Google's partnership with the glasses giant Luxottica is much more than just a fashion play: It's a plan to get Google Glass into every mall in America, and in doing so gain cultural acceptance.
The Italian glasses empire not only owns Ray-Ban and Oakley, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, but pretty much every single eyewear brand found in your local Sunglass Hut or LensCrafters, which, by the way, Luxottica also owns. Coach, Chanel, Oliver Peoples, Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren: All of them are designed, created, and manufactured by Luxottica. The entire glasses industry, besides a few emergent players like Warby Parker, is controlled by one company that also owns essentially allof the glasses stores and the world's largest vision care plan, EyeMed. By partnering with the most dominant player in the market, Google Glass can get its headsets into a huge, very effective, and very lucrative supply chain.