Besides their consumer products, Oakley has a division of the company named US Standard Issue. US Standard Issue produces and sells a variety of products that are engineered to meet the highest possible standards for use by qualified military and public service personnel.
These products are great, but you probably can't buy them! Unless you are a member of the active duty military or reserve, or you are part of federal or local law enforcement or public safety departments you are not eligible to buy from US Standard Issue.
So why even talk about them?
Oakley has taken what they learned from designing products for the military and applied a lot of that knowledge to designing and producing products that work very well in the civilian world. For sunglasses, this means that Oakley has developed a line of Oakley military products that work very well for people who hunt, fish or engage in other outdoor activities. These products include apparel, shoes and boots, backpacks, watches and... of course... sunglasses.
Oakley military sunglasses are distinctly different from the regular Oakley line of aviator sunglasses. They have a different look in terms of style and colors, including Camo styles. They provide the same excellent eye protection but often have an even more streamlined look and fit than what you're used to seeing in aviator glasses.
There is a broad range of styles, with different color combinations that are definitely different from your father's sunglasses. The Oakley website provides good detailed information to help you choose. Just Google "Oakley military sunglasses" and see what you get.
After you look at the sunglasses you may be tempted to also look at the boots, snow goggles, backpacks or watches as well. You could end up buying more than just a pair of sunglasses.
We can't go into detail about all your choices, but we can give you an idea about style choices and list prices to help point you in the right direction.
Like all the other manufacturers Oakley has a variety of sunglasses with polarized lenses. Many people believe that polarized sunglasses are superior to non-polarized because they are advertised so heavily. The main reason you would want to choose polarized glasses is to cut the intense glare from water. If you're not going to be spending a lot of time on the water polarized glasses may not be the right thing for you.
The difficulty with polarized glasses is that they don't work well with liquid crystal displays (LCDs) such as the display on your smart phone. If you want to try polarized glasses be sure to see how well you're able to read emails and text messages or surf the web.
The least expensive non-polarized model on the website is the King's Camo Flak Jacket XLI, starting at 0.00. The polarized version is about .00 more.
There are other polarized models that cost 0.00 and up.
The best advice is to go to the Oakley website and browse through the options. You'll be impressed with the choices. The styles in the military versions will be somewhat more extreme that some people are comfortable with. You can always look at their more traditional glasses.
If you are interested in high performance, high impact sunglasses the models in the military sunglasses line may be right for you.
