Oakley Inc.

Oakley, Inc. is a publicly traded U.S. company from the sports and clothing industry. The headquarters are located in Foothill Ranch, California and in Letchworth, Hertfordshire in the UK.

The most famous products are sunglasses, and ski goggles. Also produces Oakley watches, clothes, backpacks, shoes and many other items, mainly from the sports industry.

The company logo is an oval "O", which is found on almost all products. Mainly on the garments there will be parallel a skull icon. Oakley is known for its futuristic design, which is described by the company as a mixture of organic and artificial.

The capitalization of approximately 1.1 billion U.S. dollars (as of 2006), the worldwide turnover in 2005 of 650 million U.S. dollars. Chairman of the Board ( Chairman ) and founder of the company founded in 1975, is James Jannard, who is also the 68 % stake (2006). Current Chief Executive Officer Scott Olivet.

As with many other brand name companies, occur frequently also fake products. These are sold primarily in the Internet or overseas tourists. These fakes are called " Foakleys " (fake Oakleys ) or " Joke - leys " means.

History

Oakley was founded in 1975 by Jim Jannard. At that time he sold the B-1B, a handle for BMX handlebars, directly from his car on motocross events. These were different from the handles, used the BMX racing driver at this time: they were not slippery when wet, but grippy. So good stop was guaranteed even in the mud forever. Even today, the B-1B grips for its tradition and unique features in the BMX racing scene are known.

Although very successful, the handles were hidden most of the time in the hands of the drivers of these races, which is why they had a low advertising effect. Many people had indeed heard of them, but did not know how they look. It was in 1980, when Jim brought a few Bicycle motocross goggles called " O Frame " on the market. With the classic Oakley logo on the strap, the spectators, the Oakley brand could now perceive. In 1984, the Oakley " Factory Pilot ", a sunglasses with the same disc shape as the " O Frame ", combined with normal ironing. The Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and other professional (wheel) racing driver made ​​the glasses known. In 1986, Oakley sunglasses is a further models that offered a real Interchangeable lenses for the first time. Termed " Blades" and "Razor Blades" models were the forerunners of the 1989 published " Mumbo ", which were later renamed " M Frame ".

Oakley sunglasses were among others in action films such as Blade II, Mission: Impossible II, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Black Hawk Down, X-Men, Drive Angry and Mr. & Mrs. Smith in appearance.

In June 2007, the Italian eyewear group Luxottica ( € 1.5 billion) took over for 2.1 billion U.S. dollars, the company Oakley.