BizAims

Oakely¹ had introduced the world’s first digital audio eyewear. The revolutionary design seamlessly integrates a music player and earphones right into the frame. That means no more wires. Nothing to dangle and tangle, just high performance optics forged with a state-of-the-art digital audio engine. Listen to music virtually anywhere. THUMP will change the way you see and hear the world. THUMP is a product designed to be an elegant solution for very active people who want to listen to music while they climb mountains, ski, skate or surf. The Oakley Corporation also owns Dragon and manufactures eyewear for Fox Racing. In 2006, Oakley acquired the Oliver Peoples group, one of the leading manufacturers of high-end fashion branded eyewear.

Your ears are on your head, so why should your music system hang on your waist? THUMP shatters the ball-and-chain design that hasn’t changed since portable players were invented 25 years ago. It gives the wearer complete freedom to enjoy music during activities where tethered players with cords and separate base units can be cumbersome, or even dangerous.

Oakley went a step further and engineered the earphones and lenses with flip-up mechanisms so they can be disengaged and re-engaged instantly. That makes it practical to carry on a conversation, grab a call, or listen to music indoors. All this technology weighs less than 1.9 ounces, so you get all-day comfort. And when it comes to optical clarity, nothing beats the performance of Oakley’s HIGH DEFINITION OPTICS.

The technical design of the Sunglasses is actually very nice.The MP3 Player components are well integrated into the temples. The casing is held together by little screws. The glasses are extremely light with a weight of 52g. The integrated headphones are adjustable in three dimensions. For people with a small head they might still not fit.

To charge the Thump glasses connect it to the USB port. On one temple a USB mini plug is present under a plastic door. A 3 hour charge gives a 9 hour play-time. Connected via USB the mp3 player sunglasses registers as a USB mass storage device and you can copy MP3 and WMA audio files to the glasses. You can also store data files along with song files.

The Thump mp3 player has no display. The glasses have one indicator LED and use audio cues to indicate on/off state change or low battery indication. The audio cue is not a little beep its actually sounds like a Thump or heartbeat - nice touch.

To operate the music player buttons on each temple are available. On the right temple are the play/stop/on/off button, next button and previous button. On the left temple are the two volume control buttons. Although the operation is pretty intuitive the embossed icons on the inside of the temples are only readable in ideal light conditions. Coloring the icons would make them much easier to see. The sound is really good even with not having the ear-buds entirely inside the ear.

NOTES:

1) Oakley is an eyewear company known mostly for their high end sunglasses and ski goggles. They also make watches, clothing, bags, backpacks, shoes, prescription glasses and other accessories. Their 'Inter-Planetary Headquarters' is located at Foothill Ranch, CA. On June 21, 2007, Italian group Luxottica announced a plan to merge with Oakley in a cash deal worth $2.1 billion, expected to be finalized in the latter half of the year.Oakley is going to join the portfolio of Luxottica group (located in Milan,Italy) with other famous brands like Ray Ban, Persol, and Vogue among others.

Oakley's distinctive 'O' logo is placed on the sides of most of their glasses and sunglasses. They also employ a unique skull logo on some of their accessories and clothing. Recently, fashion-oriented models such as the Gascan now employ a squared version of the 'O' logo. The design of both their products and their stores are a futuristic meld of organic and mechanical forms. The futuristic, spaceship-like stores make use of heavily tooled mechanical designs, such as rivets and thick metal hoses visibly connecting the store's light fixtures to a huge overhead "pipeline".

Like many high-priced brand-name accessories, Oakley's sunglasses are often counterfeited and sold in markets around the world that cater to tourists and internet buyers. Counterfeit Oakleys are often referred to as "Foakleys" (fake Oakleys) or "Joke-leys." Counterfeit Oakleys are occasionally referred to as Oakeys (pronounced: oak-E's), this is due to an inconsistency between the spelling of "Oakley," written on the bridge, on real Oakleys and fake ones.

Oakley's current chairman is Jim Jannard, who owns approximately 68% of the outstanding shares (2006), and reputedly named the company after his English setter Oakley. Notwithstanding the high cost of top quality polycarbonate, these glasses appear to be priced as high as the market will stand, setting a trend among other sports eyewear manufacturers.