Justin makes good points. Well done. Meh, I figure Oakley will crash and burn one day. It happens to every company that moves away from what made them popular.
on the contrary, i believe Oakley will become a much bigger brand than ever. i don't know much about US market, but in indonesia right now? well, i spoke an oakley dealer refractionist(optic store) yesterday, she told me that nowadays ppl are always looking for Oakleys Rx or sunglasses, that kind of thing doesn't happen everyday in the past(namely this time last year).
despite the fakes flooding the market, the brand awareness has grew like ten-folds compared to last year. seriously. i've posted somewhere that nowadays, 6 out of 10 ppl with rx glasses on the street has oakley rx on them, whether it's fake or not.this is only in context of the oakley public brand awareness, oakley's revenue or profit taking a hit by those fakes is another subject.
one thing i know for sure, it's strange to say this, but fakers/duplicators/replicators always has good eyes on which products to fake. those products are always the high-end type which ppl desire most, i don't need to mention other products(bags, watches, etc2), but for high end rx glasses = oakleys, mont blanc, tag heuer, and maybe more that i'm unaware of. thing is, u don't see ni@! rx glasses being faked, u dont' see arma@# glasses being faked(not that i'm aware of). well, the amazing thing is, oakley sunglass aren't only being faked but being copied too by lesser sunglasses brands!!! i remember a local spex symbol sunglass store selling some kind of lesser branded glasses(can't remember the name) which blantanly copied oakley splice design down to the red lenses(ruby) which original splice never has. it came with just enough little differences(prolly to avoid being sued) and being sold much cheaper than original splice(was around USD 40), this kind of thing generally happens with only truly high end most desirable wristwatches. it's not only being faked but being copied too by lesser brand! i only recently found this out, stumbling upon a copied version of rolex submariner by other unheard of- brands. those are nice alternative if one can't afford an SS submariner, which has a 4k price tag. for comparison, oakleys products aren't that un-affordable but they're being faked and being copied everywhere. that alone shows how big the brand is growing now, and all that only out of Oakley's cool designs on each of their product. :D
so, based on all that, it's fair to say even with the more mainstreamed design, oakleys is becoming one of the most desired products out there in the market. by that alone i don't think oakley will ever crash and burn. if it's anything, yes they might become a diversified company such as N@!# with more and more generally mainstream designed product vs. purist industrial stuff being offered by them. but no, they'll not crash and go out of business just becos they give more attention to the general audience than the loyal purist(us? :D). the fact is, i don't care for how many mainstreamed Oakley products are being released, just as long as Oakley keep making cool stuffs(with industrial/space out of this world designs) every once in a while(understanably cool designs always take good amount of time in process), then i'm loyal to O. can't wait how the new xmetal turns out to be.
note to oakley marketing dept/division, i said this before and i'll repeat it again: oakley should invest and supply their dealers with O-dvds for a display, namely the lens tests videos, imagine: a college girl shopping for sunglass in a optic store which is also an OPD(carries oakley), originally has eyes on Guc@# brand, sees oakleys' demo vids by accident, sees oakley Dart(the new women's line sunglasses), ask OPD store assistant if Dart can perform like those in vids, got confirmed, purchase done, girl happily goes home with new oakley glasses, show them off(maybe for the price) and tell friends/family about how it can perform and how good the lenses are, mention the videos for proof, friends/family got sold, go to store to check it out, repeat process. no media advertising needed!