Oakley Celebrates 50 Years with Ellipse Collection

Few brands have treated eyewear quite like a science experiment, and fewer still have made the results look this wearable.

As Oakley marks its fiftieth anniversary, the Ellipse 50th Anniversary Collection demonstrates five decades of folding physics into functional art. It’s a piece that nods to Oakley’s storied past while confidently staking a claim on the future. 

In the world of sports performance and technical style, Oakley has always operated differently, approaching sunglasses not as accessories but as solutions to challenges. The new collection revives this legacy through seven limited edition pieces, including the standout 50 Midas Fleck with Prizm 24K lenses, all rendered in a black-and-gold palette that blends trophy aesthetics with lab-grade precision. 

At the collection’s core sits the reissued M-Frame, its legendary wraparound shield now trimmed in metallic gold; a nod to its 1989 debut when it became the choice of Tour de France riders and Olympic athletes. Alongside updated versions of the Sub Zero, Eye Jacket, Racing Jacket and Sutro, each piece features: 

Plutonite lenses with physiomorphic geometry, lightweight frames with Unobtainium earsocks, multiple nose pad options for a custom fit, and Oakley’s Prizm technology for enhanced contrast.

“Oakley has always been about pushing boundaries,” said a brand spokesperson. “Ellipse merges our DNA of wrapping inventions in art with a vision for a limitless future.”

The Ellipse insignia appears throughout the collection, etched into lenses and temple arms, blurring the line between scientific instrument and style statement. There’s deliberate retro-futurism at work here; these frames could equally belong in a 1990s vision of 2050 or on today’s most demanding athletes. 

Fifty years after James Jannard founded the company with its rebellious spirit, Oakley continues its core experiment of pushing the physics of eyewear, while making sure the results turn heads.  

Ellipse launches globally on July 12, marking a new chapter for Oakley and reasserting the brand’s commitment to defying convention and redefining the limits of eyewear.