Jenn Bradley

Interview
KiraSheppard, DarcyTurenne, Christina Milian and Niki Gudex
Oakley’s
Jenn Bradley
Jenn Bradley, Global Program Manager of Oakley Women’s Eyewear and RX Frames, explains Oakley’s women’s eyewear
marketing concept, the Luxottica purchase and the expected effect of both on the EU market and retailers. Interview by
Stephanie Kranz (www.stephaniekranz.com).
Oakley is known for high-tech eyewear and
goggles and has just come out with a new
women’s eyewear line. However, the origin of
the brand is something else.
That’s true. Oakley started with a BMX bike grip
about 30 years ago. At BMX competitions our
founder and chairman Jim Jannard did not like
the way the grips were working on the bikes
so he did his own version that was a better
functioning product. Pretty soon though Oakley
went into eyewear with goggles and sunglasses
being the next venture. Eventually eyewear
expanded and step-by-step we were getting
into apparel like sweatshirts and tees and small
accessories, for men first and then more and
more for women. Today our product categories
are footwear, eyewear, prescription eyewear,
goggles, watches, apparel and accessories with
the strongest category still being sunglasses.
What’s the retailer’s benefit of an Oakley
product?
High customer satisfaction. We are a brand that
is based on technology, quality and style, and
we are always testing the bounds of what is
possible. We are really progressive because we
are making equipment for authentic athletes.
[We] offer a quality product not just an in-andout trend product. We and the retailers know
that customers are getting what they paid for,
or even more.
Both the awareness that women are an
important target group and making womenspecific products are not new. Usually a firstmover brand, Oakley was not ahead of this
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development – how come?
It’s all about timing. We built our brand [to
be] primarily male-based and that is what we
stand for. As we started to grow more and more
women became attracted to the brand even
though we were a male brand. We went into
women’s products when we were ready for it and
when it felt right for us. We wanted to spend time
to find out what women really want, address
[those things] in the proper way and do [them
well] instead of half way.
What’s the most striking difference between
creating and marketing women’s products
compared to unisex or men’s eyewear?
Style and fit. Technology-wise we definitely have
dialled what we want out of a product from a
functionality, quality and lens clarity standpoint
of each product. What we had to do for the
women’s products was work on fits for women’s
faces/anatomies, and a women’s preference
of fit which we initially did not know enough
[about]. So we spent a lot of time fit trialling,
testing products on women. Also, aesthetics are
really different: women require feminine colours
and lens shapes.
2007 was the year of your Global Women
Launch. What is it all about?
This is really our big push this year. We started
off last year with a soft launch as we were just
getting involved and learning about the consumer
behind this product. This year we were investing
a lot of money and effort in marketing and we
developed and just launched the Uniquely Oakley
campaign. It is based on a great [team of women
athletes] – surfers Kira Sheppard, Roxy Louw,
Mizouki Hagiwara and Claudia Goncalves as well
as mountain bike riders Niki Gudex and Darcy
Turenne – to communicate Uniquely Oakley to
our retailer and end consumer and make Oakley
women’s eyewear and apparel discoverable.
We have these unique, strong and independent
women with a profile which we feel is attractive
to the ‘Oakley woman’ who is athletic and
outdoor-oriented but not necessarily a sports
professional. These athletes are our platform,
they tell the story about the brand and their
lives and personality. There are tons of women
out there who we expect to connect with these
athletes because they see how beautiful and
active, attainable and real they are. We plan to
catapult it into multiple campaigns about women
and their sports and inspiration.
All of these athletes are summer sports
athletes. What’s happening with the campaign
right now in winter?
That’s right. Uniquely Oakley kicked off in
summer but now we are doing winter featuring
skiing and snowboarding, and wakeboarding
for the southern hemisphere. Again we have a
great women’s snowboard team with Gretchen
Bleiler, Sachi Tanaka (a Japanese snowboarder),
and Laura Hadar from the US. We also have
European athlete Anne-Flore Marxer from
Switzerland. Most of these athletes have been
with us for [a] very long [time]. You will find all
their bios, videos, stories, pics, products on our
new website www.oakleywomen.com. We also
have a community section there with news and
events.
www.boardsportsource.com
08-11-07 02:18:51
Interview
Will you also try to sell your women’s product
online via that site?
No, not specifically. We do have internet sales
because there are people out there who won’t go
shopping anymore but just order. Our challenge
is to balance what we do about internet sales,
what we do with the Oakley retail stores and
what we do with our independent stores.
Who do you consider your competitors in the
women’s eyewear segment?
Well when I do research on that what I really look
to is male brands trying to address females. You
have brands like Chanel, Gucci and Prada that
are competitors to a certain degree because they
are in the market but they are not a competitor
that we are addressing. There are brands like
Smith, Spy, Bollé and also Nike that are starting
Together we have the combined opportunity
for a stronger complementary relationship.
This partnership will create more stability and
increase the likelihood that consumers get to
see and experience Oakley’s commitment to
performance, quality and outstanding design.
You are talking about Luxottica’s expansive
global retail network. What’s the influence of
the merger on existing Oakley retailers?
