How to spot fake oakley's from the real ones.

One way to tell the fakes from the real thing are by these tell tell signs:

1:On any pair of fakes the "Oakley"name on the lenses will be screen printed in white,and sometimes not centered correctly.i.e.:M frames,old and new blades,or any model that the"Oakley"name is on the lense.real Oakley's it is etched into the lens.

2:The "O" on 90% of the knock off are painted on the arms and not raised letter if they are mid vintage(when Oakley removed the name and placed the "O" on the arms).Real Oakleys should be set into the arms unless they are vintage style(blades,eyeshades,frogskins,first gen m frames{these will be called mombos on the box}(arms should say"oakley"on them that are on a raised lettering and screenprinted in either black or white,and sometimes in other colors depending on the style of the frame color).second gen m frames and m frame pros had the "O"raised letter and screen painted on(the paint came off after several years of wear(the reason Oakley went to the inset "O" later on))

3:A sticker on the lower part of the lens that says"genuine oakley"on it.Oakley does not place any,I'll say it again,ANY stickers on their sunglasses at all.The only time i have seen a sticker on the lens of an Oakley is on the rx frames at the eye doctor and it said"Oakley Rx"on it.

4:The rubber that Oakley uses on the nose peices and socks should feel soft and sticky(a chemical posses they have been using since they made hand grips for bmx bikes back in the 80's(yes i am old school.....hope that brought back some memories for some of you reading this....lol)).Fakes will feel hard and plastic type,and have a gloss look to them.

5:As stated in other guides.....NO BOX AND/OR NO BAG.If they come with a bag,please beware that a pair of fakes might have a real Oakley bag with them since the bag can be bought ant any retailer cheep.If the bag,or cleaning bag as most people call them,is fake it will be of a nylon material and not cloth.however eyeshades,early blades(they added the cleaning bag later),and frogskins(blues brothers style...they looked like them even though the ones in the two movies were made by rayban(the redesigned frogskins...cria 1990's had the cloth bag))did come with a nylon storage bag that said "oakley"screenprinted on it.blades had "oakley thermonuclear ware"on some of the storage bags.

updated 6/26/07......6:some knock offs will have the lenses attached to the frame by screws.biggest tell tell sign.vintage glasses like eyeshades,or factory pilots(the orignal name),blades(vintage(not sure about the 2nd gen that came out last year)),mombos(m frames)all generations,half jackets,and other changeable lens oakleys all have removeable lenses.also in some cases the lenses on the m frame knock offs will be rounded on the edges.most m frames are squared off on the edges.

7:Some sellers are confusing m frames for blades.there is a big difference between the two.please make sure that you look at other auctions before you bid on vintage blade or m frames.the m frames might(and usually are)the real thing,but if you are looking for vintage blades,or new blades(by the way oakley discounted them again),please make sure that the seller didn't make a mistake.(i only bring this up because i would hate to see some one wanting vintage blades,which i still think were the best glasses ever made by oakley,don't bid on the wrong type of frames(even though you might stumble on a pair of real good vintage m frames by accident.....go for it)).

8:one thing i forgot about the arms......on the fake m frames the "oakley"will be larger,and screenprinted on the m frames.the real ones wil be rased letter then painted(refer to the section on the arms earlier in this guide).the only glasses that ever had the "oakley" screenprinted and not raised lettered on the arms were the frogskins and only the frogskins.

updated 9/20/07.......9:there is a distinct difference between mombos(1 gen m frames)and the m frames that i call 2nd gen.the arms on 1st gen(as stated before)say "oakley",and the arms bent in to form the temple.2nd gen arms had an "o" on them with the same type of arms.then the 3 gen had the arms redesigned to the flair out on them(pro frames were the first to have the flair outs on them then oakley incorporated the design later to the folding arms.)i know this has nothing to do with the knock off,but with the release of the new radars(which will be replacing the m frames soon) out there is an ad that shows the evolvement of their one pice lenses that shows the evolvement as follows:eyeshades,blades,mombos,m frames,radars.the golf ad shows the evolutions of the m frames:mombos,m frames,m frame pros(history lesson on these.....the pros were made for our olympians in the 96 summer olympics and were never to be released to the public,but people saw them and ask oakley where and how to get them so they were released by popular demand....just food for thought),radar.

10:unfortunately the wire,or metal styles,are harder to distinguish the knock offs.however the genuine sticker is the loudest sign on these.12/22/08.....i just started wearing Oakley Rx frames 3 months ago.I have a pair of Kickstands(a wire style metal frame).As i looked at the frames they do not say "made in the usa" on them.These are genuine and purchased at LensCrafters which just became an Oakley Rx and sunglass dealer this year and can do the clear prescrption lenses into most of the rx frames..One peice of good news is that if you wear their sunglasses and need to wear rx glasses later you can take your sunglasses to your Oakley Rx dealer and have then send your frames to Oakley to have them put your prescription lenses into them.Only Oakley can grind the Rx lenses for thir sunglass line.I am going to have them do my FlakJackets XLJ lenses dome with fire irridum.

03/26/08.........I found out that the pro m frames still have the "o" still painted on and not inlayed on the arms.Also i have had a few messages about that Oakley is placing a "h" decal on the new models that have the new coating on them.This is not true.They might be putting them on the Rx lenses due to that the lenses are not what you get when you receive the glasses with your Rx in them cause they are a clear display lens and don't have any coating on them(that is done by Oakley at the factory after the Rx lenses are cut to the frame design ,and no sunglasses made by Oakley would have a decal on them.



05/27/08.......i have now found out that oakley's sold at sunglass hut are containing the "h" decal on them.however i have not seen the decal on oakleys sold at their retail or outlet stores.

The reason for this is cause the buyer might scratch the iridium trying to remove the decal off even if it is a static cling decal,which would nul and void the warrenty.

I have been using Oakley's(i..e. grips),and wearing Oakley's(i.e.glasses,watches,shoes,clothing,etc.)since they put out their first grips for BMX,and was sponsored by them from 1985-1991.I am also a advid Oakley collector so i keep up on my knowlage of the product.

Also i appoligize to any one who messages me asking questions about their glasses.i will try to respond to your questions asap,but due to that my job keeps me busy i might not resopnd right away.

These are some of the biggest tell tell signs of Oakley knock offs out there.If you see any of these signs on a pair you are looking at don't bid on them or buy them.If you look hard enough you might find a pair for a good price on here and get a real pair of vintage on new Oakley's.

Via: http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-spot-fake-oakley-apos-s-from-the-real-ones_W0QQugidZ10000000003811986