We are extremely pleased to announce our newest brand, Oakley, to the designer collection at Spex4less.com. Delve a little deeper into the history of Oakley, the brand itself.
Founded in 1975, Jim Jannard began creating; designing and producing handle grips for motocross motorbikes from the back of his car. Jannard later named them ‘The Oakley Grips’. Living life as a university student at the University of California in 1970, Jannard later dropped out and which is when he decided to begin his adventure. Jim Jannard then spent around a year becoming more and more of a motorcyclist enthusiast having travelled around as just a man and his motorcycle and eventually sold his own motorcycle to buy a small car in order to create a business out of the boot. Jannard began selling motorcycle parts to shops that serviced broken motorcycles. When he realised that business was taking off, Jannard created ‘The Oakley Grips’ which he sold alongside the motorcycle parts. Oakley found its iconic brand name from Jannard’s English Setter ‘Oakley Anne’. This was then the beginning of Oakley.
By the end of the decade, Jim Jannard had already started selling motocross goggles. Handing them out at motocross events and competitions, Jannard then began selling them through the Oakley motorcycle parts accounts with the help of various salespeople. When Jannard realised that the motocross goggles had become a hit with the public, he then went on to produce eyewear that was part goggle, part sunglass to skiers and cyclists. In 1983, Oakley then began to sell ski goggles. Within the following year, Oakley had moved on to selling sunglasses and had moved into the sunglass market. Oakley then had a prime marketing moment when cyclist Greg Le Mond wore a pair of Oakley sunglasses in the 1986 Tour de France where he went on to win. It was not long until Jannard realised that the use of athletes wearing his products would bring him the marketing he would need to be recognised worldwide. Jannard and his salespeople in the early 1990s would hand out their new sunglass model to top and well-known sports personalities at many sports
events, even handing a pair to the iconic basketball (and keen golf enthusiast) player, Michael Jordan who then went on to also be a keen wearer of the Oakley sunglass models.
In 1995, Oakley decided that it was finally time to go public. On the run up to Oakley becoming public, the company overall had a net worth of around $280 million. With a value that large, in 1994, Jannard was able to give himself a bonus of $21 million. At this point, he owned 64.8% of the business after selling around 10 million shares.
After going public in 1995, Jannard decided Oakley needed a new headquarters and in January 1996, went on to unveil his plans to locate the new headquarters in 40 acres of land at Foothill Ranch in Orange County. Jannard had a specific design for the headquarters and can only be described that he wanted it to “look as if it were the sole survivor in a ‘post-nuclear kill zone.’” The $35 million headquarters has only the best facilities such as a running track, corporate offices, an auditorium, a boutique, a museum, a helicopter landing pad and a small park for employees.
However, with new headquarters, it also brought new competitors such as Bausch & Lomb, as well as the well known and iconic Nike which still remains to be two of Oakley’s main competitors.
Company Perspective;
“Today, Oakley is driven to seek out problems, create solutions, and wrap those solutions in art. The company’s obsession with innovation has built a legacy of science, sculpture, and defiance of conventional thinking. Reinventing the concept of eyewear was only the first step. The passion that
ignited the optical industry is now unleashed on high-performance footwear, wristwatches, apparel and accessories.”