Hi guys/girls,
I've been lurking on these forums for a few months now, intimidated by the size and depth of some collections going around, but with a few recent acquisitions (albeit modest) of some pieces I've coveted for a long time, I feel like I'm ready to start sharing.
My Oakley obsession started more than 20 years ago when begged my parents for a pair of Sub Zero's (which of course I still have) for my 14th birthday for playing baseball. For the longest time my love for Oakley was primarily practical, as they were and still are the best choice for playing ball sports from an optics and safety perspective, so from Zero's I moved on to Mumbo's and M Frames, and built up a collection of lenses for every light condition. To this day, I won't step on to a field without a pair of Oakley's protecting my own eyes, and I've had at least 2 team mates thank me for saving themselves from significant eye damage after they've bought Oakley's on my recommendation and subsequently being hit in the eye without sustaining an injury (we still talk about buffing the seam mark out of a team mates zero's after he bunted a 95 mph fastball in to his face).
My collection grew steadily through the late 90's and early 2000's while I worked in surf/skate retail while at university, and I look back at this era of Oakley fondly, although as a student with little disposable income, I regret not being able to afford to buy what are considered as "holy grail" type pieces now at significant discount, and not fully taking advantage of relationships with sales reps
My collection only really took off after I began road cycling in 2005, and even then it didn't really become an obsession until the 2007 Tour de France, seeing Alexander Vinokourov and David Millar in Retina Burn Radars. As you can see from my picture, my collection is really centred around cycling special editions, but it extends to x-metal, anything from the Mad-Science era, all the way back to original, NIB Eyeshades from 1984 (the grips are re-issues, but I'll take them where I can get them).
Unfortunately, even though I've known and continue to meet many people throughout the Oakley organisation, I'm yet to meet the right person to hook me up with a display case, but I've never stopped working on that count. The picture below represents roughly half of my collection of over 80 pieces of eyewear, one of these days hopefully I'll come across a double-wide tower to display it all
I've been lurking on these forums for a few months now, intimidated by the size and depth of some collections going around, but with a few recent acquisitions (albeit modest) of some pieces I've coveted for a long time, I feel like I'm ready to start sharing.
My Oakley obsession started more than 20 years ago when begged my parents for a pair of Sub Zero's (which of course I still have) for my 14th birthday for playing baseball. For the longest time my love for Oakley was primarily practical, as they were and still are the best choice for playing ball sports from an optics and safety perspective, so from Zero's I moved on to Mumbo's and M Frames, and built up a collection of lenses for every light condition. To this day, I won't step on to a field without a pair of Oakley's protecting my own eyes, and I've had at least 2 team mates thank me for saving themselves from significant eye damage after they've bought Oakley's on my recommendation and subsequently being hit in the eye without sustaining an injury (we still talk about buffing the seam mark out of a team mates zero's after he bunted a 95 mph fastball in to his face).
My collection grew steadily through the late 90's and early 2000's while I worked in surf/skate retail while at university, and I look back at this era of Oakley fondly, although as a student with little disposable income, I regret not being able to afford to buy what are considered as "holy grail" type pieces now at significant discount, and not fully taking advantage of relationships with sales reps
My collection only really took off after I began road cycling in 2005, and even then it didn't really become an obsession until the 2007 Tour de France, seeing Alexander Vinokourov and David Millar in Retina Burn Radars. As you can see from my picture, my collection is really centred around cycling special editions, but it extends to x-metal, anything from the Mad-Science era, all the way back to original, NIB Eyeshades from 1984 (the grips are re-issues, but I'll take them where I can get them).
Unfortunately, even though I've known and continue to meet many people throughout the Oakley organisation, I'm yet to meet the right person to hook me up with a display case, but I've never stopped working on that count. The picture below represents roughly half of my collection of over 80 pieces of eyewear, one of these days hopefully I'll come across a double-wide tower to display it all
