Oakley sunglasses, along with a great pair of sneakers were the coolest accessories back in ’95. Unfortunately, this is the time when prices for both sunglasses and sneakers shot sky high. In the ’80s a pair of Chuck Taylors and any old cheap sunglasses would do. But the ’90s were different and companies had figured out they could charge more, a LOT more for things their kids wanted to wear. The shoes usually came first and if you were lucky enough to get cool shoes then you had to be super lucky to get other expensive items like sunglasses or a Starter jacket which also, were around $100.
As for me, I had three pairs of expensive shoes from 1989 – 1995 and they were the crown jewels of my outfit. I went to a Catholic school so in fact the shoes were the only item of clothing you could chose yourself and the only way to express yourself a bit. But I’ve already written about shoes in my post “Shoes of the 90s.”
This post is about the sunglasses. I had to wait until my senior year and by that time I had a job and thus money for the finer things in life (but not too fine, I only made slightly more than minimum wage.) Oakley sunglasses were something I couldn’t ask my parents for but with my own money I could buy myself! I loved them and even wore them on graduation day.
I thought I was so cool with them on. But looking back at this picture I can see they look a little out of place with my graduation apparel.
After high school and entering OSU the Oakleys lost a bit of prestige in my mind and I wore Ray-Bans or some other brand that I cannot recall at the moment. Actually, I didn’t even have them for a while because my buddy Ryan Sweetman asked to borrow them for his softball league. Being a good friend I let him borrow them for a very long time and he returned them to me rather beat up.
Eventually my Oakleys were retired to the closet and just about forgotten. I rediscovered them when I went back to my hometown around 2016 and found a box of my old things at my sister’s place. In there were my old Oakleys!
I was happy to have them again but they were in bad shape. The top bar was broken and the nose piece moldy. I thought it would be cool to wear some retro Oakleys as my new sunglasses and was able to buy new nose pieces but I still haven’t found, and don’t think I ever will, a replacement top green bar.
So I gave up on the repairs, went online and tried to find a Oakleys in a similar style. I had just gotten done watching Cobra Kai and the ’80s / ’90s were on my brain. I really don’t like anything about this entire decade when it comes to dress, attitude, and the loss of the “coolness” of the ’80s and ’90s. So I bought myself a black jean jacket, and knew that I needed Oakleys to compliment my retro style.
Looking on Amazon I quickly learned that they are still extremely expensive. Luckily I was able to find a similar style and on sale! They were regularly around $180 – $200 but the golf version was on sale for $120! The difference was that the golf version had the lightest color lenses but that was perfect for me and was actually my preference.
And here they are, my original Oakley sunglasses from around 1995 and my new ones I bought last year. I love having my Oakley sunglasses back and I don’t care if they’re not in style anymore. Eventually old styles come back around and so I’ll just consider myself way ahead of the curve. 🙂 A trendsetter if you will! A black jean jacket, Oakleys, Jordan sneakers and a pair of cargo shorts and I’m complete. It’s a unique style as I don’t think anyone else would wear such a montage here in 2019, but isn’t it inherently cool that I’m the only one with such a retro style? 🙂
