I Am A Believer In Linegear!

[Linegear Japan]

By the way, we are not in position to say, the lenses we bought from Lens Ya ( the only shop specialized in lenses making in Japan) are of better quality of the one by Oak. We never did and never will, we are just different by color customization.

As our business principle, we support Oak to keep doing and inventing a great frames, as a third party, our business live on with surviving of the OEM company.

Also, to note, when the item name has "iridium" something catchy, it doesn't mean it is an absolute perfect, nothing is perfect, it is keep inventing, material science also keep coming with new great product as well.

The eyes damage has many other factors: close reading of digital devices, reading under low light, exposure to the sun (when you are not wearing any sunglasses), ageing process...etc unless one wear the lenses the whole 24 hours which is not possible either to measure.

Thank you.

 

[Linegear Japan]

The Post that was listed before this one had pictures comparing the two products. Get a projector and compare them for yourselves. Though many are happy with your products, many more are happy with $3.00 sunglasses the find in a gas station. Oakley is not about that. I am a professional and cannot allow misinformation to be passed along. I do not believe that you intend harm on anyone, nor do I believe you putting anyone at risk. There are many lens manufacturers out there that produce comparable products to Oakley, what I have seen from line gear is not equal. It's not bad, but definitely not for me.

@Oakleyezed : that 3 dollar sunglasses, we do take it as an insult, really. If you could find thousand of those with comparable quality, ship to me. If not, explain your point clearly, as this expression could be a misleading to a lot of people.

Our pair of crude/raw lenses cost over ~15$ a pair or more, depend on variation from Lens Ya (or from Zero), to protect business, we can not tell the exact price.

For one hour, we produce a maximum 5 pair of lenses, we refine each pair to make sure it perfectly fit each x-metal frames. Do the easy math, you can imagine our margin.


@OakleyBoss Please kindly take note, we are unhappy of this comment, very much.

PS: Please make sure the use of freedom of expression, you can always add a few moral element, if not, it is a dangerous act and it generates a negative perception to you, and to your action any where in the world.

 

[Oakleyezed]

In my line of work I analyze many lenses on a daily basis. The color of your lenses and sizes are not the problem. I know exactly what you are selling. Carry your own lenses to any projector, place them right against the front of the machine, then repeat with an Oakley lens. I use this as a sales technique to sell Oakley Sunglasses. It's a great tool to show people the value of Oakley Sunglasses and why they should pay more. I know how expensive quality lenses are and it frustrates me to no end that Oakley sells replacement lenses (for the current lines anyway) for less than I can have surfaced at my local lab. That's the power of economies of scale. I'd love to have an MEI edger that produces around 100 pair an hour, but sadly that's no going to happen.

My perception is a positive one, I fear I am lost in translation. Good luck.

 

[Oakleyezed]

Yes I am a licensed optician. I am also aware that not being a forum sponsor will most likely get my post removed.

 

[InfiniteHero]

Hey @Oakleyezed: Mind asking, are you a professional optician?

Would you mind informing the members of your profile? This will say a lot about who you are officially backing. Not just we do not have intention to lie, we just put the truth from the manufacturer. Why don't you ask us to to pass this information to the Japanese Lens Ya?

@InfiniteHero : He writes email to me that it was from an optician, not from his own experiment, maybe it is a chance for you to make it right, Andrew.

This has made Linegear look like a bad guy.

We are just a two-men business, making our daily life, plus support 2 part-time students. WE ARE NOT TYCOON. **LINEGEAR** Oakley X-Metal custom replacement lenses, rubber parts & parts shop from Japan.

@Linegear Official : I had a local Eye Doc who is a Optician do my pictures that I have posted. This was after members started to ask me many questions about aftermarket lenses, and there was a thorough discussion on the forum in several threads about it. The discussion was about quality and perceived value of the frame and lens combination after it installed. I can have her do this anytime for me. JJ even posted in this and gave his opinion.

