Oakley Fifth Avenue Store Launch

Last week I was invited to visit the brand new Oakley Store on Fifth Avenue here in New York. Before going I actually didn’t know a lot about Oakley as a brand. I just remember visiting Boston with camp when I was 12 and everyone thought it was a HUGE deal when my friend Leo bought a pair of Oakley sunglasses.

I was thoroughly impressed with not only the store, but how Oakley has done it’s best to keep up with the times and what people need today both in eyewear and clothing.

The Store: Like the Oakley brand, the store prides itself in being one step ahead of where technology is today Exhibit A is the awesome media feature that’s shown above. I did a lot of media design for theater in college so I’m always mesmerized by innovative uses of media. When you walk in it’s hard not to notice the long row of video screens. Apparently there’s over 30 minutes of footage and each time you see it the video is a tiny bit different.

The design of the store pay homage to the original structure that was there such as the exposed brick and industrial looking ceiling to preserve the old New York feeling.

Unique Features

Customize your own sunglasses. My favorite part of the store was being able to customize your own pair of sunglasses and then have them made right there in front of your eyes. Using a tablet you pick and choose the sunglasses you want along with the color combo. I went with the classic frogskinz and a black rim with blue lens.

Within seconds of creating my sunglasses someone brought the pieces over and built my brand new sunglasses right there in front of my face. How’s that for efficiency?

Prescription glasses and sunglasses: I wear contacts roughly 99.99% of the time so I’ve never needed prescription sunglasses, but Oakley offered an impressive area of options. I also fell in love with a new pair of prescription glasses I need to order but couldn’t since I didn’t bring my prescription to the event. I didn’t know that Oakley not only has prescription glasses, but also has a really awesome, slightly funky, array of choices.

New Men’s casual line: The Fifth Avenue store is one of the only locations in America to offer Oakley’s new unique men’s clothing line. All the clothing had elements of sports performance wear like wicking and water proof fabrics, however they looked like casual every day clothing you could wear to the office (a casual office, but still). Similar to how workout clothes for females have become more stylish and socially acceptable, I feel like this new line of mens clothing is a similar concept.

Women’s Athletic wear: Of course I was drawn to the wall of women’s workout clothing. I didn’t end up trying anything on, but I love love loved that their shirts had pockets for your phone, keys, credit card, etc. Most workout plants these days of some sort of compartment for keys, but I’ve never seen a tank top with it as well.

I think the new store is a great addition to Fifth Avenue and I’ll definitely be back soon to try on some workout clothes 🙂

The Oakley store is located at 560 Fifth Avenue in midtown.

I was invited to attend this event by Oakley and given complimentary products as part of the event. I was in no way compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.