Report: Snap Has Hundreds Of Thousands Of Spectacles Stashed In Warehouses

Image courtesy of Snap Spectacles

A few weeks ago, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel bragged that the company had sold 150,000 pairs of its “spectacles,” sunglasses that are able to take 10-second video clips and post them online. Spiegel claimed to be satisfied with the first iteration’s sales of around 150,000 pairs. What he didn’t mention was that there are reportedly a lot more unsold Snap specs.

That news comes from The Information, which credits “two people close to the company” with the information that there are hundreds of thousands more pairs of the $130 sunglasses hanging out in warehouses, either fully assembled or ready to be. The unassembled glasses could maybe be partially re-used in a future product.

Spiegel compared the 150,000 sales figure with the first version of the iPod, which had relatively slow sales, but was an early version of a product that sold hundreds of thousands of units. He claimed that the sales goal was 100,000 units, so what’s with the extras that are purportedly stashed in warehouses?

Snap has stated plans to sell more products in the future, with hardware becoming a major part of its business in the next decade or so. Yet the company has laid off people working in the hardware division, and The Information reports that the company has been gently encouraging other engineers in the hardware department to start looking for other work.

Consumerist has asked Snap to comment on this report, and will update this post if we hear back.

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