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So, I'm not on my own afterall.

I've been collecting Oakley stuff since about 97/98 starting with a pair of O shoes in Black, and a polo shirt that I bought from Newquay when I was at the Run to the Sun festival. I've had an unhealthy obsession with trainers for a few years now, and had always liked the nike acg range for their chunky look, until I saw the Oakleys.

Just enough sprinkling of weird, and not too much cyber.

Most of the stuff I have is from the earlier seasons, as I much prefer the designs like the ballistic jacket etc, proper urban protection as opposed to the most recent animal/bonfire/oniell esque style that seems to be reaching the stores.

I think the accessories line is still excellent however, and the same for the luggage.

I think at the moment, Oakley are trying to reach a wider market by toning down some products (lifestyle clothing) and keeping the nutters happy with the Medusa, Thump etc.

My house has an industrial theme going on, with steel handrails, switchgear etc, and the oakley display items really compliment this. I have the counter mirrors in the bathroom, for shaving etc, the display case will be mounted above the loft stairway with my X-Metals in it, and lit with spotlights, the banners make up a wall hanger in the office, and the next thing I'm after will be a couple of poster frames to make large mirrors out of.

I'm toying with the idea of sculpting a fire surround to look like the Foothill Ranch entrance, to hold an open fire on a heavy stainless steel grate....

My Ducati 750 Sport (Matt Black) has had the duke decals removed and replaced with the 3D Icon stickers, a triangular Warning Fasten sticker on the fuel tank, and No Adult Supervision stickers below the pillion. There is a custom made 6" x 6" Scatter Skull on the front screen, and a 2" Scatter Skull on the rear stop light. It turns heads, more than the run of the mill GSXRs and Ninjas, and people always ask what it is, and say they never knew Oakley designed bikes... I'm planning to buy a black 749 next year, and really trick it up with carbon, titanium and of course, a dollop of the O.

My sister has friends in the States, so hopefully, I can get over there with her one day, and take a detour to Cali and see HQ on a tour.

There's gonna be an O Store in London next year apparently, so I'm sure I'll be making regular trips down to the smoke.

Now for the funny bit....

A couple of years ago, when Oakley's site had 'Today's Bomb' and 'Hot Stuff' pages, I designed a few items and thought (doh) that Oakley might like to see them. I wanted to grab their attention, so going along with the 'Bomb' theme and Mad Max esque, Geiger style design and attitude I photocopied the following message and posted it to all Oakley HQs around the planet..

"Do not contact security forces, during the next few days, you will be receiving a 'Bomb'"

I then waited a few days, and posted copies of a shoe design called 'The Bomb' to the HQs.

Now, this is where I made a mistake!! I sent an email with the same message.

A couple of days later at six in the morning, the police were banging on the door. Apparently, Oakley had taken this as a serious threat to bomb their headquarters, got in touch with the FBI, evacuated the Foothill Ranch HQ and had the Canadian HQ on standby to evacuate, but the FBI already new about it because the email had been flagged the day before. They got in touch with Scotland Yard in London, who then sent two local officers around to see me. Luckily, before the police turned up, Oakley received the copies of the design, and saw that it was an attempt to make them take notice of an idiot sat in his office dreaming about shoes, and miraculously (for my sake, as I'm sure they have a pretty heavy lean when it comes to legal issues, and probably the best lawyers and a never ending pot of legal expenditure to play with) decided not to take any further action. They asked the police to tell me not to contact them again.

I don't know how true the evacuation bit is, but that's what the officers said, and funnily enough, one of the officers was called PC Penny(!), however, I don't recall seeing a police car outside at the time...

Well, I counted myself as being extremely lucky, and don't for one minute recommend playing any cards like that in the future, so for your own sake, learn by my experience, and don't mess with the O!!

:)