The fashion Concept of eyewear is rapidly evolving, and eyewear has become a counter-cyclical category among Luxury Goods brands.
Zhito Finance APP reports that Kaiyuan Securities has released Research Reports stating that the fashion and Technology collision effects of AI smart glasses are accelerating in evolution, and the demand potential has been preliminarily validated. Multiple brands of AI glasses are selling well in the market, with the supply side rapidly expanding production capacity; the fashion Concept of the eyewear category is evolving faster, and glasses have become a counter-cyclical category among Luxury Goods brands. Luxury Goods groups are increasing their investment in eyewear Business to support group growth. Currently, R&D and channel empowerment are enabling the volume production of AI glasses, and smart glasses are accelerating breakthroughs.
KYG Securities' main points are as follows:
Multiple brands of AI glasses are selling well, and the supply side is rapidly expanding production capacity.
ShanDong Technology: On December 19, launched the country's first mass-produced AI shooting glasses, the ShanDong AI Pai Pai Mirror, with a retail price of 1499 yuan; the co-creation version is priced at 999 yuan, marking the beginning of the "thousand yuan AI glasses era." As of December 20 at 22:00, the co-creation version of the ShanDong Pai Pai Mirror sold out completely after 24 hours of pre-sale, with a total of 50,000 units initially planned for production before the Spring Festival. To ensure ample production capacity for the Pai Pai Mirror, the launch of the co-creation version sunglasses and transparent versions will be postponed.
Meta: The smart glasses jointly launched by Meta and Ray-Ban have become best-selling products in 60% of Ray-Ban stores in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The download volume of the MetaView app (Meta's smart glasses application) increased by over 200% year-on-year in October 2024. Meta plans to integrate the display screen into its MetaRay-Ban smart glasses by early 2025.
Supply Side: Based on maintaining collaboration with a complete machine supplier in Dongguan, a new supplier headquartered in ShanDong has been successfully introduced. The expansion of AI glasses production capacity is imminent, with mass production planned for Q1 2025. The finals of the SHENZHEN INT'L Glasses (Smart Clothing) Design Competition will kick off on December 26, followed by the Shenzhen Lightviso Expo from December 27 to 29.
Glasses have become a new "lipstick" category for luxury brands, with the collision of fashion and technology accelerating their evolution.
The fashion concept of eyewear is accelerating its evolution, pursuing an ultimate experience that merges functionality and aesthetics: high-end eyewear brands from Germany like Lotos and Denmark's Lindberg lead the elite feel and workplace style, while Oakley and Rudy Project enhance sports functionality. Collaborations such as Ray-Ban × Saint Laurent, Mugler x Gentle Monster are highly sought after, and the smart glasses jointly launched by Meta and Ray-Ban are designed to closely resemble classic sunglasses styles. Sports and smart glasses are also being given more fashion potential.
In 2024, eyewear has become a counter-cyclical category among luxury brands: European eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica reported a revenue increase of 4.9% year-on-year to 19.727 billion euros in the first nine months of 2024 fiscal year. Kering's eyewear division saw a 4% revenue increase in Q3 of 2024 fiscal year (on a comparable basis), one of the better performers among the group's divisions. According to ResearchAndMarkets, the global luxury eyewear market is expected to grow from 34.76 billion dollars in 2024 to 40.84 billion dollars by 2030, with a CAGR of 3%. AI eyewear is expected to become a new "lipstick" category for luxury brands.
Luxury groups are intensifying their efforts in the eyewear business to support group growth: taking LVMH and Kering as examples, to better control the tone of the eyewear business, they fully enjoy the revenues and profits generated by the eyewear business, bringing eyewear operations in-house, making horizontal acquisitions/investments in niche professional brands, and vertically integrating the industry chain. In the first half of 2024, Thélios (a joint venture under LVMH) achieved double-digit growth; Kering Eyewear had revenue of over 1 billion euros in 2022/2023, and in the first half of 2024, revenue reached 0.914 billion euros, with an operating profit of 0.196 billion euros.
Investment in R&D and channels empowers AI eyewear to scale up, accelerating breakthroughs in smart eyewear.
On the channel side: Doctorglasses Chain has partnered with brands like Meizu Galaxy, Thunderbird Innovation, Jiehuan, Li Weike, Rokid, and Xreal to develop AI smart glasses.
On the R&D and production side: Yidao Information has launched a full-chain solution for AI glasses, continuously empowering clients to expand diverse application scenarios, expecting large-scale production by 2025. In the first half of 2024, XR and AIoT business achieved revenue of 0.144 billion yuan, year-on-year increase of 266%. Cosonic Intelligent Technologies possesses complete integration capabilities for the AI glasses industry chain, producing consumer-grade AR glasses for Yingmu Technology.
Benefiting symbols: Doctorglasses Chain (300622.SH), Kangguang Technology (001308.SZ), Cosonic Intelligent Technologies (300793.SZ), Yidao Information (001314.SZ).
Risk warning: technological breakthroughs may not meet expectations, market competition may intensify, and downstream demand may fall short of expectations.