CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations concerning future events and results. We generally use the words “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “likely,” “will” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including those concerning our expectations, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, those factors set forth in this Report under “Item 1A. – Risk Factors” below. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are cautioned not to unduly rely on such forward-looking statements when evaluating the information presented in this Report.
CERTAIN TERMS USED IN THIS REPORT
References in this Report to “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company” or “Innovative Eyewear” means Innovative Eyewear, Inc. unless otherwise indicated.
ii
PART I
Item 1. Business.
Our History
We develop and sell smart eyeglasses and sunglasses, which are designed to allow our customers to remain connected to their digital lives, while also offering prescription eyewear and sun protection. Founded and headquartered in Miami, Florida, we were initially organized as a Florida limited liability company effective August 15, 2019. We were founded by Lucyd Ltd., the inventor and licensor of the technology that our products are based upon which is a portfolio company of Tekcapital Europe Ltd. (“Tekcapital”). Tekcapital is a U.K. based university intellectual property accelerator. Tekcapital builds portfolio companies around new technologies. On March 26, 2020, we converted from a Florida limited liability company into a Florida corporation.
Our Product
In January 2020, we introduced our first beta product and began market testing.
In January 2021, we officially launched our first commercial product, Lucyd Lyte® (“Lucyd Lyte”). This initial product offering embodied our goal of creating smart eyewear for all day wear that looks like and is priced similarly to designer eyewear, but is also light weight and comfortable, and enables the wearer to remain connected to their digital lives. The product was initially launched with six styles, and in September 2021, an additional six styles were added.
We recently launched version 2.0 of our Lucyd Lyte eyewear, and our current product offering consists of 16 version 1.0 models and 15 version 2.0 models, which offers a similar amount of style variety as many traditional eyewear collections. All styles are each available with 70 different lens types, resulting in hundreds of variations of products currently available.
Additionally, Lucyd Lyte glasses enable the wearer to listen to music, take and make calls, and use voice assistants to perform many common smartphone tasks hands-free. Some of the many things that can be done with Lucyd Lyte glasses include:
Since the launch of Lucyd Lyte, we witnessed interest and demand from customers throughout the United States and have sold thousands of our smart glasses. Within six months of the launch of Lucyd Lyte, several optical stores in the United States and Canada have on- boarded the product and we have had discussions with several other large eyewear chains (by number of locations) regarding onboarding our product. We believe smart eyewear is a product category whose time has come, and we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on and help develop this exciting new sector–where eyewear meets electronics in a user-friendly, mass market format, priced similarly to designer eyewear.
In first quarter of 2022 we introduced a virtual try-on kiosk for select retail stores. This device introduces our products to prospective retail customers and enables them to digitally try-on our line of smart glasses in a touch free manner.
We anticipate introducing six styles of Nautica smart eyewear, six to twelve additional styles of Lucyd Lyte glasses, and our first Bluetooth safety glasses in 2023. In addition, we anticipate the following upgrades to accessory products in 2023:
In the fourth quarter of 2022, we introduced key features in the Vyrb app, including live broadcasts for up to 100 users in one digital “room”, and the ability to upload external audio content into Vyrb, enabling longstanding content creators to import their existing libraries swiftly into the platform. Also in the fourth quarter of 2022, we completed development of core audio eyewear product improvements, such as upgrading all frames to quadraphonic sound, which have been rolled out across all new eyewear models as of January 2023.
Our Mission
Our mission is to Upgrade Your Eyewear®. Our smart eyewear is a fusion of headphones with glasses, bringing vision correction and protection together with digital connectivity and clear audio, while also offering a safer solution for listening to music outdoors (as compared to in-ear headphones). The convenience of having a Bluetooth headset and comfortable glasses in one, especially for those who are already accustomed to all-day eyewear use, offers a lifestyle upgrade at a price most consumers can afford.
In a sense, we view this integration of technology and vison correction/protection as the next evolutionary step in the development of eyewear. Over the entire course of eyewear development and history, many of the innovations have dealt with improving the lenses of the glasses. Notably, eyewear frames have not improved much in the past 400 years, with the exception, in our view, of the utilization of plastic to reduce weight and provide a wider range of designs and finishes, and the introduction of new hinge types. We view the integration of Bluetooth technology into the arms of the glasses as one of the key next steps to Upgrade Your Eyewear®.
Our focus is to enhance one of the world’s most important wearables: eyewear.
Additionally, as part of our commitment to a great customer experience, we listen to feedback from our customers, and continuously strive to improve customer satisfaction and experience with our products. Our customers’ extensive feedback pointed to a need and desire for better interaction with social media while on-the-go. We are addressing this need by developing an exciting software application called Vyrb™, which enables Lucyd Lyte users to hear and reply to social media posts, with their voice, hands-free, through their glasses (“Vyrb”). Other Vyrb users will be able hear these posts. Additionally, Vyrb offers Lucyd Lyte users external social media sharing features, which allow posts made on Vyrb to be exported to other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We launched Vyrb in December 2021 for both iOS and Android, and we believe that Vyrb is one of the first social applications designed specifically with a focus on smart glasses and other voice enabled wearables. We subsequently expanded Vyrb’s capabilities through software upgrades released in the fourth quarter of 2022, and anticipate the commercial launch of Vyrb in the fourth quarter of 2023.