Oakley

Oakley was founded in 1975 by Jim Jannard in his garage in Southern California with $300 and what he described as a raging distaste for mediocrity. Jannard named the company after his English Setter, Oakley Anne. His first product was a motorcycle handgrip — a rubber compound he patented as Unobtainium, which increased grip under sweat and moisture. That same material is still used in the earsocks and nose pieces of every Oakley frame today.

The move into eyewear came from the same engineering logic: Jannard looked at the goggles and sunglasses available to athletes and found them optically compromised, structurally weak, or both. The O-Frame ski goggle launched in 1980, and in 1984 the Eyeshade — a single-lens performance sunglass designed specifically for cyclists — became the first Oakley frame worn at the Olympics. When Greg LeMond wore Oakley sunglasses during the Tour de France in 1986, the brand’s position in cycling was established.

Two decades of athlete-led development followed, and Oakley’s proprietary Plutonite lens material — which blocks 100% of UVA, UVB, UVC and harmful blue light while maintaining optical clarity that meets or exceeds ANSI Z87.1 standards — became the benchmark for performance eyewear. High Definition Optics (HDO) corrects for the angular distortion created when a curved lens sits in front of the eye, a problem most competitors still ignore.
For cycling and running, the Oakley Jawbreaker and Oakley Sutro are the current benchmark sport frames — designed with athlete input, compatible with prescription inserts, and available with Prizm lens technology, which fine-tunes light transmission for specific environments including road, trail and low light conditions.