Aquatique Frogskins @ Shade Station

[Stiffy]

the hot spots are pretty dope

 

[V0RT3X]

The pouches look nice.

 

[OOO]

And now, the time is near . . .

 

[Carlitocarlin]

A plus...These frames are polished. (I think.)

I think they need to pull in the reins a bit here and really take a look at the stories they are trying to tell with the Collectors/Limited FrogSkin's. The last two years have been a slippery slope of repeats. Acid rain, Acid Tort, and Black Light were all (more or less) the same. Now we see a refreshing series such as the Summit..just to be rebutted by this series. I personally like it but at this point I have collected all the collections up to Summit and it is getting insane! Too much of the same thing. They need to do north american releases like the recent AAPE. Concentrate on limited numbers and unique stories.

Telling stories is exactly what they need to do with their special editions. In the past, all of their special collections were special BECAUSE there was some kind of reason and background to it, which adds value and flavor to the eyewear. Now, the 'specialness' is only in the fact that they're labeled as special, and have no other intrinsic value; even the colorways are drab and conventional - the exact opposite of the story that Oakley used to tell.

PS if there wasn't any more of a similarity to the Blacklights! seriously, what is with these black/grey with +red? it doesn't even match with either of the series.

 

[SJJ28]

Im most disappointed by no polarized lenses other than Grey or black iridium. When i hear "AQUAtique", i thought sweet these will be the launch of colored polarized lenses for frogs... so disappointed again.

 

[turbulence]

These have been discussed already. Except for the Abyss, they are the Summit series with the frame and stems mixed up and a different microbag. You can make all of these right now, there is nothing really 'new'. In fact when I was in the Oakley store about a month ago the guy was trying to sell the Summit series to me and the selling point he used was the fact you could easily take them apart and switch them up.

The Abyss looks like the Blacklight Black. The Blacklight Black was really the Acid Black in a matte finish, as all the Blacklights really were just Acid frames in matte rather than polished finish. It looks like they've painted it this time rather than used a clear frame.

I doubt Oakley spent an hour coming up with this. In fact I doubt Oakley has spent a day putting any real thought in to the Frogskins frame for the past two years. The Acid series Frogskins were then re-issued in a matte finish and called the Blacklights. They then re-issued the Acid frames in a Tortoise finish. The Summit series are basically the same colour pallete as the Acid series (Green, Blue, Red, Green), and the Aquatique are the Summit series just with the stems swapped about.

Two straight years with boring variations on a theme that has never really sold. Acids, Blacklights, Acid Tortoise all went to the vault because nobody was buying them and even the Summits are now on sale. The saying 'wouldn't know if it came up and slapped you in the face' comes to mind. Seems Oakley are gluttens for punishment because they've been punched in the face 4 times and still keep coming back with the same old ****.

JK, you pretty much said everything I am thinking. Absolutely rubbish releases. The AAPE release had a unique packaging theme, and a t-shirt to boot, making it a nice item. Otherwise 2012 has been uninspiring, and 2013 isn't looking any better with this release to kick the year off. I'm really wishing Oakley would do something creative like they did with the Fade series. There are plenty of frame/lens colors and combos that could be done with the Fade frame style, and at least we'd (hopefully) end up with a recycled Frog release that'd be worth buying/wearing.

I'm starting to think Oakley doesn't realize there are actually more colors than the dozen or so they already use. Perhaps we should all pitch in and buy Oakley a nice color swatch like graphic artists or printshops have. "Look Oakley, new colors!!"

 

[jk-27]

A plus...These frames are polished. (I think.)

Shade Stations blog on these confirms they are matte, not polished (i.e., all Oakley have done is swap the stems about from the Summit series frames to 'create' a new collection). I hope Oakley didn't pay a design team to come up with that idea.

 

[bjhawk]

As stated here before, the Abyss is identical to the BLacklight Black. None of these do anything for me. I'm not a fan of different color frames/stems. I liked the matte finish of some of the Summit series but this is a pretty weak release.

 

[Mike Fear Light]

Shade Station needs to get on the ball and describe these as a gloss finish, not matte. There is going to be a lot of pissed off blokes when they get these glossy two-tone abominations in the post........i wanted to sound like i'm from London

 

[Shade Station]

Shade Station needs to get on the ball and describe these as a gloss finish, not matte. There is going to be a lot of pissed off blokes when they get these glossy two-tone abominations in the post........i wanted to sound like i'm from London

Sorry guys, there has been a mistake. We only had the images to off previously, and they did appear Matte like the Summits.

I have amended this on our campaign page now and you can check this out here:

Oakley Aquatique Frogskins - A New Year A New Frogskin

Sorry for any confusion.