You're correct Todd it is the AP vest, you can clip various things to it from the AP range (although I'm guessing you might struggle to clip a AP rolling bag to it ;)

But the little bag that's clipped to the rolling AP bag will clip to the vest. As will the unharnessed AP Backpack. And all the little pouches and the AP eyewear case.

Just got back from my dealer. They were invited to the launch party, I think most independent OPDs in thr UK were. Appartently the goody bag was really good, especially as Oakley UK have never given anything away free before. The two guys that work in my dealer got a pair of sunnies each - they sound mega cool.

I can't remember which was which, but one got Ruby Clear Riddles and the other got Black Gradient Gascans with O Store London inscribed on the left hand lens. I think I've got those details right - I could have got the lens/frame combos the wrong way round. How much do we wish we had a VIP invite now!!??

Apparently, O are not going to be fully stocking the store with every colour of every model, as they're aiming at the wider consumer, not freaks like us. This might account for the lack of MTB stuff mentioned earlier. The main aim is to give O UK a public face.

Ruby Clear Riddle, custom inscribed lenses, goody bags. Gah! I want some :(
Ruby Clear riddle... damn I wish they had some of those left over, I'd pay good money for them! Oooh imagine a pair of Black gascans with ruby red icons and ruby clear lenses. Yum!

Bloody hell, Ruby Clear Gascans would quite possibly be the most awesome things in the universe.

Hopefully next time I'm in they'll have brought them into the shop to show me. I bet they look amazing.

If Oakley is still making Ruby Clear lenses then why won't they make the Ruby Blue lenses anymore??? They gotta see the prices they're going for on ebay & think "man, we're missing out"

the same reason they quit making Fire and Emerald lenses, they never sold particularly well, were expensive to make, and were copied extensively (most important one)

Those are all valid reasons but that still doesn't address our desire for Oakley to make whatever we want...hold on. What's that? The O-Review members only make up .0001% of the Oakley buying public? Hmm...Nevermind!

Yeah Todd, I was discussing this with my dealer today. Peeps like us who have masses of O knowledge are very much in the minority. My dealer reckons he carries too much stuff, because regular Joe Public never seems to be able to make up his mind when faced with every single current Oakley in every current colourway, ends up losing interest and buying nothing. Obviously for people like you and me, that's our idea of an excellent OPD, but it appears that people who don't really know the products don't like a massive amount to choose from.

Hence why the London O store is being very careful with how much they stock. They have the same number of display cabinets as my OPD, and stock less products (at least in terms of different colourways), yet the store itself must be over four or five times larger. It is a shame that O can't cater for all of our desires, but I guess that's business.

Do they really not carry the other colorways? Could they be hiding them away in the back. I've found that sometimes if I ask for a specific frame I don't see, they usually have it backstage.

Just hate how it's so hard to get certain items. Took me until after the Bluecamo Fatcat was discontinued to finally find a pair 4000miles away in a surf shop.

Brian, I haven't been to the store yet myself, but from what I have been told, they don't keep all of the colours on display. You're probably right when you say they have them out the back. The guy in the dealer I spoke to said that they only had 4 Juliet combos out - that seems like an exaggeration but if it's true it's a bit concerning. Maybe Lex or Adam can fill us in.

Dann - I guess I'm lucky - pretty much everything comes to my OPD. They still have a pair of Blue Camos. Tried the Grape Gascans on today, not my bag, but cool nonetheless.

I love probing the sales reps at Oakley to see if there's anything we're not hearing about or that is not available to us. Example, when I was working for an OPD I helped a customer that really wanted Silver C-Wires with Fire lenses polarized. I called the O rep & he said "no, we've never carried them" I said "Are you sure? That seems like a combo that should be available" He said "nope, sorry. Well...hold on." I waited 3-4 minutes on hold & he came back "We've got 2 pairs left" So I'm thinking that they sometimes make special orders or short run batches that aren't commercially available. I always say, It never hurts to ask!

Definately agree with that Todd. I asked my dealer to hassle O UK for some Black/Yellow Teeth - managed to get myself the last pair in the country!