MY personal opinion of what has been written by @Oakleyezed is not entirely damaging to your business, or even a threat to your livelihood. I think some things are being lost in translation. Maybe not but I think or feel that all was done was saying exactly What the lenses are. Nothing bad, just what they are. It is a direct comparison between Oakley lenses and your lenses. Nothing more. Members here demand OEM or OEM like items for the X-Metals period. I run into this almost daily. IF its not OEM then a lot of member do not want it, even the ear socks. My personal job is to try and make that happen, but with Oakley discontinuing the line, parts and such are not going to be available much longer by them. It is good that you are providing that service, but all items must be in the tradition of LIKE OEM for members to really take interest. Yes you will get plenty of sales for the products by people who just want the item, but here we are specifically comparing OEM Oakley to your product. These are unarguable facts.
Example:
Oakley lenses are Prism Compensated
LineGear lenses are not Prism Compensated

In the above posts all i saw was someone posting what your individual lines of your post meant. Honestly didn't change anything IMHO. They didn't trash your item, he actually said "its not Bad". As for backing I have no one backing me in anything. I do purchase several parts from other forum members to help me in my business, but that is because they are the best part I can source. ALL of the above posts are comparing OAKLEY products specifically lenses to YOUR lenses. I know you know that I am one of the Custom lens makers on the forum. I ONLY use OEM Oakley lenses to custom cut as do several others. This was due to the demand of X metal owners for OEM products only. They are at least x2 if not x3 the expense of yours. Not only the scientific optical aspects of their lenses but the plain simple fact that it was a Oakley lens. Thats the only reason why I do it and I don't advertise that either. Members talk amongst themselves and the email or PM me for work. I became a sponsor due to helping the community with costs of the website and the release of Anodizing X-Metal frames.

Like I said before to you privately @Linegear Official I am more than willing to help you sell your products here in the United States. I feel that your line of products are the best that can be purchased that are not OEM Oakley. I am also in the line of thinking of where your items can be improved that would only help you sell them to Oakley Fans worldwide. I have given you suggestions privately of where that could be done. Other members have also done that in the past.

I would feel wholeheartedly about not liking if someone posted in one of my threads about disgust or picking apart one of my items also, (as long as its factual there should be no issue) but in this case this is not a LineGear thread. You did choose to post your specs of your lenses in a thread of another member and bring up an old post about where I specifically tested them and learned on my own what optics are about. At the end of the day, all another member of the forum did was to specify what your post was saying specifically.

@OakleyBoss may review mine for any reason at any time. I am very careful with what I put into my posts.

 

[OakleyBoss]

I think this is an interesting debate, that I have definitely taken note of. The members bring up very valid points, and I nor the moderators are hereto censor a purely factual conversation. I have no doubts that LineGear will stand by their products, but I will say every manufacturer including Oakley has room for improvement, and feedback from the community can be invaluable when it comes to that. I cannot provide direct input into the conversation as I have not direct experience with the products.

I personally have used aftermarket lenses (not LineGear yet), and have been very satisfied, not only from the quality, but also the relative price point. The truth is, after spending $200 on a pair of Oakleys, I just hate having to spend another $100 on new lenses (yes, yes I know we all spend tons blah, blah). But for my everyday beater pair, value is really key, which is why I went to aftermarket lenses, and have been satisfied.

Every member should take all the information available and form their own opinions, but at the end of the day nothing compares to having the product in your hands and actually trying it. This is solely my opinion, but I am the type of person believes in trying everything once.

If there are any other points not relevant to this conversation, please feel free to PM me.

 

[InfiniteHero]

