The wildest designers in the west worked at Oakley

The previous Friday I talked about how much I loved sneakers, even though I didn’t really own too many pairs. This was mostly because they were difficult to find in my size. To me sneakers represented more than culture, or fashion. They were literally a part of my identity. They greatly influenced my art, sense of color, and design. Having the money, and ability to order pairs for myself while in college was liberating. A lifetime ago it wasn’t the only thing that really set my imagination on fire. In the ‘90s there was one company that I was obsessed with even though I never owned any of their products. Oakley was the only California business that I thought could outdo Apple in the design department. Apple was, and remains one of the best ever, but back in the day Oakley was designing products for aliens, not humans. For example take a look at the Medusa, and the Over the Top sunglasses.

Oakley had no problem challenging the status quo in the late ‘90s. They were not counter-culture, they were inventing their own culture. There was a reason to their madness. They were one of the few companies that supported action sports athletes before the X-Games made them household names. They were making products for racers, BMX, skiers, skaters, motocross, and other action pioneers before the major brands jumped on the bandwagon. This was because the company was founded by making grips for dirt bikes in the mid ‘70s. They understood that not every athlete practiced traditional sports. They needed functional products that matched their sometimes outrageous personalities. With the case of the Medusa, and Over the Top they wanted the industry to know that nobody had the creative freedom that they did. This wild headgear actually had a story.

A number of the most radical inventions from Oakley in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s was more than form over function. For example the Medusa started off as the head gear for a pro drag racer named Scotty Cannon. It was designed in part to look like the old leather skull caps there were worn by pilots during World War I. The added tentacles made it far more menacing, not unlike the braids worn by the alien Predators from the Schwarzenegger movie. The retail version was, and remains one of the most expensive products in their catalog. A complete set, skullcap plus goggles could run you over $2,000 today. This was not however the original look of the Medusa. In fact the material that the studio used wasn’t leather the first time around. The skullcap, and goggles were made of flame resistant fabric, and the lenses were integrated. They could not be removed. You might ask yourself what type of person would wear something that outlandish?

Scotty Cannon was a champion caliber drag racer that competed in the IHRA (International Hot Rod Association), and NHRA (National Hot Rod Association). Racing at over 300mph could be dangerous. The engines capable of generating more than 10,000 horsepower could explode in the middle of a race. Drivers had to wear flame resistant material, and a helmet to stay safe. Even in the pit area most of the crew wore flame resistant masks while working on the cars. Mr. Cannon’s headgear was actually following the vein of safety. The driver himself had a big personality, and was known for being outspoken about racing politics while competing in the NHRA, which was the most popular drag racing league in the USA. Oakley seemed to be a perfect fit for the attention grabbing racer. Mr. Cannon challenged the status quo, especially the most popular drivers at the time. He backed up his words with wins. This meant he was iced out of the NHRA for speaking his mind. Oakley not only designed the radical paint jobs on Scotty’s top fuel funny car, they made sure to kit him in equally radical head gear. Mr. Cannon had been sporting a Mohawk haircut on-and-off for years. The Over the Top sunglasses were designed to fit without putting pressure on the temples, or ears like traditional frames. For Scotty they not only fit over his head, the gap in the middle seemed made just for his Mohawk. They got a lot of attention at the track, and wherever they turned up in athletic stores. I remember seeing the frames while visiting a Foot Locker. They were insanely cool, and quite pricey.

The various sunglasses that put the company on the map were one thing, but then they let their mad scientists loose on other products. Some of their boldest designs were for time pieces. I’m a big fan of industrial design. Looking at the steel, and titanium watches made me think they were created for visitors from another planet, or possibly our future robot overlords. I’m not going to lie, I was insanely jealous of everything coming out of the company. Their design team very much sung to all of my interests. They were unlike any other studio out there. When they went into a product design they went in hard. Even when it came to marketing they were super bold. They were not simply letting some ad company put together their message, they told their own story. For example when other drag racers had cars covered in hundreds of sponsor stickers Oakley stood out with one massive in-your-face paint job on their funny cars. This definitely got people talking.

There were a few downsides to all of these radical designs. The first was the price. Oakley was (at the time) a small company, they not only designed their own products, but they also did their own R&D, marketing, and manufacturing. This ensured an insanely high level of quality control. The cost of this was not cheap, and neither were the prices of their items. This was especially true for their watches, and also for their sunglasses. The other down side for me was that I was very nearsighted. I needed a strong prescription, and couldn’t just buy any sunglasses off the shelf. In later years Oakley would offer frames at the optometrist, but at the peak of their extreme designs I simply couldn’t afford any products. This didn’t stop me from lusting after them. Whenever I needed inspiration I knew that I could go through my sneaker books for ideas, or even better yet could pour over the Oakley ads in various magazines. Then as if the universe was mocking me I saw that the company started making sneakers as well. It felt like my heart had been ripped out.

For the first time in my life I started making decent money, and was buying a few sneakers on sale through the Eastbay catalog. This undid years of self-neglect, and made me feel like I was a regular person. All of a sudden I felt like an outcast again. It was a return to my formative years in middle school when I couldn’t wear the skate shoes I wanted because my feet were too big. Only instead of not being able to find Airwalks in my size, the Oakley sneakers that went even harder were perpetually out of reach. Each new release looked bolder than the last. Even when it came to sandals, and golf shoes the company simply could not miss. As if to add insult to injury my older brother bought a few Oakley watches, and ended up buying a few pair of sneakers because he had an average height, and shoe size. He did tell me that he felt sorry when he bought them because he knew how much I loved their look.

When I say I’m a sneaker head I mean that I even pay attention to the shoes that characters wear in comics. I would often point them out to my brothers. One of the reasons my big brother, and I were both drawn to the Oakley brand was because they looked like something out of a comic book. To be more specific they looked like they were ripped from the pages of a manga; Appleseed by Masamune Shirow. I considered Mr. Shirow to be one of the greatest designers of a generation. His mangas were all fantastic works of art. Appleseed, Orion, Ghost in the Shell, and Dominion: Tank Police were highly influential to me. He was not only a great storyteller, and artist, when it came to design there was nobody that could match him. He was a one man Oakley design department years before they got into fashion. The guns, knives, and armor Mr. Shirow created in the late ‘80s would eventually be copied by actual arms manufacturers a decade later. He understood both form, and function with everything he created. He was simply that damn good at his job.

One of the things I especially loved in his books were the shoes that the characters wore. Can you recall any comic artist that went out of their way to design original shoes? Nobody made footwear that were as brutal as those in Appleseed. Whether the character was an engineer, cop, politician, cyborg, or mercenary, they all had some unique footwear. Every fit matched the personality for the character, especially the ESWAT officers, and stars of the series. The boots worn by Briaeros Hecatonchires, and Deunan Knute were the hardest footwear I’d ever seen. They looked like they could chew through concrete. The footwear that Oakley put together looked like they had been pulled from the pages of Appleseed.

As if I wasn’t already a fan of the company I was absolutely smitten with their new sneakers. The downside was that their biggest sizes at the time (and to this day) were 14 US. That was fine for my younger brother, who was almost as tall as me, and wore size 14 sneakers. I was simping hard for a company that had locked me out. As I said a moment ago, it was jr. high school rejection all over again. I felt like an outsider to a culture that I was obsessed with. Things changed a couple years into the 2000’s. I’ll talk about it more in a future blog. Were you a fan of Oakley, or the designs from any other company? I’d like to read about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!