Oakley Half Wire Review

I, like most people I know, have learned my lesson about buying expensive sunglasses.  After sitting on a few pairs of specs and writing off $100 here, $150 there, I have resolved several times to never spend more than $50 on a pair in the future.

Which leads me to the latest victory of my vanity over precedent and reason: my purchase of a pair of Oakley Half Wire sunglasses.  My 18-month-old son had just wrecked my latest pair of $50 glasses (twisted into a wire pretzel), so I was in the market.  Sure enough, my focus settled on the $175 Oakleys, which were way cooler than those under my limit.  After trying them on and loving their fit and look, I had to be nimble to come up with a rationalization for the purchase, of course.  "Gee, these look very sturdy," I thought.  "Why, I bet they're at least three times less likely than a $50 pair to end up bent into abstract sculpture by a toddler."  Three times the cost divided by three times the lifespan = fair deal.  (For the purposes of this analysis, I ignored the fact that the probability I lose them remained the same as a $50 pair, i.e., "very high".)

Sure enough, the logic (and Oakleys) remained intact for about three weeks.  Walking down the street with my son on my shoulders, my boy decided he didn't like me wearing sunglasses at that moment and swiped them off my face into the street.  Both lenses were chipped on the bottom, the frame's anodizing well-scratched, and one of the bow hinges was wrecked.  Yikes, was I ever angry.

After a Herculean struggle to not lose my mind on my first-born, I went to the store where I bought them to see if they could be fixed.  "No problem," said the store manager.  "Oakley replaces glasses no questions asked for the first year if you break them.  We'll order you a new pair."  6 days later, I had a new set of Half Wires.  Amazing.  Would have been nice if they publicized this policy better, but I'm still very pleased with the service.

So, that right there covered at least $50 of the premium I paid--I would have had to buy another pair anyway.  That meansthe remaining $75 or so in additional cost must be attributed to the facts that they look cool, have comprehensive UV protection, are very comfortable, and Oakley makes an obviously high-quality item.  Worth $75?  Sure, as long as I can avoid losing them for at least a year.

Overall, sunglasses are a matter of taste, so are they worth $175 when perfectly good glasses can be had for a third that price?  The peace of mind in the (not well-publicized) 1-year no-fault warranty is certainly worth something, and the quality of their "Plutonite" lenses for applications like sports and driving is apparent as well.  Beyond that, let the mirror be your guide--if they look good on you, isn't that a reason to buy them alone?