Not Even With A Barge Pole

A classic example of why there’s only a couple of boot brands I’ll buy these days.

These Oakley SI Assaults were alllll the rage about 7 years ago because everyone thought they looked cool and cool guys on Internet forums who went to Magpul Dynamics classes were buying them.  But as you can see, even though this pair cost plenty, is only about 6 years old and has spent 99% of their lives in a cool, dark, dry place; one rubber outsole has degraded massively more than the other for absolutely no discernible reason.

I’ve talked about how bad the old Oakley Factory Pilot carbon knuckles gloves are/were in other posts, along with the one pair of Oakley shades I picked up to try out (at a heavy discount).  This is a prime example of a company that built a name for itself, then sold out to a conglomerate, moved manufacture to somewhere with cheap labour, dropped quality massively and now hands on its’ old name by a thread and in future will only make sales to people more concerned about fashion and brand names than they are quality.

Always take internet hype with a pinch of salt. Also realise the difference between hype and actual reviews done by people who know a bit about gear.