I thought I would start a thread that would both stimulate trivia and also have a place that anyone can contribute to for discussing topics and determine fact versus fiction.

I'll start. Going way back to the Eyeshade. It was truly the style that pioneered the entire sports performance eyewear category as we know it today. What sport was the Eyeshade originally designed for?

cycling

Good guess. Seems most obvious and cycling was clearly the sport the Eyeshade got the most traction, but there is more to the story that I will share after someone gets closer to guessing the sport.

Any other guesses?

motocross

Nope. Not MX or running. Any other guesses?

skiing!

bmx

Surfing

Triathlon?

Wow, great question. Never thought about the sport. Perhaps driving? There was a story about JJ coming up with the Factory Pilots/Eyeshade idea when he had a hard time seeing during a drive to LA in 1983 due to the sun.

Winner, winner chicken dinner goes to the-o-man!

Back in the early 80's you always skied on sunny days (snow days as well) with sunglasses. Vuarnet, Ray Ban Carrera, Suncloud were some of the brands of dominance. Lenses were glass and they fell off your head easily. Nonetheless, unless you were serious about performance that is what you wore. Oakley had entered the snow goggle biz roughly around 1983. The goggle was an O Frame with a dual lens and venting. It was realized that skiers didn't like goggle, but they liked sunglasses so why not cross over.

Hence the Eyeshade was born.
1. Looked like an O Frame goggle
2. Brow foam (like a goggle) to reduce airflow, but enough to keep the lens from fogging.
3. Interchangeable "hook" ear stems to better keep them on your head.
4. And first of its kind a single "Plutonite" lens in a cylindrical geometry.
5. Like a goggle, interchangeable lenses.

Genius! (Part of the inspiration came form JJ's experience with inadvertent light coming in the sides of flat curve sunglasses.) It was accepted with small excitement and mostly distributed through the snow goggle distribution of ski shops.

Along comes this up and coming American cyclist, who was previous a skier and living in Reno, Nevada. He goes into a ski shop and discovers the Eyeshade. Greg Lemond had sensitive eyes and was always thinking of eye protection while he rode. He buys a pair to try while he rides. He likes them. He then later calls JJ, introduces himself and asks Jim if he can get lighter lens tints (clear and Hi-intensity yellow were what existed then) lighter for his Eyeshades. He is headed to Europe to train and race and where can he get lenses? JJ obviously recognizes Greg and helps him out.

Greg heads to Europe and shows up in the pro peloton running his Eyeshades. Now for European cycling this is pretty brave. Nonetheless, a few other riders like Phil Anderson, Stephen Millar embrace the idea and they begin to show up in Eyeshades as well. Greg goes on to finish second in the Tour de France that year...wearing Eyeshades. Now they are recognized as a sports performance sunglass. A completely new idea and the pioneer of what has become a huge sunglass category of sports performance eyewear.

Meanwhile Triathlon is blowing up as a new sport. Tough, cool, California style and the athletes are very much into performance and technology. Oakley and Eyeshades are an immediate cool factor, especially with the like of Scott Tinley, Mark Allen and Scott Molina, the icons and opinion leaders of the sport all wearing Oakley Eyeshades. We also had this killer ad that showed all 3 with the headline "The Three Toughest Men Come To Us For Protection".

Later, we used the MX goggle technology to the Eyeshade and the emerging sport of mountain bike. Again the Eyeshade was an immediate status symbol amongst the core and provided eye protection that was once not even considered. Crazy enough Mike Bell came up with the idea to apply mini tear-off's to the Eyeshade. We made Oakley tear-off kits like we did for MX goggles. The Eyeshade tear offs were a fun idea, but never gained traction. The spent tear-offs on the trail also received ridicule from environmental groups as littering.

From this point on Oakley revolutionized the sports performance eyewear category and obviously spawned a huge movement, trends, innovations and further designs that now applies to practically every sport where eye protection is a necessity.

As for snow skiing. The trend of ski performance eyewear quickly gave way to the practicality and evolution of goggles.

Scott

Awesome info, thanks! The Wind Jacket 2.0 makes more sense now.

Awesome info, thanks! The Wind Jacket 2.0 makes more sense now. - Oak

Ah, and being classified as a Goggle with the goggle specific Prizm tints.

Trivia for Thursday.

Why and when was the Square O logo created?

On a trek in Nepal? Jim was climbing Mt. Everest and was delirious and saw the Square O logo in a sherpa's beard.

I can't wait to read the answer, because I am sure you will tell it with great detail!

Because it's hip to be square, right?

Seriously, though, wasn't it because the ellipse just did not fit with the straight lines and sharp edges on the Gascan back when it came out in 2005? Also a way to differentiate the "Lifestyle" line from the Active/Sport styles, especially since Stretchline was discontinued?

We have a winner. Nice pull Eddy as it was a pretty tight group involved in the decision making and a long time ago.

When we placed the Ellipse on the Gascan JJ felt it just wasn't right with the new angular design direction. So he simply squared up the Ellipse and the Square O was born. At the time it had nothing to do with lifestyle delineation.

From a marketing point of view it was a crazy maker. Usually you don't mess with a brand mark and when it came to advertising we were scratching our heads as to what logo to use. That's when we ended up building the tory around Ellipse stood for performance and the Square O was lifestyle. Surprising we stuck to that as we all anticipated that JJ and the design team would soon come up with with an angular sports performance style that would have demanded a Square O.

As well, some asked that the Square O only be used on styles targeted at a specific audience (action sports and new, young consumers). This could have potentially included snowboard goggles, FMX goggles. That's when it would have gotten really messy so the Square O remained on lifestyle sunglasses and optical frames. It was also the primary logo we used with the more lifestyle oriented sports such as surf, skate and snow. Still kind of messy, but we made it work.

I'm not sure what the logo philosophy is today. I'm seeing the Ellipse on more and more styles I consider lifestyle (Drop Point, Double Edge, Sliver, etc.). It would not surprise me in the least that the brain trusts at Lux think two logos make it too complicated and mandates Ellipse on everything in the future. Scott

It would not surprise me in the least that the brain trusts at Lux think two logos make it too complicated and mandates Ellipse on everything in the future.

That's exactly what has happened. They want everything to have one brand mark. At least last I heard. All that remains of Square O at this point is Gascan, FuelCell and Holbrook.

That's too bad. The Square O is big, bold and tough. It's an in-your-face logo that could and should be further expressed. Scott

I have always preferred the ellipse, but square O definitely has (had?) its place.

Scott - This Trivia Thursday thing is great fun. Really nice to have you here!

Thanks Eddy!

For the record. While Square O did have its place and was disruptive, I'm an "Ellipse" guy as well. We would say it has "timeless elegance". Not many brand icons can endure the test of the time. The Ellipse O will always be iconic. Scott

That's too bad. The Square O is big, bold and tough. It's an in-your-face logo that could and should be further expressed. Scott - Bazooka

Agreed!!!! I love the square O; I know the ellipse has its place, but it doesn't look good on all frames.

Welcome!

Thanks for the trivia here Scott! Great insight and behind the scenes info.