Well, if you’re a frequent flyer of this section of the site, this will be totally left field to what I have been reviewing in the past. As I’ve said before, I initially created this review section to review all sorts of stuff, but so far I’ve been concentrating on anime figures as they’ve been easy (and fun) to write about. But it’s time for a change of pace and I’m going to do a small review on my new sunglasses as I haven’t seen that many reviews of it while shopping around.
I’ve been looking for a pair of good quality sunglasses for awhile, previously I’ve been using Wiley-X SG1 for just about everything. While I love the SG1 and its styling, it isn’t very comfortable to wear, at least for my Asian face. The SG1 was designed as a one size fit all type of deal, and being a standard issue eye wear for the US Military its design is mostly based upon the facial features of a non-Asian person. I say that mainly because Asian people tend to have a wider facial surface and the nose bridge isn’t as tall. While I can wear it just fine, it sits very loosely on my face and would fall off unless I use a strap. But I’ll get into those details if/when I do the SG1 reviews later on.
I’ve never bothered to look into Oakley eyewear before as most of its style that I’ve seen before didn’t quite appeal to me. I still much prefer the tactical look of the SG1 and that was one of my criterias when searching for a replacement sunglasses. So I came upon the Jawbone one day and thought it looked interesting enough. It was also pretty cool that I could customize the colours that I wanted and that Oakley had an Asian Fit line that will sit better on Asian faces. Win.
I’ve always heard how Oakley have really good optics, so I was really interested to see how the Jawbone will end up. So I made my custom order at the local eyeware store and waited for about a month. The wait seemed like forever, but I think it was well worth it in the end.
The package comes in a matte black box with nothing but a subdued Oakley Custom logo. In the box is a padded carrying case (which Oakley calls a Vault) containing the goodies and some paperwork for registration and explanation of the different types of lenses.
The Jawbone comes with 2 pair of lenses, alternate nose piece and a microfibre soft carrying bag. The standard Jawbones from Oakley comes with standard lenses of Oakley’s choosing. Since my order is custom, I got to pick and choose my colour scheme and lenses. I opted for a set of polarized Fire Iridium lens and a set of vented Fire Iridium lens.
The soft bag is able to fit the Jawbone and spare lenses in a little pouch, it’s somewhat of a tight fit though so I don’t know if it’s all that practical to keep the spares in there.
I spent some time playing with the different colour schemes of the Jawbone on Oakley’s site, I really liked some of the funky schemes I’ve made but since this custom piece will cost about $350 CAD, it’s best to err on the safe side. I’ve also never seen the Jawbone in person, so I wasn’t sure how it’ll fit or look on me. Yeah, I was taking a serious leap of faith here!
I initially wanted to try black top with orange bottom or orange top with black bottom to match the scheme of my car, but since web CG images are always way too misleading I went for something a bit more safe. I ended up going with an all black polished frame with orange accents. It’s not as bold, but I guess it’s alright – I opted for the polished black frames as they’re less prone to scratches from my past experience with the SG1.
It’s also been quite a number of years since I’ve had polarized lenses so I went for a set of polarized lenses with the Jawbone. An oddity occurred when I tried selecting the polarized lens from Oakley’s site though, it forced me to have the etching “Polarized” on the lens. I couldn’t remove it as an option, so I decided to etch the word “Fahrenheit” to match my car, once again. Unfortunately that forced the price to go up by $30 – lame. But in the end, it matched the Jawbone and Fire Iridium lens fairly well (as well as the car). LOL
The defining feature of the Jawbone is it’s ability to quickly change lenses and simply at that! All you have to do is flip up the nose support to unlock the lower frame, then just flip the lower frame down (or up depending on the orientation). The lenses slides out with a very light tug (it won’t fall out loosely), change the lens and flip the lower frame back and lock the nose clips. All done!
My alternate lens selection is the vented Fire Iridium lens – I really like this look, makes the Jawbone look even more aggressive. It also helps vent the air during hot & humid days, heck, even when it’s cold it’ll help with the fogging. I did have some concerns about light bleeding through the edges, but after testing them out for a couple of days I found it’s barely noticeable.
The view through the vented Fire Iridium lens makes the images a little warmer / yellower looking. It does a great job of cutting out the brightness and washed out colours. According to Oakley’s spec sheet, the light transmission for this lens is 16%.
As for the polarized Fire Iridium lenses, the images look more smoke rather than yellow, the light transmission is indicated at 10%, so it is darker than the regular Fire Iridium lens. Being polarized, it really helps increase contrast and cut down on reflection. You can see some examples below, they’re not the best quality images, but you get the point.
I did notice something a little different about these Fire Iridium lenses and that is from certain angles if I roll my eyes around, I can see some ghosting images. Especially if there’s a reflection, from certain angles it seems like there are orange holographic dots floating about. It’s a little disorienting if you ask me. At first I thought it was just the polarized lens that did this, but after testing out the vented lens, I found it to be the case too althought not as bad. Also from certain angles, the polarized lens makes things feel like you’re looking through a pair of 3D glasses. You can see some of the ghosting of reflections in the below pic, notice the bottom part of the right lens. I’m guessing it’s the iridium coating since it’s on both pair of lenses, but since this is my first Oakley, I’m not 100% sure.
