on the heels of these first-customer shipments, North announced that it plans to roll out mobile pop-up locations in major cities throughout North America starting in April.
“Last year we approached the smart glasses category with an entirely new concept: smart glasses that look awesome. It’s been incredible to see how this approach has resonated with our customers, and I’ve personally loved watching everyone share their experiences at our Showrooms,” said Stephen Lake, CEO and co-founder of North. “Today is a big day for us as we put the first Focals in the hands of customers. I can’t wait to bring that experience to even more people through our new Mobile Pop-Ups.”
North said that specific details on the scheduling and exact locations of those pop ups will be announced “shortly.”