Collectors Spotlight - May 2012

Collectors Spotlight - May 2012 - chrisbron

Age: 20 / England

chrisbron: Chris Bronstein

Since 15th July 2010 at 19:30 GMT.
I know this precisely as my first pair of Oakley’s in my adult life where purchased at the airport in London and I almost missed boarding the plane because of them!

I bought a pair of frogskins in the aforementioned airport on the way to Prague, whilst I was in front of the Astronomical clock some dude ran up to me and (very enthusiastically) stated: “duuuuude, are those frogskins?!?! Those are sweeeeet brooooo!” and ran off again. At that time I realised these sunglasses are special!
Once I got back, it turned out that my brother and his wife got the polished clear and Koston woodgrain frogs. I realised that it’s obviously trending, so I started from there- I bought every single pair of frogskins I saw in shops when I was out. Later, that went on to online shopping, joining forums and then collecting rare items. We all know it’s a slippery slope…
I fell in love with all the possible colours of frames and lenses, along with the fact that Oakley lenses are super HD- you forget that you’re wearing them! I had a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers at the time but frogskins are much more interesting and lighter than them.

It must’ve been a penny. I think I saw it in a movie and just wouldn’t give up badgering my parents about it as a kid. Later on I received them as a birthday gift and wore them until I realised that they didn’t really suit my face anymore. This was years ago and when I found them again I sold them, as they were quite beat up.
My first pair that started the collection were the polished clear with violet frogskins (1st re-release).

Thinking about it, it must be that I didn’t get into it earlier. I missed all the really beautiful releases by a couple of years. Now they all go at ridiculous prices!

I am still frantically searching for the Berrics frogskins to complete my ‘fade’ series. Realistically, my next purchase will probably be the Olympic set of frogskins and the acid tortoise series.

My Valentine’s Fade and EBIII frogskins are definitely ‘jewel’ material and are great display items, but I actually love my Commonwealth with +ve red, Medicom Be@rbrick, OF crystal black frogs (the slate lenses are wonderful) and the Atmos Jawbones!

Initially I had a cheap Chinese plastic rack, once my collection expanded; I ended up with 4 cheap racks. When I moved in with my other half I managed to get my hands on a double mega tower- I now added some IKEA DIODER light kits (low heat emission) to lighten up the display, without the danger of melting the plastic of the frames.
The top shelf is reserved for the fade series. That’s my only rule.
Currently all my shades are in one display case; I managed to get another double mega recently but it’s missing 3 shelves and keys, so I will have to make some extra shelves and change the locks. Once that’s set up, I will space all my collections out- keep a case for frogs and the second case will display all my other frames like holbrooks, jawbones and deviations.

My favourite hook-ups are fellow collectors. The collectors’ community is full of amazing people who help source items from around the world. Otherwise I love dealing with the Berlin O-Store and the online retailer “shadestation.co.uk”- they give you free candy

I don’t go any further than switching lenses in frogskins and fooling about with jawbones. I did get a custom splatter on a pair of polished clear and polished white frogskins by a member of the OF: Batwolf. They are awesome! I also love all the work done by Dr. Chop. He deserves a round of applause for the enthusiasm and effort that goes into his work.

Just sticking to Frogskins, Holbrooks and Jawbones at the moment. If I start collecting anything else I will probably end up having to mortgage the house!

I don’t collect anything else seeing as Oakley takes up enough of my time and money.
I’m a thrill-seeker but get bored easily, so I ended up trying lots of things. Did skydiving, aggressive inline skating, camping in Siberia, white-water rafting, snowboarding, wakeboarding, motorbiking etc. I’m a PADI certified Master Scuba Diver and started getting my AFF skydiving certification until I had to substitute that for my studies.
Currently getting into road cycling and really considering starting trampolining to work core muscles and body control.

Know your limits. Allocate a certain amount a month that you can spend on Oakleys and never try to breach that. I had several close calls when I spent too much on shades and almost had to sell off half of my collection to fund an emergency expense.

Initially my other half liked all my frogskins, then it turned into a “mmmmmkay, you got another pair” kind of relation. I get the occasional “oh, I like these” 
Some other phrases I got from friends and family:
“That looks like a shop, that can’t be yours!”
“Why on earth do you collect sunglasses?”
“Yo man, I heard you got like a million glasses, can I have some?”
“How much is this worth? This better be a worthwhile investment!”
I do have some friends and family that ask me to buy something that they really like but can’t get because it’s either sold out or discontinued. It’s nice to know that you’re the “go-to” guy for something.

Oakley snowboard goggles saved my sister’s eye. I gave her them on a groggy day on the slopes and later that day she got into a horrible accident. If it wouldn’t have been for the goggles, she would’ve been much more worse off.

I could go on and on philosophising about love, life and death but who wants life advice from a stranger? Realistically there are only two rules I follow and recommend everybody keep in mind:

1) If it’s too good to be true, it probably is!
2) Don’t eat yellow snow!