Designer eyewear brand, Oakley, couldn’t have stemmed from more humble — yet adventurous beginnings. Founder James Jannard was something of a renegade: a college drop out with a mind of his own. He spent an entire year roaming the Southwest on his motorcycle. In 1975 after time on the road, James found himself with revving ideas, with constant questions about industry standards with regards to motorcycles and other technologies.

As it happens, his questions were left unanswered in the greater community, so he went into business by himself with just three hundred dollars and his workshop: a garage. He proclaimed he would make products that not only looked better — but products that would work better than anything else on the market. James named his company “Oakley” after his dog.

Sounds Great, But What about Oakley Eyewear?

Jannard’s initial invention involved a particular kind of motorcycle handgrip. The handgrip was meant to formulate to the rider’s hand, rather than the rider’s hand trying to grip something it simply wasn’t meant to grip. This initial idea: to reverse the current item trends and create a user-friendly model, was the entire backbone for the Oakley brand.

Eventually, he created sportswear sunglasses — items that began as necessities and became luxurious and fashionable. Greg Le Mond, a cyclist in the Tour de France, wore a pair of Jannard’s sunglasses the same year he won, thus bringing the Oakley name to the world.

In fact, much of the Oakley name rides on celebrity endorsements. Andre Agassi, a renowned tennis player, sported the glasses for free because he liked Jannard — and he liked the style. Michael Jordan was seen wearing Oakley’s specs quite often as well.

Several decades after this initial marriage of technology and fashion, the brand finds itself at the top tier of eyewear luxury — striving for constant innovation. Oakley, Inc. does not make its eyewear available to the mass-market sales, therefore allowing the brand to remain high-end, on the exterior of the unfortunate drive toward “sameness” or lack of individuality growing in our current markets. With Oakley eyewear, you’re wearing something unique — something made for a particular purpose.

Innovative Technology with No Limits

Today, you can find a whole host of Oakley designer eyepieces, each with a fashionable and technological leap forward in the industry. Because of company’s dynamic history, each pair of glasses formulates a sports eyewear collection — one that allows movement and vibrant life while wearing the glasses. Jannard understood that life was full of adventure at a very early age, and his sense of joie de vivre translates well into his current lines.

The Oakley Crosslink Switch, for example, is a featured piece of Oakley eyewear. It brings a sense of modern, geek chic style, while also providing limitless utility. Like the rest of the line, the Crosslink Switch offers Oakley True Digital Technology and Oakley Stealth coating. But what are they all about?

Because Oakley grounds itself in the sporting world, its utilization of Oakley True Digital Technology is quite important. The lenses are developed with unique Dual Peripheral Technology — a know-how that formulates better motion recognition and peripheral vision. Any glasses wearer understands the importance of this; if you’re on the baseball field and the ball is coming from your right, for example, you wouldn’t be able to see it if your lenses didn’t wrap around a bit utilizing the True Digital, 3D technology. Furthermore, this “wrappage” provides comfort and ease for any shaped head.

Oakley Stealth coating is an advanced lens treatment on all company’s optic products. The coating is meant to be anti-reflective, better for sporting events, and optimal for durability. According to company’s reports, this technology maintains scratch-resistance, allowing your specs to create a seamless, clear vision. It further repels water, prevents streaks, and reduces smudge marks with an oleophobic and hydrophobic surface treatment.

Further Oakley optic technology offers ophthalmic-specific frames, or personalized frames for your face shape. After all, no two people should wear the same pair of glass because no two people have the exact same face shape. Oakley offers metal frames with intrinsic shape memory that allows the shape of your glasses to never falter.

Furthermore, Oakley Activated By Transitions SOLFX lenses are said to be the very first proper interchangeable prescription lens. The glasses can darken in sunlight and lighten in darkness automatically and much more quickly than any other transition lens on the market.

Partnership with Google Glass

The future of Oakley thrives in continued innovation. Its current transition to the first digital music eyewear, Oakley THUMP, brings music directly to your ear from your sunglasses.

Google Glass, a brand new technology that allows you to hold a computer on your eyeglasses for easy access, has recently partnered with Oakley and another high-end eyewear company, Ray Ban. Because Oakley has long held technology and fashion to a high standard, it is the perfect innovator to try to bring Google Glass to the forefront of the greater world. Right now, no one’s paying attention to Google Glass — not really. But no one was paying attention to James Jannard when he started Oakley from his garage, either…

Photo Credit: thecombined.com, Oakley