Snapchat Spectacles just launched, but how does this social media gadget help stylists and salons?
Lauren Quick・Contributor
November 30, 2016
Instagram @theverge
2 min to read
Snapchat has launched its new Spectacles, which are sunglasses that record video from your perspective and send it to your Snapchat account. The videos are recorded in a 115-degree wide-angle lens, which approximates a person's natural field of vision.
As intriguing as all this is, we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't look into how this new gadget could benefit beauty professionals. Katelyn Capko, a hairstylist turned beauty-industry consultant, spends much of her time helping her beauty-industry clientele understand the importance of social media and navigate the ever-changing landscape.
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"Get in line, folks, as this will be the way to market to the wildly criticized young people we have all been analyzing as of late," Capko says. "Google Glass was just catalyst to the market, and now Snapchat has run with it. I encourage you to resolve yourself to wearing these very funny-looking yet super cool glasses and capture that content."
For salons, stylists, nail techs and makeup artists, Spectacles make capturing content nearly hands-free. Step-by-step tutorials just became that much easier. Pressing the record button once gives you a 10-second video, but you can extend it to 20- or 30-second videos with additional clicks.
And, as Capko mentioned, Snapchat is direct path to marketing to younger clientele. This is Snapchat's first step in monetizing its product, and there is certainly more to come.
See Spectacles in action
YouTube user Raymond Wong gives a good rundown of the Specs and what the experience of using them is like:
For more of a creative take on the Specs, you can see LA artist ThankYouX finishing a mural with his glasses on:
For $130, you get the Spectacles, a Snapchat-yellow case that charges the glasses, a USB charging cable and a ghost-shaped cleaning cloth. Spectacles come in three color options.
The shades are available for purchase at Snapbots, cute yellow vending machines that are popping up across the U.S. The location of the bots is availble 24 hours before they "land" there, and they stay there for a limited period of time. A New York City location is open until New Year's Eve.
So what do you think? Love? Hate? Couldn't care less? We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments—especially if you've gotten your hands on a pair!
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