"This place wouldn't be this place if we weren't so design driven."
To cultivate and control a distinctive vibe, Oakley keeps R&D, design, publicity, even advertising and marketing in-house, as well as the majority of eyewear manufacturing and distribution.
These obsessive-compulsive tendencies prompted Milan-based Luxottica Group, the largest eyewear company in the world (and owner of longtime rival Ray-Ban), to acquire Oakley -- whose sunglasses are known for their sleek, futuristic forms -- for $2.1 billion in cash this past November.
Image: Juxtaposing austere architectural details with oddball visual accents evokes a wicked sense of play. That spirit infuses the Oakley campus: a zip line once ran from the top of a building to a waterfilled ditch; in the back, a giant fire pit anchors a muddy tradition called Water Fest; despite repeated fines from the local homeowner's association, a skull and cross bones often waves from the building's flagpole. | Photograph: Dwight Eschliman
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