How/Why Did You Start Collecting Oakleys?

[Ninebreaker]

Kind of inspired by @glock24shooter 's thread, what got you started?

When I was overseas as a kid, I had a chance to hang out with a friend of mine from the States (knew him since preschool). We were going through Chinese street markets, and I remember him getting super excited about bootleg Oakleys. At the time I didn't know what the big deal was, but I thought they looked cool.

Fell out of touch with him, but I still saw Oakleys around every now and then. This year COVID hit and Oakley had a major sale. I bought one, loved the lens, then started buying more. And more.

... And more. Then I went a little expensive and bought a racing jacket since I heard they were rare. Then I began looking into X-Metals, and I went overboard from there.

Side note, last year I got back in touch with my friend thanks to Facebook, just messaging back and forth. Since we were kids he's gone on to be a police officer, recently got into SWAT and started a family. I got a chance to visit him for the first time in a while a few weeks ago, and I gave him a gift -- A pair of Oakleys.

 

[Inkkoonce]

Growing up a Navy brat, I remember my Dad buying a pair of Frogskins in 1990 on the base in Spain. I fell in love! I finally got my first pair of Oakleys Christmas of ‘95 from my Uncle back in the States. He bought me and Dad some Eye Jackets. We loved them and I was walking around High School in Italy all proud, until........... they broke. They came apart from use after only a couple of months. Same thing happened to my Dads. So we sent them to Oakley and wrote a letter. It took forever in those days with snail mail but when we finally got a letter back from Oakley we were excited but confused why they didn't ship us a new pair (They did that in the old days). The letter stated that they were FAKE. We were so mad. My Uncle confessed he bought them on the street behind an alley in NY He made us think they were real. I was pissed but then again I was happy they weren’t Oakleys because the quality was bad. Hehe

After high school I bought various Oakleys but never had more than 3 pairs. I, unfortunately never took the plunge with Xmetals. Goodness knows I had many opportunities to buy them but figured it was better to buy O-Matter frames (What was I thinking?)

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I started buying more pairs of Oakleys. And then I found this forum. All the wonderful people and enthusiasm over different pairs and the history of each pair ignited my love again for Oakleys and the rest is, as they say, history.

 

[pjd1234]

My cousin wanted an eye jacket I remembered, then i went to ebay and typed oakley i saw a bunch of sunglasses. What caught my eye was an xmetal Mars auctioned for like 175.00, so i bid and won it for like 190.00 then i started exploring other designs saw the Juliet and got hooked on x metals. I saw them romeos, but didn’t really like them at first, it’s just recently that I really started to like them and now my numero uno frame. Eff the Juliets

 

[flyer]

“How/Why Did You Start Collecting Oakleys?”
Simply because the M Frame was (and still is) the simplest, most functional, stone-reliable, stylish eye protection in the Pro peleton.
It kinda snuck up on me from there...

 

[Bravan]

My cousin had a pair of Frogskins and the lenses were mirrored. I could fair dinkum see myself in them and from that I just had to get a pair.....got them and just been a fan ever since. Me and Oakley have had some time apart but we have always been special friends.

 

[Nortika]

A friend of mine had a pair of Frogskins when the second gen 1st came out, I had to get a pair, then Oakley sent me a catalog when The Juliets came out, after seeing them I fell in love and never looked back

 

[northcub]

My dad was a firefighter for the City of San Diego his whole career. Oakley must have started Standard Issue 1.0 back in 86 or 87, and he brought home a pair of blades he'd bought for $35. I quickly appropriated them and enjoyed the snot out of them until he re-appropriated them. In college I went whole hog with Ray-Ban, until my (now) ex-wife's douchebag "friend" (long story) broke them. I never wanted to be reminded of Ray-Ban's again, and a buddy had a Standard Issue account and was happy to buy for me. Fives Squared off of the SI site in 2012 were $49, and the hook was set.

 

[Scarface]

My GF gifted me a Polished Juliet ice (1998 i think) and it lasted forever, yah the GF also... my wife now
Many years later i just started collecting because it's something really cool about old school Oakleys

 

[Wewillsee1234]

Everytime I went to a specific store that sold Oakley's I would buy. Then I accumulated over 20 pairs.. I then started collecting Frogskins.

 

[Orion]

I got sick of buying junk sunglasses that were...... junk. My first pair was purchased about 5 years ago. Fives Squared and I forgot how great Oakley lenses were (owned a pair of Razorblades back in the early 90s). After the first purchase I soon became a member here......... and many here would say...... "and the rest is history". Which is pretty much the case and because of this great community I was able to learn more about older Oakleys and thus began my collection