We currently represent about 20% of Sunglass
Hut’s sales and have grown that business this
year, but our wholesale business has been
growing even faster. However, they aren’t
mutually exclusive. In fact, Luxottica’s business
has followed exactly the same pattern and has
been helping its wholesale partners grow at [an]
even faster rate than its own retail. O Stores
will continue to be an important part of Oakley’s
OUR CHALLENGE IS TO BALANCE WHAT WE DO ABOUT INTERNET SALES,
WHAT WE DO WITH THE OAKLEY RETAIL STORES AND WHAT WE DO WITH OUR
INDEPENDENT STORES.
to address women. But what I found about all of
these brands is that they are no real competitors
to us because they are not really addressing
women, they are just dabbling. They might have
two styles or a different colour for the women’s
product. We were the first active company that
offered sports performance and lifestyle eyewear
to really address women with women-specific
products outside of the fashion products from
fashion companies. When you talk to women,
technology and functionality might not be first
priority but that point of view is starting to
change, and performance features are becoming
more important. Fashionable eyewear really has
become a “must have” to be stylish but today,
women want that big lens and a functional glass.
And they want what is the trend.
Talking about competitors like Chanel and
Prada, Oakley has just merged with the Italian
Luxottica Group with luxury brands like Chanel,
Prada, Ralph Lauren, as well as Arnette. In
what way will this purchase change the way
Oakley is going to do business in the future?
Oakley [has] become a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Luxottica. The combination has the potential
to help make the Oakley brand, our portfolio of
brands (Dragon, ESS, Fox, Mosley Tribes, Oliver
Peoples and Paul Smith), and our multi-brand
retail concepts (Bright Eyes, The Optical Shop of
Aspen and Sunglass Icon) even stronger. Oakley
is a global leader in performance optics including
premium sunglasses, goggles, and prescription
eyewear focused on sport, technology and
active lifestyle whereas Luxottica is focused
on sunglasses and prescription eyewear in the
fashion, luxury and general lifestyle segments.
Oakley has been focused on building brands
including [the development of] the Oakley brand
into a broader performance and lifestyle brand
offering products in many product categories
such as apparel, footwear, and accessories.
Luxottica has been focused on building a
strong and expansive global retail network.
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growth and branding strategy. Sunglass Icon’s
current re-branding effort and growth plan will
continue with ongoing differentiation through its
mall-based locations. Optical Shop of Aspen will
continue to expand our premium RX platform
at the same pace we planned at the start of the
year.
What is expected to change or happen on
the European market with respect to Oakley
now belonging to the Europe-based Luxottica
Group?
Given that it’s a very different market from the
US - more fragmented, fewer large retail chains
- distribution can be challenging. Luxottica’s
European existing retail and wholesale presence
represents a great opportunity for greater Oakley
brand exposure, visibility and the ability to tell
our technology story. We will continue to focus
our efforts on growing our wholesale business
with our retail partners.
What kind of feedback do you get from the
European market concerning Uniquely Oakley
and the product?
I don’t think there is a big difference because
when you do know Oakley in Europe you know
it from sports, just like in the States. The
challenge in Europe for us is that this huge
market is dominated by the fashion brands
when it comes to eyewear. We are just starting
to approach women in Europe with a different
perspective. If you come into the market and
you want to be a fashion brand for women and
you are up against Chanel or Prada – forget it.
I have spent a lot of time working with sales
and meeting key accounts in Europe, and when
I talk to them about this positioning around our
women athletes, they were getting all excited.
At the moment they are surrounded by fashion
brands and with the Oakley women’s eyewear
they are able to offer something different for
their stores that is going [to] go well with their
consumers. Our potential customer does not
necessarily only want to wear Chanel without
function but she wants everything from quality
to technology, from style to fashion.
But you also opened a few more O Stores in
Europe recently …
Yes, because with the O Stores we get the
people in the Oakley environment because there
we know that our brand is represented the
way it should be. We have so many stories
to tell [and] it’s hard to tell them all so the
ideal place for your consumer is an O Store.
But what’s true to my heart because I grew
up in sales is working with the independent
chains embedding our business because we are
offering something to their business to grow
and we have a consumer that we are addressing
and who they can profit from. Also, everybody,
especially women, has their own shopping habit
so we have to accommodate all the different
needs, behaviours and lifestyles.
In what way do you expect Oakley to profit from
Luxottica concerning the women’s segment?
Luxottica’s expertise in the women’s business,
including access, information, and early trend
identification from some of the best designers in
the world such as Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany,
Burberry, Dolce and Gabbana, and Prada can
serve as a great benefit to Oakley’s women’s
eyewear programme. Having only entered the
women’s eyewear business a little more than
a year ago, Oakley has an amazing opportunity
to continue to learn, refine and optimise our
women’s eyewear programme while solidly
establishing a new active/sport-inspired lifestyle
niche.
You mentioned that quality and clarity aspects
are not as important to women but it is what
Oakley stands for. How do you get that across
to women?
It’s a process of education and demonstration so
we tell them about the ‘Oakley Woman‘ and about
what she stands for first. Fortunately, the whole
UV scale and eye protection issue is getting more
and more attention worldwide so it’s inherently
becoming more and more important to our
consumers. Some women definitely know about
the importance of technology and quality but
some don’t really realise what they are actually
putting their eyes through. A lot of fashion
eyewear can give you a headache and if you
show them why (distorted/blurred vision) they
understand.
How do you educate your distributors and
retailers in promoting your women’s line?
Talking to our retailers, be it in the US or in
Europe, is our first-thing mission. Actually, a
lot of retailers know us for our technology and
quality so it’s almost easier to tell the retailer
that the new women’s eyewear also has this
technology and quality. Now we are showing
the retailers that we have a product for women
which they can communicate and sell.
What’s new for 2007/08 product-wise?
We are going to have a colour refresh, a whole
new injection of colours on every model of our
women’s line. For our women’s goggle Stockholm
we are going to have a whole new range of straps
which are very beautifully designed.
www.boardsportsource.com
08-11-07 02:18:59