This is a super interesting thread, thanks very much to Scott for sharing his memories from the front lines. I picked up my first pair of M-Frames around 1993-4 and since then Oakley has been part of me, both outwardly in things I wear and internally in how I think about challenges, design and my work. You guys all did some amazing things and while the recent changes at Oakley have been, well, not the best for old timers, Oakley is still an incredible brand with history and identity that few companies can match.

I have used everything that I've ever bought, so my focus has always been for items that I actually love and want to use. I don't buy anything that just gets shoved away somewhere. Because of that, my collection is small compared to most, particularly since I got my first pair of original M-Frames in the early 90's but each pair has a significance and gets use (with the exception of my Jordan Romeo, which I wore for a few years back in the day but are too precious to risk now).

I'd say that about 1 pair out of 20 releases interest me these days, so I am looking more at older things or unique items. The manager of the local store is always hooking me up with special items that get "set aside" in the back room until I can make it into the store. :)

This one puts me into a serious quandary. Back when the C-Six came out and I looked at the price, I decided it was insane and skipped it. Now, I regret not getting one every single time I see a picture of it.

This one though.....unless it is a seriously limited, numbered thing in a crazy nice box, I just don't think it's worth what the rumors are saying. $2k? Ouchie, that's a ton of coin for basically a fancy hinge.

well I'm guessing my wife isn't broken up enough to want 6 pairs :-D , but out of curiosity what kind of price are you looking at for the set, and are they new or used?

My wife lost her much loved Dartbaords and I'd love to find her a new or great condition used pair from a trusted person on here. Generally open to a variety of colorways, but those are getting harder to come by and I'm not super trusting of the ebay crowd.

I think Oakley definitely knows what they are doing with all these Frogskin releases.

I've had Oakleys for a long time and have some really expensive pairs. Most people will glance at you and move right along, never really registering that you are wearing a pinnacle model of eyewear.

However, I wore my Antifreeze Frogs out to Disney last weekend and holy cow did people stare. I even got asked what they were by some teenage guys and they were practically drooling over them. I've never seen such a reaction to a pair of Oakleys before. Seemingly every person less than 20y/o did a double take.

People love them some retro, that's for darn sure. Keep 'em rolling Oakley, get more people to see the light.

Some small progress. I 'salvaged' a set of hinges off a $5 special from Walmart, ground and reprofiled them a bit and it looks like they will work well. I need to do a little measuring and machine out a shallow channel for them to sit flush in, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Well I did interview at HQ for a creative job, but not R&D

;)

Latest, almost complete earstems. Rooms for an icon if I choose to put one on for kicks, and a straight stem that will get some kind of unobtanium on it. (Flak jacket cut down might work). The wavy part actually wraps right over the ear and now that they've been sanded down they have a little flex to them.

If those were a dark, metallic/anodized looking red that would be awesome. I have to agree with most that they look very cheapo which is just about the opposite of the whole idea of Elite. Oh well, I wouldn't buy the Pit Boss anyways. :)

Might have taken nearly 20 years, but I finally added a pair of Frogskins to the collection (Anti-freeze to be precise). I'm particularly choosey and don't really buy too many, but needed at least one good full-retro model.

Played around with this a bit and with some shape to it, the kinked ones do look pretty cool and might work out well. This is a VERY rough shape, needs to be shortened and have it's edges straightened and smoothed, but might work well. I think I'll go with these for now and see how they will fit. Will have to work out the precise angle on the frames to that the earstems have a little pressure to them when on, but that's just one of a hundred little finicky things to figure out while working on these projects. :)

Well I'm going to try to do a little work on those to get some rough parts cut out today, so that will give a bit better idea of how they will work. More soon!

Heh. The front one is the slightly curved one and even though it's only 6 layers thick you cannot bend it at all, no flex. So I'm somewhat unsure if it will be comfortable to actually get them onto my head. Luckily I only need to worry about them fitting me. :)

I can of course thin it out via sanding, but don't want to get it too thin in which case it could crack when being deflected. That would suck.

All that said, I am leaning toward the curved one, profiling it something like a Canteen earstem and putting some earsocks on it. We'll see.

Well I've got two different shapes of earstems done and cured up in carbon, but not quite sure which route I'll take with them. Really have to get them roughly cut out to tell which might work better. The carbon is SOOO stiff that there is very little give/bend at all, so I have to see which might be more comfortable.

One is pretty much flat, with a 'kink' in it. The other is gently curved. Like I said, have to measure out the lengths, cut out a rough shape and see which would work.

Minor correction, the lenses are Ruby, not Fire.

Heh, the lenses always come last as it's the most butt-puckering process and I put it off for as long as possible. :)

These are new. :)

Well it's been FOREVER since I've had time to work on them, but finally got some progress made on my latest Oakley inspired frames. I'm dubbing this one the "Deviate" since it draws some inspiration from Oakley but isn't a reproduction of anything. I've sculpted this basically freeform, by hand, using only my eyeballs and a dremel tool.

I did some closer-to-finish-quality sanding tonight and am pretty pleased with the results so far. I like the xmetal-esque nosebridge but added on some more chunky square profiles. I'm aiming to keep this frame uncoated, to let the matte carbon show, much like the CSix.

I have the earstems curing at the moment and those will be a somewhat more traditional straighter arm, though I did add a little kink near the temple much like my prescription Drillbits. Hoping to find/scavenge a decent hinge to do a relatively straightforward side attachment like a Frogskin or similar.

I have a set of Fire iridium lenses from the Fives to go ultimately go in these.

More pics to come later. :)

On the actual glasses front, there are really very few pairs that I'd like to have. My main thing would probably to fill out the x-metal line of glasses. I have some of them but would like to have at least one of each. I'd like an artist series here and there I suppose but won't spend huge bucks for them.

Other than that, I'm mainly interested in the more unique items, whether those be display pieces-parts, signs, interesting bags or things like that. I like seeing the full breadth of the oakley design language across all their product types. The glasses are certainly cool, but there are so many fun details in their other products.

The one thing I most want but know I'll never have is a carbon CSIX, but that's not going to happen. With my obsession with carbon fiber, that would be my ultimate but I'm just not rich enough to get one.

I really really want a black Oakley beach umbrella but they don't seem to be able to be bought at any price.

I also need a Romeo 1 coin to go along with my super-low-serial mint pair.

As completely awesome as that is, I'd prefer a regular pair of carbon sixes. I'd wear a regular pair around to certain places, but the Lance pair would have to be locked away under glass forever, which just wouldn't be as fun. :)

Glad that went to an OR member. If only I could devote the cash laying around to that kind of thing...

5 Days left on the Lance CSIX auction. Currently $5500.

It says in the notes that this one will be number "1/5" and the other 4 may never be sold.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=160456621064#ht_1627wt_1005

Here's one I whipped up. I haven't tried it on my iPhone4 yet as my new one will be here Friday. If those top logos need adjustment down just holler. :)

Well, I guess I'm old now, because while my vision is generally excellent, I need a little help looking at the compter all day.

So, there's only one choice. Go online, find the Oakley prescription dealers nearby, pay whatever they want and get some real glasses.

After trying on all of the available options I settled on a pair of Drillbits. They are very light, fit me pretty much perfect and have some cool Oakley-esque details that remind me of the various xmetal lines. I'm not a fan of their more fashioney glasses so I stayed with the more "traditional" Oakley aesthetic.

It's going to take a little while to get used to wearing them all day, but they make a nice little addition to the collection.

Here's a few shots. Who else on here wears the 'O' all day?