It’s been awhile since I’ve had a good pair of polarized sunglasses, I’ve completely forgotten just how great and useful they are in cutting down reflection. Don’t believe me? Still on the fence whether polarized lenses are worth the money? Just take a look below at the results, left is normal view and the right is through the polarized lens. Sorry for the crappy quality, I took the pictures with my Blackberry just before going to work.
One other thing that I didn’t mention yet about my Jawbone is that I had ordered the Asian Fit frame. But to be honest, I can’t tell if that’s what I got or not as there were no labeling on/in the package or frames that would indicate this is an Asian Fit frame. It looks like a regular Jawbone to me, althought I don’t have a regular Jawbone to compare side by side. Top-down view of my Jawbone looks very similar to some of the other regular Jawbone pictures I see on the Internet. But luckily even if this is a regular Jawbone, it fit my face fairly well – I happen to have a taller nose bridge and my face isn’t as flat as the typical Asian face. I am, however, using the thicker nose support pad at the moment so the frame doesn’t touch my face. I haven’t tried the smaller pads yet to compare, but the thicker ones seem fine. Frame isn’t touching my face and my eye lashes aren’t touching the lens. The stems are also round enough to clear the side of my (GIANT) head – it’s not too tight and not too loose – just right!
All in all, I find the Jawbone a great replacement to my Wiley-X SG1, unfortunately the pricing is pretty steep! I don’t think I’ll be spending this kind of money anymore on sunglasses for awhile, good thing too because the quality of the Jawbone is superb and I have no doubt it’ll last a long time. The optics of the lenses are great too, minus the odd holographic reflections which I think is due to the Fire Iridium coating. The Livestrong and regular versions of the Jawbone at stores are retailing for around $250 CAD, most of the cost of my custom is due to the polarized lens and lens etching.
If the Jawbone is in your price range and you’re on the fence about getting one, don’t be – you won’t be sorry with the purchase!
Nice shades man. I wish I could pick up an expensive set of Oakleys.
More importantly though, nice car. Looks like fun to drive, I hope it’s a standard… do they sell automatic GTIs? God I hope not, that defeats the entire purpose.
I need a new set of sunglasses, I haven’t had any in a couple of years since I lost my old set in downtown TO. I’d like to get polarized but they’re expensive…
Thanks Aka – the GTI is definitely a fun car to drive! The MKV and MKVI GTI comes in manual or DSG (dual-clutch gear box), so it’s semi-automatic – depending how you look at it. I have the Fahrenheit edition GTI, so it only comes with DSG, I honestly don’t mind though as the DSG shifts insanely fast. I can still control the gears (to a certain degree) and I don’t have to worry about stepping on the clutch. LOL
No matter what sunglasses you get, polarized lenses definitely does help. But I forgot to mention in the review that polarized lenses may cut out certain light from LCDs or the dash lights from your car depending on the angle. Also if you’re looking out tinted windows, you’ll see a weird colour spectrum. But I would still opt for polarized lenses in the future as the pros outweight the cons.
Ah DSG, I’ve wanted to try a car out with one of these new fangled devices but I just haven’t bothered. I understand shifting insanely fast, but I do feel like I’m not as connected to the car as I am with my stick shift. But connected to the car and fast are sometimes entirely different beasts. I’m so used to a clutch, whenever I drive an automatic I stomp on the floor expecting a pedal that’s not there, and when it’s not there I push the brake when starting the car. All things I don’t need to do, the brake only need be depressed when getting out of park!
I knew about polarized lenses and LCDs, but I thought monitors and TVs, never occured to me that I might not be able to read my Alpine car stereo. Well, I can’t read it in the day time anyway, it’s not bright enough. So I guess nothing lost there.
Curious, have you done anything to your GTI? or is it bone stock?
Yup, I totally know what you mean about missing that clutch – but to be honest, it doesn’t bother me at all. DSG is a whole different beast, has its own pros and cons. =)
My GTI has pretty standard bolt-ons: intake, catch can, R32 style exhaust and a few small modifications to the engine bay. Also have Stage 1 software flash put on. Haven’t lowered it yet, I spent my budget on these damn figures! LOL What do you drive?
I drive a 2005 Saab 92X Aero, aka the Saabaru. It’s just a 2005 Subaru WRX Wagon with a few changes to the body and some suspension changes. I’ve reflashed the ECU to Stage 2, so the claimed horsepower is 281, but I’m not entirely sure I believe I’ve hit this. Though I did have to adjust my wastegate manually to get the right peak boost. I’ve also swapped teh brakes on it for the 2006 WRX brakes with the red calipers, the baby Brembos as they’re often called, though they say Subaru on them.
It’s a pretty fun car, and I love the all wheel drive. I also really like the hoodscoop on mine vs the standard WRX, it’s more integrated into the hood and just looks more slick. The rear of the car also looks pretty good, but the front … hasn’t grown on me at all.
