Oakley sunglasses are well known across the world for their highly protective sports styles which were initially created by Jim Jannard in 1975 in his garage in Southern California where he invented, ‘The Oakley Grip’ out of parts from the back of his car. The ‘Oakley Grip’ was a revolutionary motorcycle grip that was made out of ‘Unobtanium’, a creation from Jim Jannard, that was designed to get more adhesive when damp, allowing riders to have grip even when wet.
The same ‘Unobtanium’ technology is still used today on Oakley’s earsocks to provide brilliant grip when the user maybe sweating during sports making Oakley’s sunglasses sturdy and practical to wear during physical activities.
Although Oakley’s grips moved to be popular, they didn’t get the recognition that they deserved as the rider’s hands hid them. Oakley then decided to increase the profile of their brand by producing a pair of goggles and named them the O-Frame, this is when the Oakley ‘O’ started to become recognizable and people became familiar with the brand.
Oakley produced their first pair of sunglasses in 1984 named the ‘Eyeshade’ which had removable lenses, Oakley were lucky enough for Tour de France winner Greg LeMond to wear the frame and promote their new venture.
From that point onwards, Oakley created new frame designs including the Blades, Frogskins, M-Frame and many more up to present day.
Oakley has signed a lifetime deal with Lance Armstrong seven-time winner of the Tour de France from 1999-2005.
After suffering with a severe form of testicular cancer, he collaborated with the charity Livestrong. Oakley has produced 3 very successful sunglass frames the Flak Jacket, Radar and Straight Jacket alongside Lance Armstrong, named the Livestrong range.
Oakley makes a small contribution to the Livestrong charity when one of these frames is sold, and has the Charity’s trade mark colours of yellow and black and have ‘Livestrong’ etched onto the left lens.
Oakley have introduced a new sunglass in a class of its own named the ‘Pit Boss’ that’s taken four years to create! The Pit Boss is one of Oakley’s Elite sunglasses and is made with lightweight titanium plates.
The lenses are a masterpiece of their own blocking 99% of glare without the visual haze of some normal polarized lenses, the back of the lenses also have a anti-reflective coating, along with the Oakley Hydrophobic coating making the Pit Boss’ lenses some of the best that Oakley has produced.
The design of the frame is like no other Oakley sunglass its out spoken design is the result of Oakley’s pursuit for design perfection. Oakley are only producing a limited amount of the Pit Boss, call Sunglasses-Direct for enquiries on 01159582888.
Oakley sunglasses are sold to customers in over 100 countries and their unbelievable quality sunglasses have awarded them over 575 patents and 1100 trademarks for design and technology, what better reason to purchase a pair of Oakley sunglasses?