It’s fun being a free agent. I can roam freely in small world of ours. I met Brian from Oakley a little over a year ago and we’ve been chatting ever since. Talking about possibly working together in the future someday. I’ve always admired Oakley for doing their thing, the Oakley way. He’s been with the company for 13 years and has done things like head up the design department. He’s now is working on something pretty cool which you’ll probably start hearing about soon…

Brian and I in the secret room.

So after trying to schedule a few trips down to their headquarters in Forest Hills, CA, I finally got to visit. I have to say even after working for Nike, Oakley’s headquarters is quite impressive. When you roll up to the main drop off area (and although you notice that the building looks somewhat like a boeing hanger) your can’t seem to take your eyes off the TANK that’s parked right in front of the doors.

And although I’d like to talk about what we talked about, enjoy the photos of their facility. I can, however, talk about things like… Did you know, Oakley supplies military supplies for the Military? And did you know they have a material that’s even more fire retardant then nomex? I was given the demo where the guy who was holding a cloth with a penny on top and blow torched a penny while holding the cloth without being burnt. Crazy stuff..

We walked thru the history of Oakley and the first thing that caught my eyes were the original Grips. I actually have these grips still on my 1980 mongoose. If these were still available, they would be such a hot commodity.

A couple other cool things around their headquarters were about a dozen eject seats from fighter jets used as waiting chairs, a huge military machine gun, a dirt track around the facility and the best thing of all was their hidden man room. Kegs, write your name on the walls, watch TV, Poker, etc… Check out the rest of the photos, if you have any questions or comment, feel free..