Those look pretty sharp. I really need a pair of sunglasses; part of my commute home is uphill on a westbound road, so I wind up staring right into the sun during spring and summer evenings. Unfortunately for me, my vision is abysmal and I need regular eyeglasses, so I guess I’d have to have the lenses custom-made. I wonder if my vision insurance plan would pick up the tab on $250 shades?
I had originally meant to do reviews of lots of things, too. One of the things I wanted to review when I kicked off my site was my new pocketknife, which I thought was really spiffy. However, I decided that nobody would be all that interested, a lot of people would think that I’m some sort of homicidal knife-wielding maniac, and I don’t really know enough about cutlery to do an adequate review, so I dropped the idea.
That is definitely a damn piece of cool glasses!
However, I don’t think it’s suitable for me as I’m short-sighted, can’t see much on normal shades or sunglasses since most of them don’t come with degree (as in 0 degrees for perfect eye-sight), if I’m not wrong.
have you tried switching the nosepieces? seems hard to remove..
Yup, I guess I forgot to mention it in the review, but the nose pieces actually come off fairly easily. It hooks on to a swivel (so that’s how it flips up and down), all you have to do is unclip it from the frame and snap the replacement nose piece on. It may be easier if you take the lenses out first though, so you can get a better grip of the frame and not to get fingerprints all over the lenses.
im thinking about getting the asian fit of these pair of oakleys, but i can only get it from oakley.com, but they sell it on ebay for 50bucks cheaper its just im not so sure if whats the main difference of the asian fit jawbone and the non asian fit, im thinking what if the main difference is just the nose pads which also those non asian fit has the taller once. in that way i will just buy those once on ebay so i can save 50dollars. help me please!
From what I gathered on Oakley’s site, the Asian Fit style of glasses are flatter and wider to better accomodate most Asian people’s facial structure. But I had a chance to compare mine at a local Oakley store and honestly, I really can’t notice the difference. Now whether that’s because I didn’t actually get an Asian Fit or that the only difference is in the nose pads, I’m not too sure.
Either way, this set fits me well, though I don’t have the typical flat Asian face. I do, however, use the taller nose pads though and don’t have any problems with the fitment. I think you shouldn’t have any problems using the regular version with the taller nose pads either.
But I don’t know what you look like, so if you have a lower nose bridge and really flat facial structure, then go with the Asian Fit from Oakley’s site for a peace of mind.
Well i just git my order from ebay. Its a jawbone retina burn that i waited 2 paychecks so i can purchase it. I just change the nose pads so it sits better, but i tried comparing it to my split jacket that i also changed the nose pads. Jawbone is a little bit tighter on the arms, but not too tight compare to split jacket but its fine though. And once more can i ask how much is US dollar are the custom jawbones, like yours how much did you spend with those pairs? And what are those two lenses that you picked it looks really cool man! Thanks man i really do appreciate your help, and if you have facebook please do add me. No homo hahaha. Its pao_17stretch@yahoo.com so its easier for me to ask more about oakleys. Thanks thanks!!
And one more thing the arm of my jawbone is kinda tight in my head but not really tight though i compare it to my split jacket but its okay though maybe im just used to my spliy jacket.
Sorry about the delay in reply – got caught up in updating the site! I got my Jawbone for about $450 from a local authorized store. When I customized it from the Oakley online store, I think it was around $600.
The Jawbone comes with two sets of lenses, so I got the vented lens and polarized lens. The colours are Iridium Fire or something like that, can’t remember.
Glad to help, it’s one of the reasons I started doing reviews, hoping it’ll help people out when they’re looking for reviews on stuff. =)
VF recently posted..Kotobukiya: Lucy (Ghostbusters)
I heard that there is no difference with the frame between asian and non-asian fit Jawbones, and that they come with two pairs of nose pads that are used to change them between asian fit and non-asian fit.
Not sure if this is true or not as with other models there are definitely differences like the front frame is flatter to stop the bottom of the sunglasses touching the cheeks when smiling, etc.
Yeah, that could be why mine doesn’t really specify Asian fit or not. But on Oakley’s site, they do give you an option for Asian fit or regular. AFAIK, all Jawbones come with two nose pads, either way, I just know that the Jawbone I have is really comfortable and still the primary sun glasses I use every day.
hey VF nice shades.could u just help me with a little info?do jawbones fit on medium sized face?’Am planning to buy one online.
thanks
inadvertantly bought “asian” fit on ebay…they seem fine…they DO keep the lenses away from eyes, which i do notice/do like….was told that at the end of the model #, the letter “J” distinguishes “asian” fit from non-asian fit. mine does seem different, and does have the “J”. thought that might help….wondering about the “smaller” nose pieces….guess its back to ebay. . .
I know it’s an old post, but I happened to find it.
Nice sunglasses. I wonder if since they’re older maybe they’d show up on eBay or somewhere for a great deal?
I haven’t had polarized glasses in a while. I think these would be a world above the lower-end ones I once had.
Thanks.
Marty M. recently posted..Rockford Fosgate P300-12 & P300-10 Full Review: A Powered Car Subwoofer Done Right
Yep, you can definitely find the Jawbone for cheaper now. I think the product line got re-branded as the Racing Jacket now. Both look very similar.