25 Amazing Oakley Facts From Jim Jannard Himself (2024)

A Q&A with Oakley’s Founder Jim Jannard Himself covering everything from Starting the company to his least favorite Oakleys!

In 2013, Jim Jannard, founder of Oakley, (somehow) found his way onto our small corner of the earth here at OakleyForum.com. He took the opportunity to answer some questions from the community. We’ve highlighted the top 25 questions and answers from Mr. Jannard here.

All headers represent summarized questions by members and all responses by Jim Jannard.

How did you come up with the name Oakley?

Jim: Oakley Anne was my 1st English Setter. The busiess was named after her.

What made you start Oakley? Money/Innovation? What is your greatest achievement?

Jim: I had $300 to start Oakley. So money was not the primary reason for success. Invention and interesting product was.

The Oakley Grip was a cam shaped design and had octopus tread pattern. Traction in 360 degrees.

Invention rules. That was the foundation of Oakley.

Everything can, and will, be made better. The only question is when and by whom.

In what ways are you still involved with Oakley?

Jim: Oakley is my business daughter. After 32 years she met and married an Italian guy. Apparently, looking at the stock price, he is taking really good care of her.

I also have another business daughter named RED. Being a seven year old, she obviously needs more of my attention while she is growing up. But I love both of my business daughters very much.

What inspired the X-Metal line?

Jim: I was a big fan of titanium and no one had done Ti eyewear. I thought that combining Ti with sculpture would be a really great thing.

There were no factories doing what we wanted… so we bought a golf club casting company in Nevada and converted it to manufacturing Ti eyewear. Carlos was the single person that most contributed to this effort.

We were told by many that what we wanted to do was impossible. The idea of casting long and narrow parts (like the ear stems) was next to impossible. We ignored the warnings.

The next thing we had to contend with was making rigid pieces and putting them together in a flexible package. We used unobtanium “glue” to put everything together. This was one of the most difficult and wonderful programs ever done at Oakley.

Thank Peter, Hans, Lek, Colin, Chris, and many others for what is now one of the most collectible Oakley programs ever conceived.

How did you come up with X-Metal designs?

Jim: We had a design philosophy called “SLOGGING”. Spayed and logically offset geometry. That is the basis of all X-metal eyewear and many other models. I would explain it… but then others would know the secret.

Do X-Metal Serial numbers start at 1? Who got the first pairs?

Jim: Yes to start at 0000001. I have a few. Employees also got low numbers.

What’s the history of the Crosshair as an X-Metal?

Jim: Crosshair is not a typical X-Metal in the sense that X-Metal is reserved for those models made at our Nevada factory… like Romeo, Juliet, XX, Penny, etc.

What is your daily wear pair?

Jim: I have too many favorite designs to post… but I wear a pair of prototype Pit Boss that are polished black and very dark Ti (not the same as production) with black iridium lenses. They are also unique because they have a “squished O” logo instead of the “Diamond O” that production uses. I have worn these everyday since I got them in my hands. My shoe of choice is black Silk. I have enough new pairs of these to last 20 more years. I also wear a polished Time Tank (Minute Machine) with a black face.

What is your favorite / preferred lens color?

Jim: Surprisingly, I mostly use Black Iridium lenses. I like neutral. Last I remember, the Red Iridium was especially difficult to do with lower yields (higher costs). I’ll double check that one.

What comes first – the design or the name?

Jim: Up to 2007… the design usually preceded the name.

How did you come up with the names of Oakleys?

Jim: I came up with the names a taglines for the 1st 25 years (95%) and then Colin and the team gradually took over. I now watch from the sidelines.

How did you come up with the design for Oakley HQ?

Jim: Colin and I referenced “Blade Runner” and “Metropolis” for the building. I then showed him an indian gold coin… which was the inspiration for the entry.

Colin is all world.

Will the Mad Scientist Era / Days of the OTT come return?

Jim: I’d like to think there are still a few tricks up the designer’s sleeves.

What is one of the most interesting Oakleys you ever worked on?

Jim: Shoe One. The unsung hero.

The Shoe One was one of the most interesting things we ever did at Oakley. It was not a commercial success. It should have been.

