Oakley’s seventh generation of sports sunglasses were unveiled tonight for a small group of media and friends at the Oakley house in Kona, Hawaii. The new FastJacket will make it’s sporting debut tomorrow at the Ironman World Championships on Oakley sponsored athletes Terenzo Bozzone and Craig Alexander. Want to see what they look like? Read on after the break.
The new FastJacket uses SwitchLock technology, like the Jawbone, but in a whole new way. Instead of unhinging at the nose it uses what Oakley calls a DogBone that twists downward at the earsocket allowing the lens to simply pop out. The lenses are similar to the FlakJacket in shape, but are larger. While similar, it required Oakley to make it’s first new lens blank in over two decades. The new blank is much larger than previous blanks and required heavy investment into this technology.
The frame has been designed using finite element analysis to create very precise flex characteristics. The goal was to make it fit the widest range of head sizes, essentially the sunglasses will adapt to you. The FastJacket is also ten percent lighter than the JawBone.
The pair that was unveiled was only one pair of three that have been made at a cost of about $15,000 a piece. Oakley sponsored triathletes Terenzo Bozzone and Craig Alexander will be wearing them at the Ironman World Championships on Saturday. Due to the high cost and the fact that this pair was the backup in case the other two are lost or damaged, we were not allowed to handle them. Look for them in May at your local Oakley dealer.
