WATERLOO, Ontario, Sept. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North, makers of Focals smart glasses, today announced the online availability of Focals via the new Focals Showroom app. This release brings Focals smart glasses to customers across the U.S. and Canada at scale for the first time, letting them experience the future of eyewear, no matter where they live.
North announced Focals smart glasses in October 2018, launching the start of the evolution of traditional eyewear with stylish glasses that project an invisible display only the wearer can see, connecting them to their digital world. The launch included the opening of two North Flagship Retail Showrooms in Brooklyn and Toronto, followed by two mobile Pop-Up Showrooms that have been touring major cities since February 2019, introducing customers to Focals with hands-on demo experiences. The product has continued to evolve since launch with new enhanced software functionality consistently updating the product experiences.
The most recent product evolution now enables consumers to go through the North sizing process online without having to visit a retail Showroom.
Focals are custom-made for each wearer—customers previously needed to schedule an in-person appointment to go through North’s fitting process. Starting today, customers can now use the Focals Showroom app to go through North’s sizing experience using their (or a friend’s) iPhone X or greater.
North will use these measurements to make prescription or non-prescription Focals for each customer, shipping them directly to the purchaser several weeks later along with instructions for final adjustments. Customers can also virtually try on Focals in a variety of colors in the Focals Showroom app.
“Our Flagship and Pop-up Showrooms have been a great opportunity to engage directly with and learn from our earliest customers, but we recognize our limited footprint represents a major barrier to customers outside of those locations,” said Stephen Lake, CEO and co-founder of North. “Today’s announcement unlocks online access for Focals. With this release, we’ll bring everyday smart glasses to customers across the U.S. and Canada.”
Alongside the roll-out of the Focals Showroom app, North will continue to operate both of its Flagship Showroom locations in Brooklyn and Toronto as well as its Pop-Up Showrooms. These locations will continue to serve as opportunities for customers to demo or purchase Focals in-person.
North partnered with San Francisco-based startup Standard Cyborg on the depth scanning for facial measurements and virtual try-on used in the Focals Showroom app. For more information about Standard Cyborg, please visit: www.standardcyborg.com.
North is focused on making products people love. The company does not sell or share customer data. Any customer information or facial data collected by North as part of the sizing process is encrypted when stored. Access to this data is limited and will be deleted within 30 days if a purchase is not made. Customers may request deletion of this information at any time.
About Focals
Focals are a pair of custom-built smart glasses with a transparent, holographic display that only the wearer can see. This display floats an arm’s length in front of you and connects you to the people you care about, the information you need and the places you want to go. Focals let you see and respond to texts, get turn-by-turn directions, check the weather, request an Uber, talk to Amazon Alexa and more — seamlessly and immediately. The glanceable and minimalist interface gives you control over what’s happening in your digital world without pulling you away from what’s in front of you. Starting at $599 USD, Focals come in three colors (Black, Tortoise, and Grey Fade) and offer either prescription or non-prescription lenses. Each shipment includes Loop, Charging Case and Sun Clips.
About North
North builds products that change the way see and engage with our world. North’s latest product, Focals was announced in October 2018 and is now sold in Flagship Showrooms in Brooklyn and Toronto, in Pop-up Showrooms around the country and via the new Focals Showroom App. Founded in 2012 by three graduates of the University of Waterloo's mechatronics engineering program, Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey, Aaron Grant, North has grown to a world-leading team of engineers, researchers, designers and creators. North has raised over $170M USD to date from investors including the Amazon Alexa Fund, Intel Capital and more.
About Standard Cyborg
Standard Cyborg is building the platform that will make computer vision accessible to all. The proliferation of depth sensors at the edge (iPhone, Kinect, Pixel, and more) is changing the way our devices see the world. To date, the data has been difficult to gather and make sense of. Standard Cyborg is building the vision and learning tools to help teams of all sizes, like North, see and understand the world around them. These tools include edge SDKs, cloud collaboration and organization tools, and deployable vision models that make analysis possible anywhere. Standard Cyborg is a team of engineers and designers solving the hardest problems in computer vision and geometry. We are supported and backed by YCombinator and leading investors in Silicon Valley. We are located in downtown San Francisco.
Media Contact
Janie Elderdice
press@bynorth.com