Meta, Oakley unveil Oakley Meta Vanguard AI sports glasses with hands-free camera
AI-powered eyewear streams first-person footage and real-time metrics from Garmin and Strava, priced at $499 and rolling out internationally
Meta and Oakley on Monday unveiled a new line of AI-powered sports glasses at Meta Connect, introducing the Oakley Meta Vanguard. The glasses are designed to give athletes a competitive edge by integrating a hands-free camera, open-ear audio and Meta AI capabilities, with the first public demonstrations emphasizing real-time performance insights during workouts.
The Oakley Meta Vanguard resembles Oakley’s established sports glasses but hides a center-mounted camera and a suite of sensors designed for athletes. A 12-megapixel camera with a 122-degree wide-angle lens sits at the center of the lens, enabling first-person footage without the need to reach for a device. The model also features open-ear speakers placed in the arms, a five-microphone array for calls or Meta AI interactions, and a collection of hardware designed to withstand active use. Weighing just 66 grams, the glasses are marketed as lighter than many traditional eyewear options and use Oakley’s Three-Point Fit system with three replaceable nose pads for a secure, customizable fit. Four frame-and-lens color combinations are available: black frame with gold lenses, white frame with black lenses, black frame with orange/pink lenses, and white frame with sapphire blue lenses. Battery life is listed at up to nine hours of mixed-use operation or six hours of continuous audio playback.
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The name Vanguard reflects a broader push into AI-enabled athletic gear. Users can trigger video capture with a simple wake word, enabling hands-free recording of workouts, drills or performances with options for slow motion or hyperlapse footage. Weighing only about two ounces, the device has been pitched as capable of withstanding rugged, action-packed environments—from slopes to trails—as wearers push through peak moments.
Beyond recording, the glasses are integrated with Meta AI and offer real-time data access through Garmin and Strava connections. Through the Meta AI app, users with a linked Garmin device can request live updates, asking questions like a coach would, such as current heart rate or pace, with metrics displayed in real time. Strava users can overlay performance data over the captured video and photos, providing a seamless way to share quantified workouts with followers.
The Oakley Meta Vanguard is priced at £499 or $499, a premium tag that Meta acknowledged positions the glasses at the higher end of Oakley’s sports eyewear. Pre-orders are open in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Meta plans to roll the device out to Mexico, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates later this year.
Meta described the collaboration with EssilorLuxottica as a leadership move in wearable sports tech, positioning Oakley Vanguard as a natural evolution of gear that keeps up with extreme action while amplifying an athlete’s potential. The release at Meta Connect underscores a broader industry trend toward wearable tech that doubles as a social-content engine for fitness creators and athletes alike, building on a landscape where influencers regularly showcase gear such as Garmin trackers and Oura rings.
The Oakley Vanguard’s emphasis on first-person video, voice-activated data analytics and social-ready sharing aligns with Meta’s strategy to merge AI-assisted insights with tangible performance tools. As wearable technologies become more integrated with social media, creators are likely to weigh the advantages of seamless data overlays, real-time coaching prompts and hands-free capture against concerns about device weight, battery life and the price of admission for premium equipment.
In the near term, observers will watch how the Oakley Vanguard performs in real-world training and competition settings, and how its collaboration with Garmin and Strava shapes user expectations for integrated analytics in smart eyewear. If successful, the Vanguard line could become a template for future partnerships that blend rugged hardware, AI-driven coaching and social-sharing capabilities into a single, market-ready product.