Oakley to stop making watches by years end....

[digi7alph0enix]

At the end of all of this integration and relaunch of the Oakley brand, I wonder which type of Oakley customers will be pleased. Will it be the type that only buy 1 or 2 lifestyle pairs every once-in-a-while? Will it be the avid sportsman? I'm sure it won't be for many of us "collectors." I wonder what the big picture is here, with Oakley shutting down its "small pockets" areas. It seems as though Lux is reintegrating in order to save money to put towards other areas of the brand, or maybe just pocket it; who knows?

I blame Lux for the layoff thread shutdown.

 

[GH4AU]

I blame Lux for the layoff thread shutdown.

Lol, is that all???

 

[QLR1]

@GH4AU, from the looks of it, the lifestyle and sports crowd has been getting the attention. The collectors have been almost ignored (save for the Badman/Madman).

 

[digi7alph0enix]

Lol, is that all???

Pretty much. I'm not really bothered by any of this because its not like Oakley was perfect under JJ either. I mean we basically hold the guy in hero status when he sold the company. For all anyone knew Lux could have bought Oakley and shut it down just to reduce competition with their other brands and secure their patents. If that happened then who's the bad guy? Jim? Lux?

I feel for the people that really liked Oakley watches but for every one of you there are dozens like me who would never consider buying one at retail. Lux and any other company doesn't get in business to sell things below retail through indirect channels. They want to make their profit in their own retail stores. That wasn't happening so the watch line goes away.

Maybe it will turn out to be ISIS fault or something but it seems like a pretty standard business decision to me.

 

[CarGuy]

I mean we basically hold the guy in hero status when he sold the company

In all fairness to JJ its not like he was offered an insane amount of money in a vacuum. Lux controlled the majority of Oakley's retail distribution and Lux told Jim that his products were going to be out of their stores.
It was a straight-arm mob robbery and in a business sense it was a smart tactical maneuver for Lux. Jim was faced with the prospect of losing I'm guessing 75% of his retail distribution, came to an agreement with Lux and cashed out. This was his best play also given the hand that he was dealt.

I'm not happy with the direction that the company has gone but that's not my purview. The company appears to have done well in the interim from a stock value perspective but I don't think it's fair to intimate that Jim just laid down when a checkbook was opened.

With respect to the thread I'm disappointed that watches are done. They were overpriced and they did use off-the-shelf movements but I personally had warmed up to them. As a collector of mainly metals I was anti-watch for a long time and bought a couple at RED which turned out to be a gateway drug for other O watches. But the direction of the O brand is clear, moving away from nice stuff that lasts (real X Metals, watches) to consumables that wear out faster, will need to be replaced many times in a consumers lifespan and can be driven by luring consumers back to the stores for more consumable stuff by activities like the Type O bounceback program.

 

[digi7alph0enix]

In all fairness to JJ its not like he was offered an insane amount of money in a vacuum. Lux controlled the majority of Oakley's retail distribution and Lux told Jim that his products were going to be out of their stores.
It was a straight-arm mob robbery and in a business sense it was a smart tactical maneuver for Lux. Jim was faced with the prospect of losing I'm guessing 75% of his retail distribution, came to an agreement with Lux and cashed out. This was his best play also given the hand that he was dealt.

I'm not happy with the direction that the company has gone but that's not my purview. The company appears to have done well in the interim from a stock value perspective but I don't think it's fair to intimate that Jim just laid down when a checkbook was opened.

In no way was I trying to demonize him. If things in the "glory" days of Oakley were as they are today (internet forums and whatnot) I think you'd see just as many people miffed at the Oakley of old as you do the current one, it's just a lot easier to see now because of the worldwide reach of the internet.

People don't like change, and Lux is an easy scapegoat when unwanted or unforeseen changes happen.

 

[Oakley for life]

At the end of all of this integration and relaunch of the Oakley brand, I wonder which type of Oakley customers will be pleased. Will it be the type that only buy 1 or 2 lifestyle pairs every once-in-a-while? Will it be the avid sportsman? I'm sure it won't be for many of us "collectors." I wonder what the big picture is here, with Oakley shutting down its "small pockets" areas. It seems as though Lux is reintegrating in order to save money to put towards other areas of the brand, or maybe just pocket it; who knows?

From what I have heard from people on the inside is that Lux is wanting the clothing and accessories to be much bigger and going to be putting A LOT of support behind that. They look at UA and how big they got in a very short time, and yet Oakley is a very good, strong brand but does next to nothing in clothing and apparel compared to UA.

 

[xmetal40]

oakley could be going into the sport/wellness market with electronics, too.

 

[digi7alph0enix]

oakley could be going into the sport/wellness market with electronics, too.

After hearing that they joined Google's Glass project some time ago, I wouldn't be shocked to see an Android Wear device launch from Oakley.

 

[rthomas218]

I hope the Google project works out better than the recon instruments project with the airwave. I have a pair of $600 goggles that have pretty much 0 support and can't get a prism lens for the 'top of the line' goggle from oakley. Oh well, lesson learned.