Your biggest issue with Oakley's today

[CarGuy]

Was the Red event a big sham? Yeah, I think so.

I'm surprised nobody's bit back on that one...

Rust is entitled to his opinion as is everyone else. He wasn't there, I was. What happened there has been already been discussed here before.

I'll take the bait as usual...
RED was not a big sham. Jim was above-board and was straightforward about what he wanted and it was his event. It was an opportunity for him to shake the bushes and see if he could recapture what meant something to him- pairs of glasses and products from what he (and most of us) consider the heyday of Oakley's history. ie: pre-Lux. He even found a piece of his history that he believed was in his old office at HQ that had found its way into the wild.
He bought us a couple beers, street tacos, opened up his studio (the old DesiLu studio where they filmed the old B&W "I Love Lucy" episodes) to the attendees and demonstrated his RED technology. He shared the better part of an afternoon with true believers and asked his partner in crime (Hans Moritz) to attend who was every bit as accommodating and open. Folks that had never met in person got a chance to.
He was a great host, answering virtually every question asked of him and was generous with his time. I think you would be hard-pressed to find an attendee that was disappointed by the event and it's waaaaaay easier to find people that are disappointed that they were not able to attend.
As I was typing this you added this and allowed as much:

Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to go, even in retrospect. It was an amazing event for fans and collectors, the likes of which we'll probably never have a dream about seeing again.

But let's not call it a sham and undermine JJ's hospitality. He had an agenda and was honest about that.

 

[kronin323]

I'll take the bait as usual...
RED was not a big sham. Jim was above-board and was straightforward about what he wanted and it was his event. It was an opportunity for him to shake the bushes and see if he could recapture what meant something to him- pairs of glasses and products from what he (and most of us) consider the heyday of Oakley's history. ie: pre-Lux. He even found a piece of his history that he believed was in his old office at HQ that had found its way into the wild.
He bought us a couple beers, street tacos, opened up his studio (the old DesiLu studio where they filmed the old B&W "I Love Lucy" episodes) to the attendees and demonstrated his RED technology. He shared the better part of an afternoon with true believers and asked his partner in crime (Hans Moritz) to attend who was every bit as accommodating and open. Folks that had never met in person got a chance to.
He was a great host, answering virtually every question asked of him and was generous with his time. I think you would be hard-pressed to find an attendee that was disappointed by the event and it's waaaaaay easier to find people that are disappointed that they were not able to attend.
As I was typing this you added this and allowed as much:

But let's not call it a sham and undermine JJ's hospitality. He had an agenda and was honest about that.

That's what I suspected - that his main motivation was really to gather some collector pieces he wanted, not just to show fan appreciation. Yet fan appreciation was still shown and it sounded like a great time. I, too, wish I could have participated...

 

[Rustpot]

Yeah, I worded my statement poorly. I don't even know what I was talking about when I made it.

 

[the piper]

I can't think of too many things right with oakley now. The styles r huge, repetitive and quality control not what it was . I love my Flaks and SJ's but have not bought anything except hj 2 and qj's made since 07. Oh yeah one canteen ... Forced into semi retirement ...RB/ lux won out over mad science

 

[Ex_Oakley_employee]

Hi guys, thanks for all the comments. I met up with a couple of really good friends who are still at Lux this week and have linked them both to this thread since.

We had some great conversation and in the short time even I have left the company it was very interesting to hear where they think things are shifted in the next couple of years, especially from a marketing point of view and louder and louder voices from within the Oakley side of the company, hardcore fans and generally a feeling within the closed world of the industry the 'O' brand has probably slightly started to deviate down the wrong path.

The more you make your voices heard though, the more the guys who still care about the Oakley brand have something to take to Lux and fight what are often seemingly bizarre decisions.

 

[Hawksfan]

Innovation is the creature of need, and profit. Right now Oakley is raking in the money, and the glasses are to the point where there isn't much need to change except for integrating technology which Oakley has tried to do with the Pace but hasn't really got there yet. There isn't really much of a need to change so you will see rehashing there is only so much you can do with sun glasses. I applaud Oakley with the prizm design which is an innovation. My only fault it that I feel Oakley is going a bit cheap in their new designs, it used to be their glasses were damn near indestructible, not any more. I actually want Oakley to go back to its roots kind of like Apple did. Make actually less pairs maybe 6 to 8 different styles, but make them great again and get technology in the glasses I would love to have a smart glasses, real ones not the Pace. With a real HUD built into the lenses, that means they will be expensive so the lenses will have to be better the polycarbonate, something like gorilla glass but Oakley that's the innovation I want.