Hi all,
I wanted to share with you the recent experience I've had buying two different pairs of Oakley Flak 2.0 within a week!
Apologies for the short story, but I hope other potential buyers can take some learnings from my post for their future purchases!
Let me start from the beginning. About 2 months ago I bought a pair of Oakley Half Jacket 2.0 from a UK online retailer. Prior to purchasing, I tried on a pair in a local Oakley outlet store, but the price was considerably cheaper online and was also being sold as "new-boxed".
Just 2 weeks ago I was travelling to Thailand and Malaysia on business, and I used the newly bought HJ 2.0 them for the first time given the sunlight that these two beautiful countries receive! What I noticed after wearing them for an hour or so was that they were a little tight around the temples and sides of my head, I gave the arms a little tug, to pull them out, but this didn't seem to help much.
In addition to this, I noticed that my eyelashes were scrapping the lenses whenever I blinked, not fun!
I'm a male with fairly long eyelashes, definitely not of the average length : ) and this was something that was going to bother me a fair bit. I was previously wearing Ray Ban Aviators, which have a very wide fit and the lenses do not wrap around the eye, so the issue with my eyelashes was something I've never experienced before.
I was a little annoyed that the Half Jacket 2.0, despite me trying them on in store, were not going to fit my needs. So I decided to have a look at what else was in the half-frame range in a sunglasses retailer in Kuala Lumpur. I had a look at the Flak 2.0 (Polished Black with Prizm lenses to be exact), which I had originally thought were too big for my face, but they instantly felt so much more comfortable than my HJ 2.0! More importantly, my eyelashes weren’t anywhere near the lenses and there was considerable clearance all round my face! I was so happy to have found a pair that fitted really well, so I decided to buy the Flak 2.0, with a view to sell my HJ 2.0 on eBay when I returned to the UK.
Now for another twist to the story…I realised later that day that the Flak 2.0 that I had bought were actually the Asian Fit frames and not standard. To my dismay, I couldn’t find many websites that would sell replacement lenses for the Asian Fit and the official Oakley website had a very small, but expensive, selection to choose from : (
I was getting quite pissed off by this stage and was beginning to think that I will have to give up on half-frame Oakleys altogether.
But then I stumbled across this forum and read in a number of posts that there are larger nose pads available for the non-Asian fit Flak 2.0 that are installed as standard on the Asian Fit frames. So I went to visit an official Oakley store in Bangkok and the sales assistant was very helpful in installing the larger nose pads on the standard Flak 2.0 frames for me to try. Instantly I could tell that the “new set-up” fixed both the issues I had with my eyelashes and pressure on the sides of my head.
I was chuffed to bits and went back to my hotel to order a pair of the standard Flak 2.0 (Polished Black with Prizm Trail lenses) via a website, to be delivered to my home in the UK.
Technically, I now have 3 pairs of Oakleys! But I will sell 2 of them (the HJ 2.0 and Asian Fit Flak 2.0) as new when I return home.
I hope my experience provides some key learnings for others that might suffer from the same issues I experienced with different half-frames.
Thanks!
I wanted to share with you the recent experience I've had buying two different pairs of Oakley Flak 2.0 within a week!
Apologies for the short story, but I hope other potential buyers can take some learnings from my post for their future purchases!
Let me start from the beginning. About 2 months ago I bought a pair of Oakley Half Jacket 2.0 from a UK online retailer. Prior to purchasing, I tried on a pair in a local Oakley outlet store, but the price was considerably cheaper online and was also being sold as "new-boxed".
Just 2 weeks ago I was travelling to Thailand and Malaysia on business, and I used the newly bought HJ 2.0 them for the first time given the sunlight that these two beautiful countries receive! What I noticed after wearing them for an hour or so was that they were a little tight around the temples and sides of my head, I gave the arms a little tug, to pull them out, but this didn't seem to help much.
In addition to this, I noticed that my eyelashes were scrapping the lenses whenever I blinked, not fun!
I'm a male with fairly long eyelashes, definitely not of the average length : ) and this was something that was going to bother me a fair bit. I was previously wearing Ray Ban Aviators, which have a very wide fit and the lenses do not wrap around the eye, so the issue with my eyelashes was something I've never experienced before.
I was a little annoyed that the Half Jacket 2.0, despite me trying them on in store, were not going to fit my needs. So I decided to have a look at what else was in the half-frame range in a sunglasses retailer in Kuala Lumpur. I had a look at the Flak 2.0 (Polished Black with Prizm lenses to be exact), which I had originally thought were too big for my face, but they instantly felt so much more comfortable than my HJ 2.0! More importantly, my eyelashes weren’t anywhere near the lenses and there was considerable clearance all round my face! I was so happy to have found a pair that fitted really well, so I decided to buy the Flak 2.0, with a view to sell my HJ 2.0 on eBay when I returned to the UK.
Now for another twist to the story…I realised later that day that the Flak 2.0 that I had bought were actually the Asian Fit frames and not standard. To my dismay, I couldn’t find many websites that would sell replacement lenses for the Asian Fit and the official Oakley website had a very small, but expensive, selection to choose from : (
I was getting quite pissed off by this stage and was beginning to think that I will have to give up on half-frame Oakleys altogether.
But then I stumbled across this forum and read in a number of posts that there are larger nose pads available for the non-Asian fit Flak 2.0 that are installed as standard on the Asian Fit frames. So I went to visit an official Oakley store in Bangkok and the sales assistant was very helpful in installing the larger nose pads on the standard Flak 2.0 frames for me to try. Instantly I could tell that the “new set-up” fixed both the issues I had with my eyelashes and pressure on the sides of my head.
I was chuffed to bits and went back to my hotel to order a pair of the standard Flak 2.0 (Polished Black with Prizm Trail lenses) via a website, to be delivered to my home in the UK.
Technically, I now have 3 pairs of Oakleys! But I will sell 2 of them (the HJ 2.0 and Asian Fit Flak 2.0) as new when I return home.
I hope my experience provides some key learnings for others that might suffer from the same issues I experienced with different half-frames.
Thanks!