Oakley Kato, a revolutionary model that will change the face of sport

Today marks the market debut of Oakley Kato, built on 45 years of exclusive innovation and developed to break the boundaries of athletic performance. The unique aesthetic of Oakley Kato stems from game-changing progressions in eyewear. Accompanied by countless hours of research and testing, these progressions have contributed to creating this unique eyewear model, destined to change the face of sport this year, on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

Source: Press Release*

*Articles in this “New Products” section are based on press releases and are for informational purposes only. They have been selected by the editorial team for their relevance to your sport.

Designed to meet all demands, Oakley Kato features an innovative frameless lens, highly wrapped with integrated retention to mimic the structural properties of a traditional mask. The product thus sits very close to the face, giving the impression of a mask. Combined with Oakley’s exceptional optical quality and high visibility, this product exceeds all limits and instills self-confidence. Anyone who wears them feels at their best, ready to unleash their inner superpower.

During development, several top athletes, including Patrick Mahomes, Mark Cavendish, Nigel Sylvester, and Joseph Newgarden, were selected to wear a prototype and test the strength and performance that make Oakley Kato an extraordinary product. These collaborations resulted in the final design, including the adjustable Rake mechanism and interchangeable nose pads to individually adapt the model to the face shape like never before. The strong yet lightweight O Matter™ temples ensure high durability, and the Unobtainium® ear socks are molded onto the temples for non-stop, non-slip comfort. This superb innovation required a complete overhaul of the manufacturing process – from molds to optical axis machines to lens adhesives. Traditional approaches were abandoned to achieve this extraordinary aesthetic. Oakley Kato is available with Prizm™ lenses designed to enhance colors and contrast for greater detail.

Oakley’s international community delivered a full range of emotions by unveiling an exceptional and astonishing collective augmented reality experience. Oakley team athletes from all corners of the globe, including Juju Smith-Schuster, Mikaela Shiffrin, Mark Cavendish, Rohit Sharma, Seth “Scump” Abner, Valentino Rossi, and Patrick Mahomes, received a mysterious package containing highly confidential instructions. Upon opening the package, the athletes discovered an otherworldly object that took them on an augmented reality adventure, which transformed into an epic spectacle when the doors of a spaceship opened to reveal the revolutionary eyewear. This hybrid and immersive experience blended the physical, digital, and social in an event beyond human limits, to captivate the imagination and encourage athletes to push their boundaries with great self-confidence.

To give customers a glimpse of the product and the sensational virtual adventure, Juju Smith-Schuster used Oakley’s Instagram channel to share his feelings when he discovered the package’s contents. Juju also live-streamed his reactions to his augmented reality experience and the product on his personal account.

“We wake up every morning obsessed with our goal of stimulating human possibilities,” says Caio Amato, Global Marketing Director at Oakley. “Our pursuit of the new and the unimaginable has taken many forms throughout the brand’s history, and the latest is Oakley Kato – the redefinition of aesthetics that opens the doors to a new era of sports eyewear. Today we are experiencing much more than the launch of a new product. It is a moment to remind ourselves that nothing is impossible, that superheroes don’t just exist in comic books, but are also in real life, and that we can all aspire to be better than we ever imagined.”

Oakley has built a legacy on “disruptive” design, from the Eyeshade in 1984 to the Jawbreaker in 2015, including the avant-garde Over The Top presented in Sydney in 2000. Oakley Kato are the next steps in this adventure designed to push the boundaries of form, comfort, and function, and to revolutionize eyewear.

For more information on Oakley Kato, please visit: Oakley.com.

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