Does anyone still wear Oakley glasses? I do. Love my black mirrored M-Frames.
To peruse the Oakley booth, one might first assume Oakley makes, first, horrible post-apocolyptic urban clothes and, second, even worse undefinable shoes. Thirdly, Oakley seems to dabble in sunglasses, among other odd things (CD cases, backpacks etc).
Oakley’s glasses are arguably still the best (marginally better than Smith, Zeal, Rudy). But it looks like as a company they are focusing more on ‘fashion’ (though I hesitate to use that word to describe their style) and ‘cool’.
Will it be long before Oakley totally leaves the sporting world for the fashion world … and will anyone care?
for one they already have the best technical sporting glasses on the planet-M-frames, love mine
and then you’ve got the half jackets, racing jackets (wore mine today), zeros (hey they may look funky but the do work well)…
And most of thier fashion glasses are more than worthy of race wear. Plus who wants another pair of “race” glasses, you already have one. We want options people, fun stuff as well as serious zero distortion, no slippage, aero, windblocking, bullet blocking glasses.
So yes I love and wear my Oakley’s daily. And yes it would be cool if I could find something better than my m-frames, not because I don’t like them but because I’ve been wearing the same glasses for so damn long!
I gave up on them after the dog ate my second pair, although the lenses were already scratched. Until they can make a lense that doesn’t scratch so easily they have lost me. My first pair were admittedly not babied, but my second pair were treated like a Christmas gift from the Pope and they still accumulated scratches. Compare this to my daily wear Bolle’s that get tossed around in the car, 4 years old an not a scratch on them. My current biking Rudy Project Kerosene’s seem pretty durable too, still no scratches after 3 years. Not to mention my prescription eyeglasses that are about 7 years old with no scratches. I guess I don’t feel they are the best sunglasses, just the most “cool” with the Honda Civic Tuner/Lance Armstrong worshipper crowd. They’re trying to leverage the brand in other directions…
What is your problem with Oakley… ? They rock and will be around a lot longer than any new tri geek Co… What Oakley is doing is growing!! And evolving! They want to go back to the young kids who will be the big spending adults in a few years… Just like I was when I was 14… They make the best glasses and optics period! That is a fact and had been tested and proven!
The clothing has come a long way and is very stylish and technical and is cool and edgy… I guess it is not as stylish as the tri clothing out there…J/K…
For a Company that is withering!! How come they have been around 29 years???
Also the THUMP IS SO SWEET… but you will wait until brand X makes one… ?
Funny you mention this. I was pondering exactly the same thing. At one point I was pondering it while standing in the Rudy Project booth noticing they were selling their wears based on how many athletes use them, and their booth was devoid of anything other than real, authentic sports “equipment”.
Oakley has made somewhat of a transition. I don’t have a problem with that. You can only sell so many pairs of high-end sports specific glasses. Nike has done the same thing. They are a predominantly “fashion-lifestyle” company now.
I don’t think the introduction of high-heels (which were in the Oakley booth), pink purses and women’s clothing necessarily signals the end of Oakley’s technical credibility.
On the other hand, I don’t see any of the new product in our store. Our customers don’t want it. They don’t dress like that. That is for a different, emerging segment of the market.
Oakley has been looking for an identity beyond sports specific eyewear for a number of years. Perhaps this is where they have found it. AS long as their eyewear remains solid, I have no issue with that.
Matter of fact, I have a couple Oakley shirts, a pair of Oakley jeans, two Oakley belts and even a pair of Oakley boxers.
Ok, so you didn’t get the joke. The first products Oakley sold were grips for BMX and MX, waaaaay back in the day. Their grips spawned numerous knock-offs, but the rubber they used for their grips was always superior. It’s kinda funny that we think of them as a sunglass company today.
Nice illustration. Exactly my point. I’ve no problem with Oakley changing to suit the market. It just seemed to me, after looking at their stuff at Interbike, that they were moving away from sports oriented gear and towards fashion. Maybe this had been going on for a while and I hadn’t noticed (I havent worked in the industry in five years). About the closest I come to following fashion is thumbing thru my wife’s Cosmo.
