Oakley Factory Team: A Brief History
25/1/23 | 5-6 mins | Fashion History
It was Brain Dead's idea.
Primarily known for their broad range of eyewear offerings, it is definitely easy to dismiss Oakley as another part of the Luxottica monopoly. Although if you were to jump back a bit and dig a little deeper, it would likely quickly influence your perspective on things. Beginning out of the back of a car in 1975, they sold motorcycle handle grips in an easily distinguishable orbicular design. With a growth in popularity came a growth in product base, allowing them to expand into more motocross related product. What may be surprising to many, is that they didn’t start manufacturing glasses until 1984, when they made the Factory Pilot shades, a progression from their line of motocross goggles.
The company was founded on the principles of technological advancement, never settling with their current best. Across all their products, materials engineering and athlete testing comes before any production run, and is key to their design philosophy. They also prided themselves on distancing from convention, living in a so-called “disconnected design bubble”. This bubble allowed them to create some of the most forward-thinking pieces for their time. While some were polarizing, like the Oakley OTT, almost all of them have maintained relevant, with some archival pieces surpassing what has been produced after cooperate ownership. While their archive is certainly impressive, one of the more underappreciated aspects of it which has been brought to light of late, is the footwear.
There has been an insurgence of Oakley footwear hitting everyone’s timelines recently, both from archive accounts, and major fashion media. This is in no small part due to the launch of the Oakley Factory Team Project. Brain Dead has come together with the major fashion house, being appointed as the Research & Development team behind the project. Focussing on re-tooling the archival footwear silhouettes which were hidden amongst their popular eyewear designs, they are reigniting that history of cutting-edge materials engineering and design, thrusting the silhouettes into the modern day.
While it is all well and good to have an influx of interest in a once underappreciated aspect of a brand, it is also important to look back to where it all came from. The first Oakley shoe, named the Shoeone was originally released in 1998, although it was apparent that this was just a litmus test to ultimately begin their push into the outdoor and performance footwear market. Their major leap was made in 2000, producing some of the most iconic Oakley silhouettes.
Taking a dive back into their 2000 footwear catalogue, along with some of the promotional material surrounding the campaign at the time, it was apparent that Oakley were looking to push design boundaries. They were early adopters of CAD/CAM (computer aided design and manufacturing) which was, at the time, novel technology in the field. They boasted that this tech allowed for insane accuracy and millions of data points per shoe, creating design complexity that hand drawn blueprints could never achieve. This resulted in a futuristic morphology across the range, especially relating to the footbed and outsole, subsequently some fascinating shit was fabricated.
Additionally, the line reiterated Oakley as one of the strongest innovators in materials engineering pertaining to performance garments. They introduced high-tenacity triple cord nylon, hydrophilic insoles, computer numeric controlled stitching, among many other design aspects in the line. This showed that as interesting as the CAD was, functionality wise, Oakley weren’t fucking around. With the perfect combination of Y2K and outdoor aesthetics, along with technology, which is still cutting edge in the current day, it is no wonder why Brain Dead has resuscitated the product line.
Jumping to today, we have seen the project release the Flesh, Flesh Sandal (both from 2000), and the Chop Saw (from 2002). All the releases have had contemporary colourways and materials usage, allowing them to strike a chord with the fashion community, resulting in release day sell-outs. Although, there are still many classic left untouched, for example the Bobbie mule, Shoethree, and Nail among others. With a newly spotted Junya Watanabe project featuring the Bobbie, it is likely we will see more of these hidden gems come out of the Factory Team sooner rather than later.
As depressing as the absorption of Oakley into Luxottica was for the die-hard archivists, sucking virtually all relatability from the brand, a project like this does provide a well deserved nod to those in the know. Delegating a budget to a niche project which doesn’t have the same mass appeal as say, a Billie Eilish collab, is a massive financial risk, though it is obvious that it wasn’t the primary aim of those involved in the project. This project provides some substance to a brand which is a shell of what it once was. The loss of the Samuel Ross in 2019 project was a big blow to their creative output, but hopefully Brain Dead can continue their intriguing output with the Factor Team and kick it back into gear.
Ato Boldon Wearing Oakley OTTs at the 2000 Sydney Olympics via Vogue
The Brain Dead & Oakley Factory Team Project via @factoryteamproject
The Oakley Website in 2000 via Oakley
The 2000 Oakley Footwear Catalogue via Oakley Forum
Oakley Factory Team & Junya Watanabe via @hidden.ny