The Shoe One had more inventions and features than any shoe ever made. It had a kevlar upper and kevlar impregnated outsole. It had a 3 point contact outsole. It is awesome.

I consider this shoe a commercial failure and a design success. It is one of the products I am most proud of.

If you consider yourself an Oakley collector and don’t have a NIB Shoe One… I simply won’t believe you.

What is the most “out there” idea you had that never made it to the public eye?

Jim: Up to 2007… the design usually preceded the name. When I was at Oakley… the most “out there” designs went into production.

You’ve said your biggest regret was taking Oakley public – is this still true?

Jim: What is done is done…. no looking back. As for eyewear, I am loyal to Oakley. I own LUX and my good friends work at the “O”.

Clarifying: Let me re-state. I own a lot of LUX stock. I am not the majority shareholder. Read more about Oakley, Luxottica and the history of your sunglasses in our guide here.

When you sold Oakley were all of the patents included in the sale?

Jim: All patents and designs stayed with Oakley.

Can you tell us more about the Static O icon?

Jim: The Static Icon is one of my favorites. I had the idea and one of the boys knocked it out of the park. I’m not sure why it isn’t used more…

How are sports pairs shapes determined? (E.g the M Frame)

Jim: MHO the Heater was the best shape. The bottom arc was designed to match the cheekbone. The lower corner was extended for peripheral vision. The notch at the outer top was designed for ventilation in the least used part of one’s vision.

It was form follows function all the way.

Is it true you don’t like the Oakley Frogskins? And they were only designed for money?

Jim: Everything Oakley, up to that point, was designed in house and made in the USA. We had released the Eyeshade, were designing the Blades… both were shields for performance applications. We had built up some brand momentum and wanted to quickly get a “more normal” model out the door.

I flew to Japan and visited a manufacturer there and very quickly crafted the Frogskin. I knew it would sell. I just didn’t think it was the kind of effort that would make us proud. It felt a bit like I sold out and when I was flying home, I felt a bit embarrassed. I asked myself if I wasn’t just doing this “for the frog skins” (the bucks, greenbacks, presidents). I decided three things right then.

#1. Sell them and call them Frogskins to always remind me to only do brave and interesting things going forward.
#2. Get started on an intensive program to develop the very best optics in the industry and add more inventions and art to the next-gen products.
#3. Build a factory and make our sunglasses in house.

I think the above list was checked off pretty well over the years.

Frogskins are great. They helped fund our future. Jupiter was my frog. I took the pic of Jupiter that is still floating around. But it was certainly not my best personal effort.

The next model we designed and released (after Blades and Razor Blades) was the M Frame. That glass has more innovation and inventions than any glass in the history of eyewear (at least I’d be happy to argue the point).

BTW… our next twin lens O-Matter sunglass was the Eye Jacket. It, too, was a commercial success and a model I am still very proud of. It was sculptural, had a full ellipse lens shape (matched our new O-icon logo), had XYZ Optics, ear socks and a ton of other features. It was our 1st in house project that used 3D cad all the way through the process. (Hard to believe everyone built hand models of stuff before CAD).

Would Nike and Oakley ever have worked together or were the lawsuits that occurred always bound to happen?

Jim: Phil Knight was a friend… or at least I thought so.

End the end, we sued Nike for patent infringement. They decided to “distort instead of extort” our patent. It was very satisfying.

Oakley eyewear rocks… Nike eyewear… not so much. There is a God.

What was the inspiration for the OTT?

Jim: We were on an island and discarded everything we knew. This is what we came up with. For more information check out our guide Oakley Over The Top – the Craziest Sunglasses Ever Made.

What was the last pair of Oakleys you were involved with?

Jim: The Pit Boss was my last real involvement, but I won’t take sole credit for it. There are designers and CAD modelers at Oakley that I worked with to create this one. It was the culmination of lots of things we learned over the years and a great example of the design language, SLOGGING, that was established in the early 1990’s. I have worn my pair of 1st prototypes every day since they were put together.

And so the first non Jim Jannard glasses were the Batwolf/Fuel Cell Era?

Jim: You are correct… roughly.

What one piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur?

Jim: Do something better than it has ever been done before… then let people know. Then it is easy. Seriously.

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