Why Is The Fashion World Still Obsessed With These Olympian Glasses?

It would make sense for athletes like Boldon and Swedish golfer Jarmo Sandelin to wear these glasses, but they have also been a hit in the fashion world recently. Last week, street style sensation and talk show host Kerwin Frost recently wore a pair on my Instagram show #NEVER USED which he argued for getting rid of. (I told him not to!) He had bought them on eBay after seeing that rapper Flavor Flav had worn the glasses to concerts in the early ’00s. “I’m just starting to dive deep, trying to find it,” said Frost, who also owns another odd creation from Oakley, a Medusa helmet from 2002, a leather cap with steampunk-style goggles. Oakley is always taking chances here and there and sometimes comes up with something really random like a Medusa helmet. It was one of those things they made for fun, which I ended up finding and wearing every day for two months. OVERTHETOP was, and is still ahead of their time.

Boldon agreed. When he wore them to the Olympics, commentators referred to them as space age glasses. Boldon is good friends with Oakley representative and company founder James Jennard, who has spoken to Boldon about wearing glasses. Olympians can’t show sponsors on their uniforms, but, according to Boldon, they can put what they want on their faces in what he calls prime real estate. At the 1996 Olympics, Boldon wore Oakley earrings, and by the time 2000 rolled around, an Oakley representative asked if he wanted to wear OVERTHETOP sunglasses. Oakley is a fun company to be associated with because they’re always trying to push the envelope, get stares, and get people to think differently about what glasses look like, Boldon says.

He compared Oakley’s cyborg image to a car company. They’re not mainstream, but that’s the point. An auto company would build a typical car for their normal consumer and then they would build a prototype to show what they could do, Boldon said. This is Oakley showing a glimpse of what they can do.

Boldon gave his two original partners to his cousin and uncle, but his OVERTHETOP glasses live on in the digital world. It’s been 21 years and every day on my social media I see pictures of myself [wearing them], she says. Tips on how to get views? According to Boldon, it’s all in attitude. You have to be confident, he said. It’s not like someone is going to tell them to go to soccer practice, they’re asking for attention.