• Take 30 seconds to register your free account to access deals, post topics, and view exclusive content!

    Register Today

    Join the largest Oakley Forum on the web!

Your biggest issue with Oakley's today

Ex_Oakley_employee

Oakley Enthusiast
173
153
Well they are letting me back in the building for a retirement party next week! I've really enjoyed reading and being just a 'fan' and part of this superb online community.

I am effectively going back as just a fan of the product but I still have contacts who are always willing to listen to fans of the product and there really are still guys there who are trying their damn hardest to drive the product in the correct way, just sometimes it's fighting a losing battle.

Talking to people lately the biggest issues are:

  • The effective end of 'Made in USA' on most (slowly becoming all) lines
  • The lack of attention to the elite ranges (my no.1 issue)
  • The company becoming Rab-oakley, see some of the current releases coming up :(
I'm just like you guys, have my collection and enjoying my days playing golf, but for a day I might just have the ear of someone who will listen to me again.
 
My biggest issue with the company is how obvious it has become that the bottom line dictates innovation. Oakley was turned upside down from a company who did things because the founder wanted to see if it could be done to a company that is driven by sales and literally nothing else. These days they rehash the same tired styles across multiple brands until they've bled out all the sales they possibly can before looking to do something "innovative". Take a look at the releases over the last 5 years. Sure plenty of new frames have come out, but many (most?) of them are rehashes of a past product line, or frames so similar to another recent frame that you almost can't tell them apart without holding them in your hands. When did we finally see something a little more cutting edge? When the tin frames came out, along with the carbon blades. The blades we know are a redo of another lux owned product. The tin frames are interesting but brought down by their overall boring design, they look like a million other pairs of glasses.

Back when I first started noticing Oakley, before I made a single purchase, there were 2 things that stood out to me that made me want them. The first was the colors of the lenses I saw people wearing. They were awesome, but I could buy red/blue/green/etc colored sunglasses from just about any gas station. The other thing that stood out to me was how awesome the design of the frames was. It wasn't like the dollar store and gas station pairs. Even more conservative frames like the Minute and Twenty were just so much more impressive than anything I had ever seen. What do we have these days? A huge section of the brand devoted to a style that Jim once said made him feel like a sell out because they were just generic frames that made money. I'm talking of course about Frogskins. Not just frogs though- Holbrook. Garage Rock. Breadbox. Jupiter Squared. Twoface. I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting. I mean no disrespect to people who own and enjoy these frames, that's great that there are options for you. All I'm saying is, where is the innovation in those frames? What about the other current releases? The majority are either designs that have been out for several years or re-released versions of past styles.

So that's my gripe. In a lux owned world Oakley is just a shell of its former self, driven only by sales figures and not by true innovation. Without innovation, they will eventually fall. They've lost my business already.
 
racing, half, fast, quarter, flak.... Just put 'jacket' behind it and sell it as different models
Holbrook, jupiter............... Just put 'squared' of 'LX' behind it and sell it as a different model
M-frame......................... just put a '2' behind it and sell it as as different model
Radar ............................... just put 'Lock' behind it and sell it as a different model
Holbrook.............................. make the stems foldable, call it 'sliver' and sell it as a different model

Make sunglasses out of a filosofy other then ''making as much money as possible'', because this
'hit and run' technique will work for a while, but for the long term i think it's not the winning strategy.

As a kid i saw baseball, all the players were wearing OTT's. WOW! I wanted to know what that was and i wanted a pair.
When are they finally gonna make innovative things such as OTT again!?
 
Most of my gripes with Oakley's production were aired out at RED. My biggest current gripe is they wont hire me, or even talk to me about it. I guess Im too old for their ideal demographics. Even though they call me from time to time for answers to questions they dont know. The guy at SGH offered me a job right on the spot but I dont want to work for SGH. Maybe this fall will be different, but Im not holding my breath.
 
Most of my gripes with Oakley's production were aired out at RED. My biggest current gripe is they wont hire me, or even talk to me about it. I guess Im too old for their ideal demographics. Even though they call me from time to time for answers to questions they dont know. The guy at SGH offered me a job right on the spot but I dont want to work for SGH. Maybe this fall will be different, but Im not holding my breath.


I am having the same issue, ive been trying to get hired on at my loacal vault to no avail. I am constantly getting emails showing job openings that i never get. I probably know more about Oakleys than most of the current employees. I am 35 so like you said, i don't think i fit the age demographic they want.

My biggest issue with Oakley is that my wallet is too thin to get the ones i want , sadface
 
racing, half, fast, quarter, flak.... Just put 'jacket' behind it and sell it as different models
Holbrook, jupiter............... Just put 'squared' of 'LX' behind it and sell it as a different model
M-frame......................... just put a '2' behind it and sell it as as different model
Radar ............................... just put 'Lock' behind it and sell it as a different model
Holbrook.............................. make the stems foldable, call it 'sliver' and sell it as a different model
Oakley = Jordans
 
Oakley = Jordans

Not only that but other things that pushed the envelope. Eye jackets, OTT, Medusa, Romeo the list goes on and on. It seems the innovation has really taken a back seat to profit. Even the newest round of display cases in the stores are boring non Oakley looking.
 
I'm not trying to Lux bash, but I feel innovation has taken a back seat to sales ...

There was a time where Oakley was a brand for sports nuts ( m frame), the crazy looking ( zeros et al.) and the real kooks ( medusas, OTT's)

They've become too "safe" ... Pushing away the 'hardcore' who would but many pairs to appeal to the massive masses who might buy one pair every decade because they looked 'cool' ( eg: 'Brooks, Enduros,GR's ) ...

I wish there was a way to directly interact with Oaley and express our feeling besides going through local reps, online CS or through our newest insider Ex-Employee... I wish we got feedback From our suggestions so we don't feel like we're a community supporting a company whose turned their back on us...
 
I think some of the complaints are nit-picks. The sport frames are predictably not going to change radically because they emphasize function more. There is the valid complaint that the Radarlock and M2 don't have larger-coverage lens options. But I mean exploiting switchlock with a single lens, tweaking the earstem width of the simple M design....those can be a big difference in function.

Casual frames are a different story. They've gone very "safe" for the sake of business and I understand that perfectly, but I don't see why the entire casual line seems so redundant. You'd think there would be a couple out-there pairs to appeal to long-time fans.

The Elite line has been disappointing. I have perceived the CB has a "token CF pair" for the brand. Ray Ban has done it, and so have some smaller companies. The execution really had no standout at all. Screwed-in lenses (which was found to be a delicate interface), very thin frames. Literally the cheapest way they could've gone about it.
I like how the PB2 was designed to be more practical - I'd call it a net improvement even - but literally just that logo (combined with the up-charge) really ruined things.

The USA/China issue only falls on one thing imo: keeping the quality the same. Of course origin of production has it's implications regarding job economy and company efforts, but as far as the consumer is concerned, just make sure the quality doesn't suffer.
 

Latest Posts

Back
Top