Quality of aftermarket lenses?

[htrap2294]

Anyone have recommendations or cautions about any of the alibaba shield lens sellers? Im thinking about trying my hand at making a backup lens for my .3p.

Only buy OEM if you care about your eyes.

It's like buying an expensive sports car and then keeping walmart tires on it.

 

[TechArtisan]

Its more like buying a porsche 944 back in the 80s and not being able to get parts for it so your pondering an engine swap.

You cant cut a .3p out of any existing oakley lens. They are too big.
I get the sentiment...really I do.
When the 0.3p came out Oakley ruled optics. That was 20+ years ago.
I am skeptical that a lens blank isnt available that would meet or exceed 20 year old optics.
Ive got one cracked pair, and a new pair I scored CHEAP from japan.
Id rather have a pile of original lenses so I never have to worry about breaking them again...
but I dont see luxxotica coming off with that.
Im just exploring my options...but thanks for the input

 

[htrap2294]

Its more like buying a porsche 944 back in the 80s and not being able to get parts for it so your pondering an engine swap.

You cant cut a .3p out of any existing oakley lens. They are too big.
I get the sentiment...really I do.
When the 0.3p came out Oakley ruled optics. That was 20+ years ago.
I am skeptical that a lens blank isnt available that would meet or exceed 20 year old optics.
Ive got one cracked pair, and a new pair I scored CHEAP from japan.
Id rather have a pile of original lenses so I never have to worry about breaking them again...
but I dont see luxxotica coming off with that.
Im just exploring my options...but thanks for the input

Whoops, I thought .3p was like 3 pence...total misunderstanding...LOL

 

[TechArtisan]

LMAO. If I could find 0.3p for 3 pence Id have a truckload!

 

[ZCForge]

Its more like buying a porsche 944 back in the 80s and not being able to get parts for it so your pondering an engine swap.

You cant cut a .3p out of any existing oakley lens. They are too big.
I get the sentiment...really I do.
When the 0.3p came out Oakley ruled optics. That was 20+ years ago.
I am skeptical that a lens blank isnt available that would meet or exceed 20 year old optics.
Ive got one cracked pair, and a new pair I scored CHEAP from japan.
Id rather have a pile of original lenses so I never have to worry about breaking them again...
but I dont see luxxotica coming off with that.
Im just exploring my options...but thanks for the input

Radar pitch won’t work? @Chris A Hardaway

 

[TechArtisan]

Dont think so. Even the Radar Path is cutdown further as far as I can tell.

 

[ZCForge]

Dont think so. Even the Radar Path is cutdown further as far as I can tell.

Have you tried an EV Zero yet? That might be a viable alternative

 

[AirMech74]

I'll be honest and say that I have some Fuse Lenses in some old Whisker frames and a pair of Fours....fit is great, they look great...very good customer service....i'm happy with them so far....price is hard to beat too.

 

[SpliceD]

Revant Optics are pretty good, but the are somewhat limited on good looking lens tints. While they cut for a wide variety of frames, they still don't cut everything. I tried a set of Fuse Chome to replace the lenses in a pair of ewire 1.0. No issues with that pair. Since they worked out well, i decided to try a pair of Fuse violet lenses for my XMXX. While i wouldn't say they were garbage, i didn't like them cuz they weren't super clear to look through, and they didn't fit perfectly. They also had some weird color grading on the Y axis of the lens. I'm not sure if that's because of the lens tint, but it gave me slight headaches and they weren't even polarized. I recently bought a pair of "+Red" Revant lenses for the XMXX because they had a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale (20% off) and they've been fine. They also fit the frame better than the Fuse.

I've never used IKON, but curious to try as most on this forum seem to like them. The other brand is Linegear Japan. They make some pretty decent lenses, but they ship from Japan and can get a pricey enough to be in the range of OEM lenses.

Another option is to have one of the custom modders here cut lenses for you. It can be an expensive option, but you get Oakley lenses custom fit for your frame, as long as you can find donors that will work.

I used to be a purist and would only buy Oakley lenses because i believed them to be the absolute best on the market. As i'm getting older and my priorities and responsibilities shift, i find i don't want to spend the coin for genuine Oakley, including custom cuts.