Negative

I would guess most of us are thinking the 0.3. It was highly visible in brochures and print material, so a good guess is Oakley was proud of the design and may be the first born.

Negative. After another wrong guess and I'll give a hint.

Oops Sorry. Newbie mistake for me. I didn't see the second page and thought i didn't answer the question.

Oak, you are right. 0.3 was the design that sparked the change to Zeros. It was developed from a napkin sketch from JJ to Peter Yee.

Cool info. Thanks, X-toy! The 0.3 must’ve been one of Peter’s first Oakley designs after joining the team.

Question to all: Since we are on Zero, what type of business inspired the Glitter Gultch Frame colour?

Strip club, or Vegas casino street. Heard both.

Yep, the now defunct Glitter Gulch club in Las Vegas is what many say is the origin story of the colour.

Ok, since we are on naming...

Question for all: Why is the wire material called C5?

There are 5 metals that make the alloy, was what I've heard. I imagine aluminum would be the main one, and others for either strength or flexibility.

Yep, the now defunct Glitter Gulch club in Las Vegas is what many say is the origin story of the colour. - Oak

That's probably the true one, but there's also a casino area unofficially known by the same name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitter_Gulch

Correct. C = compound 5 = number of different metals used

Now the real mystery is what the 5 metals are.

C5 was aslo chosen because it is the same name for a military grade explosive of the time!

Have we ever discovered what the C5 metals are? I have seen C5 described internally as cast Nickel Silver, so it would have copper, zinc and nickel. Perhaps tin and lead as well? Anyone know?

C5 is made up of Copper, nickel, zinc and small parts manganese and iron. There are tiny traces of other minerals as well, but you got the 5 big ones. Cheers!

C5 is made up of Copper, nickel, zinc and small parts manganese and iron. There are tiny traces of other minerals as well, but you got the 5 big ones. Cheers! - X-toy

Fantastic! Thanks for that info!

Has anyone ever figured out what Unobtainium is actually made out of? I know it's basically a proprietary blend of rubber materials, and the formula itself of course has changed over time and across their various products. I'm just curious if there was ever a general consensus on what the basic ingredients are supposed to have been.

I think I may have ran into a likely candidate for a main ingredient which seems to have all the superpowers of Unobtainium and was around in the early 70s for JJ to get ahold of, but I never did find anything linking its use to Oakley.

Any ideas?

Not sure what is used today, but when Unobtanium was first filed for patent for the nose piece and along the earstem, it stated this:

“In a particularly preferred embodiment, the traction member 40 is formed of a relatively soft elastomeric material having a coefficient of sliding friction that increases when the material is wetted. Such a material, sometimes referred to as hydrophilic, tends to enhance retention of the traction member 40 in position on the wearer's head as the wearer perspires or encounters moisture, as during skiing. One suitable material which can be readily molded by conventional techniques is marketed under the name KROTON G.TM., a product of the Shell Oil Company. ”

I think it was a typo and meant KRATON G, but the concept has been established anyway. If such is the case, the Unobtainium polymer:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraton_(polymer)

Yep, that's the stuff! At least that was always my best guess considering all of its attributes. I figured I would eventually run into something that linked the two since it was most likely a licensed vendor deal once upon a time rather than a purely proprietary compound. But nada.

I think your quote is exactly what I had been looking for. Would you happen to know where I can find the document?

You can search the US patent site for Oakley and Kraton (or Kroton), and you’ll get documents like the below from the ‘80s and well into the ‘90s where you can search further for the specific quotes:


http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=18&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=(Oakley+AND+kraton)&OS=Oakley+and+kraton&RS=(Oakley+AND+kraton)

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=4&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=(Oakley+AND+KROTON)&OS=Oakley+and+KROTON&RS=(Oakley+AND+KROTON)

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=8&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=(Oakley+AND+KROTON)&OS=Oakley+and+KROTON&RS=(Oakley+AND+KROTON)

Last year, Brian Takumi (and O_taj1242) stated there are two versions of e Wire 1.0 released to the public: First version had a squarish “O” in the word “Oakley”, and the second version had an ellipse “O” (the earsock was not addressed). I wanted to have a look for myself and finally found my “pre-release” e Wire. Sure enough:

- Oak

That's excellent. I've never seen the earliest model with a black frame

Makes sense as the Subzero hadza similar logo change once it moved to the Zero lineup

I didn’t know where to put this and didn’t want to start a new thread, so here’s a page from an Oakley catalog I recently rediscovered. I thought you’d get a kick from the display case pricing: