In a fast-evolving panorama the place tech giants race to outdo one another with feature-heavy AI and AR glasses, Shenzhen-based startup Even Realities is taking a daring, minimalist stance. Based in 2023 by business veteran Will Wang, Even Realities focuses on what actually issues: consolation, simplicity, and important performance. The corporate’s debut product, Even G1, is a light-weight digital eyewear that forgoes cameras and onboard audio, as a substitute providing intuitive, heads-up info like notifications and translations—mixing effortlessly into each day life.
On the helm is Will Wang, CEO & Founding father of Even Realities, whose deep expertise spans Apple, Anker, Oppo, and JMGO. A driving power behind the event of the iPhone, Apple Watch, and revolutionary sensible projectors, Will brings a uncommon mixture of design imaginative and prescient and manufacturing experience. Now, with Even Realities, he’s mixing conventional eyewear craftsmanship with cutting-edge shopper tech to ship a brand new commonplace in digital eyewear—one that’s elegant, sensible, and prepared for real-world use.
On this interview with Benzinga, Will shares his journey, imaginative and prescient, and why he believes much less can actually be extra in the way forward for wearable expertise.
What key management classes have you ever carried from Apple to Even Realities?
Many Chinese language firms are likely to observe a competition-driven method. They determine a profitable product out there—just like the iPhone—and goal to construct a less expensive or extra highly effective model of it, setting it as their benchmark. From my expertise at Apple, the hot button is to concentrate on the basics: understanding why folks actually want the product, fairly than merely reacting to what’s already on the market.
Within the sensible eyewear business, as an illustration, many firms take a look at Meta because the market chief and attempt to replicate or enhance upon what they’re doing. Nonetheless, the true query is: is that the correct method for the shopper? As a substitute of simply specializing in competitors, it is essential to outline your individual product by going again to the basics—figuring out what actually solves the shopper’s wants and delivering an expertise that meets these wants in the very best method.
What impressed you to merge conventional eyewear with superior tech?
In relation to sensible glasses, the inspiration must be an ideal pair of conventional eyewear—one thing folks truly need to put on each day. If the glasses aren’t comfy, trendy, or sensible with out being powered on, they will not succeed. Many earlier makes an attempt, like Google Glass, failed as a result of they ignored these fundamentals—folks did not really feel comfy or pure carrying them.
Some newer merchandise, like Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, are nearer, however they nonetheless have limitations. Ray-Ban focuses on sun shades, not on a regular basis prescription put on, and options like built-in cameras increase privateness issues. For sensible glasses to actually work, they have to feel and look like common eyewear—whereas quietly including helpful tech options.
How is innovating in eyewear totally different out of your work in sensible projectors?
The core expertise behind our sensible glasses is deeply rooted in optical show programs—much like these utilized in projectors. What we’re primarily constructing is a miniaturized projector, utilizing micro projectors and waveguide shows to create a non-public, high-resolution visible expertise that solely the wearer can see. This idea attracts closely from our earlier expertise in designing sensible projectors, and far of the data round optical design, provide chain administration, and element engineering has carried over.
What units this aside, although, is the problem of miniaturization. With projectors for house use, there’s extra flexibility—dimension and weight aren’t essential. However with wearable tech, particularly one thing that sits in your face, each millimetre and each gram makes a distinction. That pushed us to refine the expertise right down to its smallest, lightest, and best type—with out sacrificing show sharpness or efficiency.
That is the place our expertise actually paid off, permitting us to develop what we consider is among the most superior and compact micro-display applied sciences out there in the present day—enabling a product that feels pure to put on whereas nonetheless delivering a strong visible expertise.
How does your design method at Even Realities differ from Apple or Oppo?
Whereas Google was among the many first to introduce the idea with Google Glass, they did not totally respect the basics of the normal eyewear business. They reimagined glasses by a tech-first lens however missed key parts like design, match, and the significance of prescription integration.
Eyewear has centuries of historical past, and skilled designers know which shapes go well with totally different face varieties. That data can’t be ignored if you’d like folks to truly put on your product. For many customers, glasses are in the beginning a prescription software—so for those who’re including a show, it should coexist seamlessly with prescription lenses. That is an space the place earlier makes an attempt fell quick, and it is one thing we have labored onerous to get proper.
Which consumer segments are you concentrating on first, and why?
Proper now we even have two consumer teams. One continues to be the tech fanatics. Clearly, they like new tech and so they see new tech merchandise popping out with the state-of-the-art expertise. They’re the primary ones to get it and to strive it out.
However the second, truly larger viewers for us which can be buying our product, they’re truly high working professionals. They may very well be firm executives. They may very well be medical doctors. They may very well be legal professionals. They may very well be professors, faculty professors. They’re truly increasingly more folks like them utilizing our product. As a result of on the finish of the day, that is truly not a gadget for enjoyable. It’s truly a working software.
There’s one characteristic that received added a pair months in the past primarily based on requests from the folks. With our glasses, you truly can flip the transcription down and you then truly can see the subtitle.
How are you leveraging your provide chain and design expertise to scale?
A profitable {hardware} enterprise relies upon closely on provide chain administration—one thing usually missed. My background is in mechanical engineering and operations analysis, and I began my profession managing provide chains at Apple. One key lesson is selecting the best distributors on the proper stage of development—there is not any one-size-fits-all answer.
Strategic, long-term relationships with key distributors are essential, particularly for innovation. Once we developed our first product, we confronted main challenges with gentle pass-through in lenses. Most have been under 80%, whereas top-quality lenses like Zeiss or Essilor exceed 98%. We aimed to match that degree, regardless of including a number of practical layers. By rigorously choosing supplies, coatings, and optical designs, we solved the difficulty—layer by layer.
When did you launch the product, and what is the present market worth, growth plan, and break-even outlook?
The corporate was based in September 2023, and we launched our product in August final yr. Due to a robust workforce of business veterans from Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, we went from idea to market rapidly. Since launch, demand has exceeded expectations—pushed partially by influential customers who’ve grow to be unofficial ambassadors.
Gross sales have been sturdy throughout Europe and North America, with current growth into Asia, together with Hong Kong and Singapore. Most gross sales come straight from our web site, whereas offline retail is targeted on top-tier optician outlets—about 300 throughout Europe.
We’re dedicated to staying forward in innovation, with a robust product roadmap. A brand new model is coming later this yr, adopted by a third-generation launch subsequent yr. Our objective is to bridge the hole between the digital and actual world, addressing the imbalance many really feel with present tech.
And we predict making a pair of sensible eyewear, that’s the right technique to regain the steadiness for bodily and digital. That can assist you maintain your eyes nonetheless on the true world whereas nonetheless with the ability to take in the knowledge digitally. In order that comes giving them even realities. To search out the steadiness level for bodily and digital realities and make each realities even.
