The 2026 New Year’s glasses may have bested all others in terms of the worst, most baffling design possible, and drawing the most hate. The most popular design by whoever makes these glasses this time around incorporated an extra zero while propping the “26” on top for reasons unknowable by mortal minds.
This is what happens when you try to innovate for innovation’s sake.
Happy New Year 20260?
As we entered the final month of the year, makers of cheap novelty glasses introduced their New Year’s eyewear for 2026. Designing these isn’t always an easy task, with some years lacking two distinct loops for the eye holes. The year 2026 should not have presented this issue, however.
There’s a zero and a nice circle in the number six. All they had to figure out was how to squish the second number two a bit, then exaggerate the bottom half of the six.
Instead, there’s an extra zero, making some wonder what millennium they’re in, and the 26 sits awkwardly atop one or both zeroes. It’s so bad it’s difficult to describe with words.
“2026 New Years glasses just dropped and it is worse than ever,” wrote @CowboyLike_Mike on X last week.
As the design spread across social media, the reviews continued their negative trend.
“Who the [expletive] came up with these dumb New Year’s glasses?!??” asked @blackfox87fps. “What year are we celebrating this year. 20,260?”
“Past years had no issues to them.”
That’s not entirely true. Odd years like 2017 were true challenges for the New Year’s glasses designers, and they came up with similarly ugly solutions. This year’s attempt, however, is terrible without any excuses.
It’s not all bad, though. TikToker @connerngo managed to find 2026 glasses that make sense. Wait, no, they made a hole out of the second two instead of the six.
@connerngo we’ve found the glasses #2026 #newyears #happynewyear #newyearseve #viral ♬ VVS Diamonds prod yugen – Socalspots
“Why does it looks like someone used AI”
It’s been a banner year for terrible innovations that are actively ruining lives, killing jobs, and poisoning our air and water, so people’s patience for this kind of nonsense is rather thin. If just one thing could have made sense in 2025, it would have gone a long way.
Some blamed AI for the New Years glasses fiasco, since it’s screwed up everything else.
“Help, why does it look like someone used AI to come up with the design, and nobody else went over it before it went into production?” asked @electrlc_touch. “Because WHY would they do that [on] purpose.”
Others focused on what they could do, like sketching what the glasses should have been.
On X, user @GSowify “sat down for a second and lazily drew better ideas for the 2026 new year glasses.”
User @linoslivie couldn’t figure out why there was any debate, recommending that folks “put our thinking caps on for a moment.”
Meanwhile, @cowboylikemikey used a photo editor to make a better version of the official glasses by removing the hovering six and adding an extension on the second zero.
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