X-Metal Replacement?What Will It Be?

[Dylanismyname]

With the X-Metal discontinuation rumors, What do you guys think will replace the X-metal series, and what would you like to see in the replacement? Such as frame material, lenses,cost, manufacture, etc.
Just thought i would start a thread as i haven't seen anything on the subject before.

Personally i would like to see the use of carbon fiber in the construction, but without the cost rising too dramatically.

P.S Not sure if this is in the right place

 

[PROFESSOR X]

In my opinion just like everything else these days I'm sure cost will jump up.

 

[CarGuy]

P.S Not sure if this is in the right place

Naw, this is an OK place- welcome to the forum!

In my opinion just like everything else these days I'm sure cost will jump up.

Personally I don't care what replaces the XM's. I like the style, construction, materials and story used in the XM's. I doubt that cost will jump up as I think that Oakley figured out what the right retails were for these and already has a high-end unit in the C-Six. What replaces them then, IMHO, will be a Lux item that they want us to have and not what we elected to follow. If they bring back the XM brand and why wouldn't they, it won't be the same. It will be an item with surely lower manufacturing costs will not be as well-constructed. Somebody help me here, how many man hours went into a pair of XM's and how many hands?
There is nothing that compares to hand-made and the "replacement" won't be.
My .02...

 

[lsz]

I don't want and unfortunately I can't make predictions, but:
in the past X metal series were high end in Oakley terminology but recently not anymore. Now Pitboss and C6 are high and higher end. C6 is using carbon fiber which is a specialty as a material of construction for sunglasses (like in the past X metal was).
The case is that manual work stages make a production expensive. Anyway both casting and carbon fiber transformation (sorry if it's not the right word) require manual interactions and cost money. On the other hand if Oakley is just finding a better (here: cheaper) place or method to make the X metal-series production then they should do it. This way they will able to fit between the gap (C6, Pit Boss » rest of the products). If not we will have collectors items with an increasing price. Which is fine if you have already a few.

 

[RetinaBurn]

That's a hard one to predict. It would be unfair to think that a X-Metal replacement would be any lower in quality, just because a new manufacturing process is used. The original process was cutting edge at the time, but that was 15 years ago. It would be safe to assume there have been certain advances in that manufacturing process and it just simply time to retool and catch up with the times. Unfortunately, we will all just have to wait and see what Oakley has to offer.

 

[Aprilia Man]

Lux will have significant decision making on this issue. Just try to remember every manufacturer has the same philosophy "Maximun Profit, Minimum Expense"

 

[CarGuy]

It would be unfair to think that a X-Metal replacement would be any lower in quality, just because a new manufacturing process is used. The original process was cutting edge at the time, but that was 15 years ago. It would be safe to assume there have been certain advances in that manufacturing process and it just simply time to retool and catch up with the times.

If it's going to be made in Cali then it won't be an X Metal alloy since X Metal uses titanium and they couldn't do it in Cali the first time so they most probably won't be able to the second time 'round either.
I don't think it unfair to say that the replacement won't be as high quality. The intent appears to be to drive labor expense out and that means people with hands and like I said before, there is nothing like hand-made.

 

[Rustpot]

I just hope they're going to a cheaper manufacturing process and not going overseas. The current (now shutdown) investment casting process was costly and labor intensive though. I'd be happy if they went to a method with shorter production times, less waste, etc.

In the last 10-15 years production methods have grown tremendously, including multiple methods to make metal parts with complex geometry like this. The number of companies that can work titanium has likely skyrocketed, as well as carbon fibers.

Unfortunately in our global economy it's still cheaper to run 1,000 parts in a Chinese factory and throw away the 900 that are out of spec than it is to make 100 good parts in the USA.

 

[Rabid_Monkey]

While I was in a Vault store today, I posed this same question to one of the employees, hoping to steal at least some little nugget of info. Of course, like the rest of us, he could only offer guesses. But he did say that a primary focus of the new product was to reduce the production time/complexity. I think he said it was taking 6 days of work to complete just one XM frame with the old process! Holy crap.

 

[CarGuy]

I think he said it was taking 6 days of work to complete just one XM frame with the old process! Holy crap.

That's exactly why I started collecting XM's, to state that they are works of art would be overly dramatic but there is more than a little human effort that went into each pair.