Tim, if i remember correctly, that is true, the X-metal selction was very small i dont remember seeing any XX or mars, all they had were the sig juliets and then the standard colours, im trying to think if i even saw any pennys but you never know they might have had all of them in the back just incase anyone asked.

Ad, do you remember?

which sig juliets did they have? I'm assuming just emerald slate ichiros and ducatis? Slate ichiros perhaps?

yeah Tom just emerald slate ichiros and ducatis

Well, I finally got there, spent the weekend in Essex at my gert's brother's house and managed to get the train to London on the Saturday.

First stop Covent Garden, we saw it straight away and my mrs asked if we were going straight in, so I acted all nonchelant (spell?) and said nah, let's go for a beer...

I let her wonder around the usual stores then that was it, couldn't wait any longer. I must say, I was pretty impressed with the range of stuff they had in there for the size of the shop which is quite a bit bigger than i first thought, although most of it wasn't to my taste.

The plain coloured stuff I like, but can't get on with all this graphic stuff at all. Night camo ballistic bike shorts were sweet, golf Field Jacket was nice, and another neoprene jacket which I cant remember the name of, possibly scratch? dunno.

I bought a Brown Skull Belt and that was it, but I was itching to buy more, especially the last AP Vest hanging behind the counter....

We left and had a couple more beers and I bored my mrs for half an hour or so and then she said 'well if you really like that vest, I can get it for your birthday'

!!!

Well, an offer too good to be missed I'm afraid, so before we got the train back home, we paid another visit.

Everyone recognised me straight away as the guy who came in earlier with the red timebomb and white si boots and icon pack and blue scatter skull tshirt... weirdo...

So I got the vest and of course if you've got the vest, you need the AP pack to bolt on the back of it, so whilst I was bolting and clipping and velcroing my way over the counter I got talking to the manager about everything,

He said they were expecting the Leather Jacket in a couple of weeks, the headphones hat was made just for a fashion show, and may only be released in the us if at all, didn't know about jigsaw or didn't let on, wondered how on earth I knew about Ruby Gascans when I wasn't at the opening, loved my timebomb cos it's an old one and let me wonder around taking photo's, and said email any time with any questions etc.

He knew Adam and Lex as did the other guy, assistant manager i think, hehe, assman for short, always did think that was funny...

Told him about FP getting Dann and Phil into R&D at HQ and he said they didn't get that far in when they went for training a couple of weeks ago!!

Seemed like a real nice guy all in all, I talked about the site and he said he'd been on here looking for some info(!)

He said they were planning to open another six stores in key locations around the UK, and there would be another vault in the Galleria in Hatfield, Herts,

so the impression I got was that they're gunning big time for the fashion market to widen their customer base, which can only be expected to bring in the business, so if general joe bloggs supports them by buying the average stuff I reckon they're gonna release some pretty good top end crazy shit to keep us nutters happy, take Nike for instance, most of their clothing is pretty average, but the top end gear is pretty bang on, like the ACG range for instance, maybe that's why O are developing the SI/AP range so quickly to keep the military feel...

who knows, anyway I had a good day, and right now, I'm hanging from high tensile steel wires typing this in my AP vest just inches away from deadly laser beams scanning the floor.....

dum dum der dum, dum dum der dum, diddle er, diddle er, diddle er, da dum....

this thread will self destruct in five seconds...

Wow dude...great info! Awesome pics - I absolutely love that couch... really wanted to sneak the one in the Hollywood O store out in my bag....

The AP vest is killer - when do we get to see you posing in it?

Nice pics, Darren.

So, that's the biggest O-Store in the world, eh?

Very cool Darren. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks a lot for the report Darren, really appreciated ! Its nice you were able to take pictures, I hope we can do the same at the Toronto store thursday.

awesome post Darren! i'm surprised with all the O-Store photos, i'm afraid of doing that in the NYC SoHo O-Store lest they throw me out... i can't risk that! :p

maybe we should have a section of O-Store/Vault reviews under "Supplements" or in the "Dealers" section.

thanks again for sharing, Darren.

Holy crap, Darren... you're a big fella.

I tried the AP Vest a little bit before it was released and it's comfortable as hell.

Feels oddly like a flak jacket with the padding and straps.