Oakley’s Strapped-Up Outdoor Sneaker Ain’t Like The Rest
Oakley Factory Team, the American sports brand’s experimental-leaning line in collaboration with streetwear label Brain Dead, has a new technical outdoor sneaker in the works.
And, as is the case with most things Oakley Factory Team, it doesn’t fit the usual mold of a rugged trail shoe.
The Oakley Factory Team Ibex is a chunky model, not too dissimilar from its Chop Saw sneaker in shape but with a less conventional build.
The shoe’s upper can be split into two parts. There is the inner part crafted with ripstop fabrics, no-sew overlays, hairy mesh… all pretty conventional stuff for a hard-wearing outdoor shoe, and then there is the outer exoskeleton.
An outer cage warps around the shoe connected together by a web of nylon lace, woven in and out of various panels. It is also what keeps the sneaker's actual laces in place.
The exoskeleton even reaches to the bottom of the shoe, replacing its sculpted midsole in part and connecting directly to its aggressively lugged “O-Grip” outsole (which works in tandem with a cushy Ortholite insole).
The Oakley Factory Team Ibex is set to debut alongside new renditions of two of the brand’s longstanding sneakers — its hairy suede Edge Boot and futuristic slip-on flesh sandal — on December 17, available via Brain Dead and select stockists.
The shoe’s debut two colorways, one flame-colored and the other darker, purple-hued, are set to be followed by two more toned-down colorways.
Revealed earlier this year as part of Junya Watanabe's Spring/Summer 2025 collection, an all-black and all-white collaborative version of this sneaker is in the pipeline. Now that the Ibrox has officially landed, their release can’t be too far away.
