Reddish tint on new Oakley lenses compared to older ones

[fireandmercy]

I have had a pair of Flak 2.0 XL with Black Iridium Polarized lenses for a few years now. Last week I ordered a new pair with the same lens specs (Black Iridium Polarized) and the lenses have a reddish tint to them as compared to the older lenses that I have. It's actually annoying and makes everything look pinkish. See the attached image.

Is this a defect in the lenses or has Oakley changed the Black Iridium Polarized lens formulation in the last few years since I got my new pair of Flak 2.0's?

 

["TRUMP"]

Does the new lens have the word "prizm" etched into it?

 

[fireandmercy]

No. There's no mention of Prizm on the lenses. And I had doubled checked the order to make sure they're not Prizm because I know Prizm does shift the colors.

 

[Atticus]

Can you get non Prizm anymore?

 

[fireandmercy]

I called Oakley customer service today and asked that very question and they said that some people don't like Prizm so they are still offering non-Prizm lenses.

 

[Rvcaam]

Did you get an answer from Oakley about this?

I have the exact same problem with a new pair of Holbrook with black iridium polarized lenses.

The color of my old Crankcase with black iridium polarized is just like the one in your picture (old)
The new Holbrook seems reddish indeed, very anoying with less contrast.

 

[fireandmercy]

Yes, I did hear back from Oakley. Here is their response:

"Thank you for contacting Oakley. We have updated our lenses. The red tint you see increases the contrast around you. The grey tint you had before was neutral and only had the polarized technology."

So if I were to read into that all the new lenses will have that reddish tint, which is a bummer. However, in a separate email, they had sent me a link to this site (Assistenza, riparazioni e ricambi Oakley | Oakley® Italia ) and I just ordered some new Flak 2.0 lenses and they DO NOT have the reddish tint. So I don't know if those are just leftover stock from the old lenses or if they are still manufacturing the non-reddish tint lenses.

 

[Ventruck]

Going not true to neutral takes away from the point of BI, and then having to explain it in CS and having questionable inconsistency between in current available stock makes me question if it's a QC issue.

I can understand that Oakley has long made changes in iridium coatings between batches, but this is like a matter of having one product functionally mistaken for another. Like, Prizm Daily.

 

[Rvcaam]

Also asked Oakley about this. They wanted some additional pictures. Still waiting for an answer.

 

[fireandmercy]

Okay, I think I figured out what happened, at least in my case. I think Oakley screwed up and sent me Prizm lenses when I ordered non-Prizm. Here's the timeline:

1) I ordered a set of custom Flak 2.0 sunglasses, and I specified "Black Iridium Polarized" lenses during the order. The glasses came in and they looked like the picture in my original posting.
2) I ordered another set of custom Flak 2.0 sunglasses, and this time I specified "Prizm Black Polarized" lenses. The glasses came in and these lenses look exactly the same as the first set of Flak 2.0's that I had ordered.
3) I order a set of "Black Iridium" replaced lenses under the category of "HD Polarized." These lenses came in and they look like they're supposed to: neutral without the reddish tint.

So that leads me to believe that the first set of custom Flak 2.0's that I ordered came with Prizm lenses when they were not supposed to, and then all the customer service folks weren't able to figure that out. The good news is that if you order replacement lenses, you should be able to get the right ones, but if you're doing a custom order, you might have to just bite the bullet and take what you get because there's a good chance that it will be wrong.

I guess the final test would be for me to order a set of REPLACEMENT lenses in Prizm Black Polarized and see if they look the same as the other two sets of reddish tent lenses that I have, but I really don't want to have 3 sets of Prizm lenses!