There are many cycling eyewear brands these days. But the dominant brand is Oakley. Why? Well, because Oakley pretty much pioneered protective eyewear in cycling. And then focussed on being innovative. Here’s some insight into why Oakley is the dominant cycling eyewear brand.
The Oakley brand was established in 1975 by American Jim Jannard. In his garage, he started making moto-cross grips and selling them out of his car boot at moto-cross races. He used a super-grippy, but durable material that’s still used today on the earsocks and nosepieces of many Oakley eyewear models. The Oakley name came from his dog, Oakley Ann.
The brand was considered to produce high-quality, good looking product and made a range of products for moto-cross and BMX racing, including gloves and goggles. In 1984, Oakley made its first cycling eyewear, the Oakley Factory Pilot, which American cyclist Greg Lemond helped popularise when he won the 1986, 1989 and 1990 Tours de France. In 1985, Oakley made its first casual eyewear, the Oakley Frogskin.
Oakley enjoyed incredible success and grew into a global brand. It became predominantly a sports eyewear brand, designing hundreds of models over the years for various action sports, in addition to cycling. Oakley sponsored the best athletes in most sports and worked with them to design and refine new models. In cycling, Oakley formed associations with the likes of Mark Cavendish, Greg Minnaar, Nino Schurter and Mathieu van der Poel to develop and market cycling-specific models.
Oakley went public in 1995 and in 2007, Jannard, who at that stage owned 63% of Oakley, sold the brand to Luxottica for $2.1 Billion. Although it now makes a range of sporting apparel, shoes and bags, eyewear remains Oakley’s primary category and the brand owns more than 600 patents. Oakley was the first brand to create optical clarity on curved lenses. The optical clarity of Oakley lenses remains market leading thanks to Oakley’s investment establishing its own R&D facility where testing and innovation are a priority.
Oakley makes a wide range of lenses and frames in various styles and colours to suit every kind of cyclist. In general, most committed South African cyclists own more than one pair of Oakley eyewear – one for bright conditions and one that can handle changing light or low-light conditions.
Lynnwood Cyclery stocks a wide range of Oakley eyewear – both performance and casual. Check out the range here https://www.lynnwoodcyclery.co.za/collections/sunglasses and take advantage of some reduced pricing!
Author, Lynnwood Cyclery