Opinion: Why Oakley’s new Meta-enabled smart glasses might actually be decent, unlike everything that has come before

Today, Oakley has unveiled a new set of smart glasses, the Oakley Meta Vanguard, with built-in Meta AI, and integration with both Strava and Garmin out of the box, plus an onboard camera, bone conduction headphones, and a visual package that, unlike other smart glasses, doesn’t look awful and clunky.

This is far from the first time that additional tech has been shoehorned into the best cycling glasses. Those with long memories will recall the Oakley Thump, which lasted long enough to see a second version spawn (the Thump 2), both of which had an inbuilt MP3 player (remember those?) and in-ear headphones that hinged down from the temples.

I never tested those, but I did test some smart glasses from Engo that had a built-in head-up display that paired with my bike computer, and they were quite terrible, really. Bulky, difficult to use, the sunglasses aspect wasn’t brilliant, and the user interface was baffling to the point of madness.

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Why, then, am I somewhat confident the Oakley Meta Vanguard will be any different, when smart glasses have come and gone in the athletic space countless times before? Well, there are several reasons.

They don’t look horrendous

Much as cycling glasses are about performance, for most of us they are just as much about style. The Meta Vanguard actually look decent, and for a lot of people the fact they have an ‘O’ on the temples is going to be as big of a selling point as anything else. Like it or not, Oakley is the biggest name in sports eyewear, and the fact that these have such a brand name behind them will do wonders for initial cut through compared to the slew of small start-ups aiming to ‘disrupt the industry’.

Prizm lenses

First and foremost, these are a set of sunglasses, and being available with Prizm lenses, specifically the incredible Prizm Road option, will be a boon for those who value optical performance.

Surprisingly, given how many of Oakley’s top models don’t have swappable lenses now, the Meta Vanguards do, so if they take off the initial suite of four lens options, they could well blossom into a wider selection to take in low light, fishing, golf, and the myriad other options in the Oakley range.

Sensible headphones

I ride with music on for more or less every ride, and while personally I don't like bone conduction headphones (because I am a fiend for bass) I do appreciate that they are a safer option and a lot more sensible for only intermittent use, for when one might be interacting with the built-in Meta AI.

My opinion on AI integration into everything is that I mostly hate it, but I am swimming against the tide somewhat in that I don’t have a digital assistant in my home and prefer to simply have a think for myself.

Features designed for the Stravaholics and the Instagram generation

In the same way that I find it odd that people use LinkedIn as actual social media (no, please don’t tell me about what you learned about B2B sales from your child’s 8th birthday party), I also find those who use Strava as such a little odd, too. For me, it’s simply an activity log, but for a great many, it’s a way of showing what you’ve been up to.

The integrated 12 megapixel camera, mounted above the nose bridge, may raise some concerns about unwanted filming at run club, but I’m sure the fact that one can automatically overlay your riding clips with the stats from that particular moment will be a huge draw for those of us who spend our free time watching Descent Disciples videos and wondering if we could do the same.

Likewise, while they are expensive ($499), there are enough people who have been on Instagram from the early days and are now hooked on sharing everything, with enough cash spare, to make these more viable than they would have been years ago, before total social media ubiquity.

What I think is maybe unnecessary

I’ll preface this closing section with the heavy caveat that I have never used Meta AI glasses. Maybe it’s amazing to be able to ask your glasses to take a photo, but as someone who still enjoys the thrill of 35mm film and has a healthy disdain for Mark Zuckerberg, I am perhaps not the target audience. Voice commands, nevertheless, are here to stay, and this system is no doubt safer than fishing a camera or phone out of your jersey while hammering along at 40km/h, so I’ll remain neutral on that one.

The Garmin integration is perhaps the only feature that truly baffles me. Anyone spending 500 dollars on a set of cycling glasses already has a bike computer, and in the time it takes you to ask ‘Hey meta, how am I doing?”, before waiting for it to tell you “One again, Will, your average power isn’t matching what you tell your friends it is”, you could simply… glance down at your computer screen.

There is an LED status light inside, primarily for the camera, but this can apparently be programmed to sync with certain metrics from your Garmin head unit to tell you how hard you’re working. Further details are a little hazy, but I imagine it’ll be a simple green/red rather than a full spectrum, but you never know.

Despite this, I think they’ll probably actually land better than all other smart glasses thus far, for the reasons above, and because they’re backed by EssilorLuxottica, the parent company which produces basically every pair of glasses you can think of, and Meta, a multi-billion dollar tech company.