NOT Oakley X-Metal Collection: Mars Leather

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We have a couple of pairs of Oakley sunglasses (Juliet, Madman) in our collection. Oakley glasses are instantly recognizable to those who know their X-Metal line. They are extremely well-made with high-quality materials, and are uniquely styled. We wear the Oakley Juliet sunglasses whenever the convertible top is down 🙂

NOT Oakley…and they never claimed to be

We all know that EBay is the wild west of shopping. Buying anything on EBay is absolutely caveat emptor, as a LOT of things on EBay are knockoffs. If a deal is too good to be true, then it is almost 100% certain that the item is either stolen or a fake, or maybe even both 🙂

Still, sometimes we are tempted by EBay because all we want is the look of a thing, real or not. For something as low-risk as a pair of sunglasses…if things don’t work out, we’ll only be out-of-pocket the cost of a decent lunch.

What came in the box from EBay:

• Sunglasses
• Hard case
• Soft bag and cleaning cloth

These sunglasses are CLEARLY not made by Oakley and nowhere in the EBay ad, on the packaging, or the frame did the seller imply that they were. While they look almost identical to Oakley’s X-Metal Mars sunglasses, we would be fools to think that they were real Oakleys.

Nonetheless, we were thoroughly impressed with the materials used, workmanship involved, and construction quality of what showed up.

• Metal frame…obviously not titanium/X-Metal
• Silicon pads…soft, comfortable, well-fitted
• Hand-stitched details…nicely executed

One detail to note: unlike the “real” Oakleys, this frame does not offer a way to change out the lenses should they get damaged or scratched…and no, we don’t know how they installed the lenses in the first place. The “real” Oakley Mars will have a screw at the nub sticking out at the 4 o’clock position securing the split of the frame.

On the positive side, the lenses are polarized. They even included a little card to show the polarizing effect!

FinalThought

The value-for-money aspect of these Oakley Mars lookalike sunglasses cannot be denied. At 1/100th the price of the real thing, we would opt for these every time.  Why?

• We like the way they look, how they fit, and how well they work; and
• We don’t have to worry about taking a huge financial hit if we lose them.

We’re not sure how long these sunglasses will last, but at $30 a pair, does it really matter?

Links to items mentioned:

• Oakley Mars sunglasses
• Oakley Juliet sunglasses
• Oakley Madman sunglasses

NOTE: Readers will notice that, unlike other reviews, we didn’t post a link to the source. This is because we don’t links to individual EBay sellers unless they have a store.