Amazing spotlight, I remember a few trades back when I first came around and you helped me out, thanks for being another one of the great members/family/friends of the OR!

Im fairly certain I just had my mind blown. WOW brotha....just wow....

Great spotlight, Mark you are a great guy, have a great family and that Oakley thing seems to be going well for ya! Congrats!

Exactly how many they make to sell will be sold ;)


AKA - no one knows, even when they say a certain number there is no way to confirm if that made more or less.

Isn't that why we keep the dead horse around? I mean it sure doesn't smell great.....

BUT - the Transformers Gascans are freaking sweet, still shows how great an artistic platform the gascan is/was.

The simple lens colors in the signature & limiteds has been a trend going on for years. Its seems every so often its mentioned again (usually by a rookie LOL) but the general consensus is that its the Athlete/Artist/colab group thats responsible for picking their lens/frame combo. So if they want grey. They get grey. Look at how many Ducati frames don't have fire, ruby or +Red lenses - and that sig series has been around longer than I can remember, it goes back to the original minute/straight jacket era.

But I do agree brighter colors would be more fun, the Moto GP collection seems to have the best mix thus far.

Nothing has been proven/confirmed yet so it will be interesting to see how things go. Tyler is promoting his book so of course he wants lots of attention on things he 'says'. Oakley has been with Lance since prior to cancer so I think things would have to be pretty major for that to change. If the shit really hits the fan I think there won't be much of a reason for the Livestrong collection to continue (although its a great foundation on its own merit) and as Lance no longer competes at the pro level his sponsorship by Oakley wont be a big thing in the public eye.

Tasty face shield FTW!!

But thats also why they offer 2 shapes, those who want/like smaller lenses and those who want/need the larger coverage. In retail stores I see customers getting 'forced' to the Radar because they wish the Flak's had more coverage in the XLJ, now they can have a non-sheild look with similar coverage.

Side bar - wouldn't a shield by definition need to be a single lens?

They base the email blasts off a complex algorithm that determines the amount of coolness you project, theory being cooler people would be the first people you want seeing & hopefully wearing the new stuff.

Guess you need to work on you 'cool' factor.

As far as I understand it there are not any stores doing custom icons as of yet, all the frames have the icons applied at HQ durring production so I am sure once they start offering custom icons in stores it will spread quickly to keep from having frames with and without icons in the system.

I agree with EC, I mean if you were buying a pallet of bricks would you expect free shipping just because you spent $XX? Its still business. Why 'should' Oakley be forced to eat profit from an online sale when they would be sold for full price +tax in a store? Do you 'expect' a discount in store because you have to pay tax?

And don't forget that nothing is really free, you get a 'free' hard case with Radar's but they are also more than just $30 more than a pair of M-Frames. Same deal with the Flak Jackets.

At the end of the day the company is going to get its margin one way or another. Just depends how big of a picture you look. Maybe they are that expensive because they know they are going to be shipping them for 'free'.

I think these are a 100% different crowd than most of us. Thats why they are not hyped on Oakley.com or pushed big through the stores. The group that eats these up is the people who are on hypebeast and hysobity (or whatever it is). They are full on rocking the retro 80's vibe and until that group changes taste or runs out of expendable cash I think Oakley will keep digging out the frogskin colors and coming up with new ones. My take on it is its just part of the mix, it drives kids into my store wearing frogskin lookalike knock offs and they put on some Holbrooks or Batwolfs or OilRigs and walk out with a pair of those. Most of the halo sales that come from these limiteds are what drive the meat of the company's general sales (at least what I see through my doors). I have even been sold baseball players Holbrooks & the like after they have their Radar's and Flak Jackets. $100 is justifiable after they spend $200 and see the quality. If the time comes where there is a closely followed crowd that falls in love with the Zero's than Im sure Oakley would jump back into that pool but something tells me the 90's are not quite ready for a come back.

So why just the Kia Kooperman Ravishing and not the Forsake? & I agree that the Troy Lee should be included, he is an Artist.

Side note; sorry for my repeated use of 'hang on', I just can't let people run along in conversation all willy nilly. Gotta uphold my Oakley Employee pledge!

Hang on, are you sure you got the job at the right HQ?

I remember there at least used to be a pretty strenuous initiation quiz, hazing ceremony and bible to memorize.

Maybe they are going soft on us at FHR after all......

Hang on, shouldn't someone who works at HQ in the CS dept know whats current & whats been disco'd? =)

Well alot of releases could look like a previous with 'just a ....swap' but I think the whole green/gold combo is very cool, not to mention the 3/17 on the earstem.

I think comparatively Oakley time pieces with the materials used and the backing of Oakley design come in competitively priced for quality time pieces. I know they are not top of the line highest quality pieces but they are not top of the line prices either. If you look at where Oakley stands in the optics world as far as price of everything from cheap-o to uber luxury we fall near the upper end and even push the envelope. Take that to the watch world and we dont even begin to play with the true players in the time piece world. I feel that with the carbon C6 we could have definitely done a more Elite time piece but Oakley knows they don't have the clout in the watch world to push the upper end.

Long story short I think Defender had it right, you get what you pay for and I honestly feel our time pieces are worth what is asked when you have a fully informed customer of what they are. Why else would we still have a watch collection after a decade and the prices are only going up? Anyone remember (or miss!!) the old digitals!

Eddy the man! I would have not made that connection because I think of venting when I think of an intake port.

I have been shammed in my knowledge, back to the studies for me!

It sounds like you are talking about at the bottom outside corner of the orbitals (around the lenses). That part of the frame does not really have a specific or special name. When describing it to customers I inform them that it is there as a unique way to acess the lenses for replacing them.

The vault is supposed to be in Oklahoma. And as far as Grapevine & Allen it just depends which highway you take into Texas. If you are on 75 (might be called something else when you cross the border) than Allen is right there (literally right on the highway). But if you come down IH 35 Grapevine is near that side of the metroplex.

If you have been to Grapevine before I would guess that you are coming down on IH 35 and that would be your closer bet.

There is currently not a Vault in OK, the closest 2 are Grapevine Mills and Allen Outlet Mall.

I do believe there is a chance that an Outlet mall that is in the process of being built will have a Vault but not 100% sure.

Well Im sure Oakley being located in SoCal near the vacinity of Apple has something to do with the Apple centric love.

Also if there was another single phone that moved as many units as the iPhone continues to do with each new version Im sure Oakley would jump on that bandwagon.

My local store sells out of the iPhone 4 case everytime its in stock and gets lots of requests. Not sure about requests on the store level for other phones.

I think the new style icon & earstem make it less of a canvas to do a print on. The few signatures there have been have been cool but I dont see a way for any kind of ornate print to look decent with all the angles and depths of the arm detail.

Rich I totally searched high and low for that jersey in the white version but no one has a medium! All thats left are smalls and they don't fit on my 6'3" frame! LOL

As soon as I get my kit I'll toss up some PW pics.... now just to decide on the glasses for the first race, maybe I'll pick up the staple Jawbone for the occasion......