In 2023, Oakley’s annual revenues exceed $500m, and the company employs over 1,000 people worldwide. Not bad for a venture started in 1975 with $300 and named after founder Jim Jannard’s dog.

These days their sunglasses can be found on faces from James Marsden playing Cyclops in X-Men to Patrick Mahomes putting paid to adversaries at Arrowhead Stadium to the fifty-somethings of a Saturday morning at your local golf course.

Their designs can often be outlandish, yet they’ve eschewed going down the high-fashion route to market other brands in the sector, such as Fendi, Carrera, or Persol. The Medusa, from 2002, is perhaps the most avant-garde piece of eyewear ever produced. It features a leather helmet, with long dreadlocks sprouting from the top, goggles to be snapped onto the front, and can’t be found for less than $2000 on the rare occasion one makes its way to the resale market.

How does a brand manage to appeal to those who want to look like a cyberpunk Amelia Earhart and those who are normally more comfortable in Carhartt? Let’s take a look.

Origins

Oakley began life in 1975 in a garage in Southern California, not far from where they’re headquartered today. Keen motorcyclist Jim Jannard had started a small business selling bike parts from his car at motocross events. He noticed that handlebar grips were mostly made of hard plastic, which wasn’t ideal either for grip in muddy conditions or any sort of cushioning to the riders’ hands and wrists when landing after a jump. Developing a hard rubber compound he dubbed Unobtanium , Jannard molded a range of grips that stuck much tighter to the bar and cut down on hand shock to the rider. By the time BMX became popular in the late 1970s, the Oakley F-1 grip had become the blueprint for the grips on the bikes that every kid wanted.

From piste to pavement

Oakley’s earliest experiments in eyewear didn’t go particularly well, even though today they market hundreds of pairs of cool sunglasses. The Holbrook, Sutro, and Encoder might be staples of the sports and fashion world now, but their first pair were flops. The Oakley Goggle Jannard developed for motocross used a high-impact plastic stronger than that of the competition, but its lack of venting meant they’d fog up, and the rider wouldn’t be able to see through them.

Undeterred, Oakley shifted their focus to snowy rather than muddy slopes. 1983’s O-Frame ski visors had a similar style to motocross goggles, meaning they were just as good at keeping snow and wind out of the eyes as they were mud and exhaust fumes.

The Eureka moment came when Jannard had the idea to put the goggle frame onto sunglass legs rather than an elastic strap. The Factory Pilots were born. Greg LeMond rode them to victory as the first American cyclist to win the Tour De France (he’s now the only winner from our shores after the stripping of titles from Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis) in 1986. The image of LeMond barreling down the Champs-Élysées in his Factory PIlots may not have been seen live by folks who weren’t cycling fans, but soon LeMond was the first cyclist to sign a million-dollar contract, and the first to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was everywhere. So was Oakley.

Evolution to revolution

Oakley continued developing high-performance sports sunglasses throughout the 1980s. The Mumbos (now called M-Frames) were readily adopted by the then-new sport of mountain biking - particularly the riders who’d come up through BMX like John Tomac and Tinker Juarez.

However, that break into mainstream fashion still proved elusive. In 1994 the company hired Michael Jordan - in his two-year sojourn away from the NBA - to be the face of the campaign for their new Eye Jacket model. There were no tech specs on the print ad, as there were on those pitched to bikers and skiers, simply the image of His Airness in the shades. They weren’t sold as being technically advanced (although they were; the model was developed on the second-ever 3D printer in existence); they were simply being marketed as cool sunglasses. They couldn’t know it at the time, but Jordan’s return to the league in 1996 and subsequent titles - a perfect six from six Finals appearances - saw him crowned as the GOAT, a status he still occupies.

Oakley’s futuristic look timed perfectly with the arrival of dance music. The era where rock & roll was dead meant Oakley chimed perfectly with the times; there were no icons like Dylan in Ray- Bans; here, you could be your own icon. The proliferation from athlete culture to youth culture was complete and continues to this day, as recent collaborations with cutting-edge labels like Kith and Palace have confirmed.

Today, Oakley has leveraged that heritage of cool to branch into new markets. Kids grow up. They make more money. Air Jordans are still the most important sneaker on the market, with limited retro versions selling for eye-watering sums on platforms like StockX. They put down the ski poles and pick up the golf clubs. And the brand you trusted to protect your eyes from the sun’s glare off the snow? It’ll do that just as well on the sixteenth green.

FASHIONADO

CULTURE

Oakley Sunglasses – A History of Cool

Origins

From piste to pavement

Evolution to revolution

fashionado