Oakley revives Overthetop with extreme scarcity

Plus: Meta tests $800 display glasses for mainstream AR

Author

Zihan Lyu
August 20, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

ClickZ Eyewear

Here's what's happening this week in the world of eyewear marketing:
- Virtual try-on tools open to indie brands
- Meta preps $800 display glasses with EMG control
- Oakley revives Overthetop with extreme scarcity

💸 The $200B Miscalculation Marketers Can’t Afford

On stage at eTail Boston, Fospha’s Chief Product Officer, Dom Devlin, warned that retail’s reliance on last-click metrics is outdated, and it’s costing brands $200 billion in under-credited sales.

The missed connection is clear: shoppers often discover on TikTok, Meta, or Snap, but complete their purchase on Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Traditional attribution frameworks rarely connect those dots. As a result, channels that spark demand are stripped of credit, while budgets overweight the “closers” - whether or not they truly created the sale.

Dom called this the bottom-of-funnel trap: over-investing in channels that finish the purchase while underfunding those that generate demand. The fallout is higher acquisition costs and shrinking pipelines of future customers.

Fospha’s Halo platform was built to break that cycle. By integrating marketplace and DTC sales into one unified ROAS, it captures the full impact of discovery spend across the funnel. For brands like Nécessaire and Give Me Cosmetics, that visibility has unlocked the confidence to double down on demand generation while protecting profitability.

📥Download Fospha’s Halo Report to see how leaders are funding growth where it really starts.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

Zenni introduced AI tools that let shoppers find lookalike frames via image search and auto-scan prescriptions to remove manual input. This materially cuts discovery and checkout friction, a lever for conversion and lower acquisition costs. DTC eyewear teams should note the one-second GPU-accelerated matching as a new CX benchmark.

Perfect Corp now offers free trials and flexible pricing for its virtual makeup and eyewear try-on suite, making enterprise-grade VTO accessible to indie labels. Lower cost of entry enables rapid pilots that boost shade fit confidence and reduce returns. This shifts martech procurement dynamics and levels the field for smaller eyewear players.

GlassesUSA.com and O’Neill reintroduced the Harwood 2.0 with clear crystal fronts, biodegradable bamboo temples, and polarized lenses, sold exclusively online. The limited drop blends eco-materials with lifestyle branding to drive DTC demand. Product and merchandising teams can tap sustainability plus exclusivity to grow the lifestyle-lens segment.

🧐 What Does Brand Building Really Mean in eCommerce?

I had an engaging conversation with Alex Brownsell for the latest episode of the WARC Podcast. | Sam Carter, CEO at Fospha

We discussed where most brands get it wrong when it comes to brand building, with bad measurement and poor organizational structure amongst the biggest contributing factors - and how Fospha is aiming to solve the biggest questions around brand measurement with Glow.

Thanks Alex and team again for having me (and for offering a brief airconditioned respite from the intense heat and chaos of Cannes!)

⚡QUICK READS

Meta’s ‘Hypernova’ Display Glasses Near Launch: Bloomberg reports Meta will ship $800+ smart glasses with a right-lens display and EMG wristband in September, signaling a mainstream AR push and new UX inputs for app builders. (More)

Oakley Revives ‘Overthetop’ In Micro Drop: Oakley is reissuing its radical Overthetop frames with P_Andrade, releasing just 20 pairs worldwide, a scarcity tactic likely to drive outsized earned media and collector buzz. (More)

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the DTC eCommerce division