I wrote this while I was still new to aftermarket and Factory lens knowledge. Since this time, I have researched optics and what Oakley and aftermarkets lens makers are using, and how it Affects vision. After learning and experimenting using Optical Equipment, I realized how horrible the optics are specifically with LineGear lenses, and also Exovista, Walleva, and VL. Oakley uses Prism Based lenses which all the other aftermarket lenses are not. This affects how your eyes see objects, and also how those objects move through the field of vision. On all the aftermarket lens websites, they claim prism but they are not. The color coatings and mirror finishes on the aftermarket lenses are additionally adding to the issues. Just cause someone charges higher prices and markets well, doesn't mean they have a really good product. LineGear has a bunch of sought after colors, which people do want, but at what sacrifice. Aftermarket lenses , as Jim Jannard said, detracts from the value you have in your oakleys. So you have a cool color lens, that takes away value, and optically is horrible, on your pair of X-Metals. Not sure I see the point. I am providing examples of no lens, Line Gear lens, and an Oakley lens. Theses examples were shot using a Stellar Projector, which magnifies the image and show you what your eyes have to correct in order to see correctly. In the case of Linegear, your eyes are unconsciously correcting the blurring. Alot of LineGear users, including myself, have headaches develope. This is all in part to adding stress to your eyes. This overtime can cause damage to your eyes. Here are the examples:
View attachment 32909
View attachment 32910
View attachment 2864

In speaking with several members privately about the LineGear lenses specifically, it was brought to my attention that LineGear may have changed or switched up their lenses since this post I did in 2013. That was a long time ago, and since LineGear decided to "Like" that post, I would assume they have changed up what their lens quality is since then. Most of you know that I don't want anyone on the Forum to be discredited personally or directly hurt anyone trying to advertise their products for personal gain whether warranted or not. Factual information is fine for any thread and I did give factual information for my tests, but IF those products are NOT being sold any more then its not relevant now. So at this point I cannot say that my tests are on current lenses being manufactured by LineGear. Therefore their quality may be or might be vastly improved due to their changes and be a really good buy for people. I cannot speak to that other than I know they are dedicated to the X-Metal community and seem to have great customer service. Hope this clarifies some things that may or may not have influenced any purchasers of their items at this current time. I do not plan on testing their items or any other items due to my being a Sponsor of the Forum. I will however stand by any product that I sell and always strive to sell the best I can for people no matter the cost.

 

[Linegear Japan]

@OakleyBoss : Thanks for being here, this comment is what we found to be a misleading and we are not happy. "....Though many are happy with your products, many more are happy with $3.00 sunglasses the find in a gas station...." Other thought, already expressed.

@InfiniteHero: This may be a legitimate point, it was a way "old item" back in 2013, but maybe cultural difference in a way we express feedback, we believe this negative info stay, and actually it came to our knowledge when one OF member quote that in another thread. Maybe the test was done on way old products, but not the current one. The current items in stock, the thickness did indeed differ from edge to rear.


@Oakleyezed: You seem to have an extensive knowledge on this. Thumb up. Thank you for your concern and verification. You should earn quite a respect in this community.

Our answer:

We appreciate your input to our product. We always strive to make our line of products better as we order new items. We are proud of our choices of colors and how our lenses fit in the X-Metal line of frames.

We searched for a long time to come up with our lens manufacturer to make sure we could offer the best choice of aftermarket lens choices for X-metals that is available to us in Japan. During this process we found out there are different compositions and different types of lenses that are used by high end manufacturers and we tried to match as close as we can to those. Cost vs. Quality vs Margins vs Sellabitlity were the factors that had to play a part in our decisions. We decided to make our lenses priced as best we could due to the various processes they go through. Lens material, Mirror coatings, color coatings and polarization all alter costs then the cuts themselves. Our products match or exceed most if not all aftermarket lens providers for the X-Metal line. We stand by that thoroughly.

However some of the explanations in your posts signified to us that you were trying to discredit our product rather than just point out differences in them specifically compared to Oakley Lenses.

We are of the view that Oakley lenses have a better function, indeed. We hold a habit of not attacking our competitors, because we respect buyer’s choice/decision and at times it is them who decide what/where to buy according to their situation.

Cheers,
Linegear

 

[Linegear Japan]

Hello,

We have been in touch with the lens manufacturer, and we'd like to confirm:

Linegear's lens thickness specification:

1. Non-Polarized lens thickness is 2mm, indeed.
2. Polarized lens is 1.5mm.

This is a trade secret and we can not explain how a polarized is thinner than a non-polarized, but it is how they design and produce them.

Thank you.

Linegear

 

[canda2002]

Just got these in and lenses and rubbers are sweet. Going to test lenses in Florida sun tomorrow.