Yesterday was bright and sunny here at Abt, which made it a perfect day for the Oakley Rolling O Lab to come rolling into our parking lot to show off the company’s latest eyewear technology. Oakley has three of these Rolling O Labs (built into 40-foot motor coaches) touring the country to demonstrate the durability and optical quality of its sunglasses. The California-based company has been awarded more than 500 patents in its 30-plus year history, and its sunglasses are worn by some of the world’s top athletes.
“We travel to trade shows and national sporting events to show off our high-definition optics,” explained Kyle Donahue, a member of the Oakley Rolling Lab research and development team. “Oakley has the widest variety of lens options in the world, and these labs let us demonstrate the superior clarity of our lenses and also how durable they are.”
One of those demonstrations is a high-velocity impact test, which involves firing a 1/4-inch steel shot at a speed of 150 feet per second at a pair of sunglasses just 8 inches away. The non-Oakley sunglasses (which shall remain nameless) shattered, while the Oakleys took the bullet for the team without shattering and with what appeared to be a smile and a look like, “Is that all ya got?”
Oakley has a huge variety of men’s and women’s lifestyle and sports performance sunglasses available at Abt, which you can check out by clicking here— and don’t worry, if you try on a pair, we won’t perform the high-velocity impact test on you. —by Graham W.
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