What Exactly Is Travis Scott's Oakley Connection?
Oakley is not back; Oakley has been back. Especially over the past year, the eyewear specialists have evolved from semi-ironic streetwear flex to serious fashion statement.
And no one is a better face (or eyes) for Oakley's fashion renaissance than Travis Scott. So why isn't anyone — including Oakley and Scott — talking about it?
Scott has consistently repped Oakley on every single stop of his ongoing global "Circus Maximus" tour. Okay, that's an understatement: Travis Scott has been wearing an insane amount of Oakley on a daily basis.
The only thing Scott's worn as often as Oakley is his signature Nike sneakers — even then, he's switched those out of rotation far more often than his sunglasses.
Yes, Scott is well and truly hooked on Oakley's signature sporty shades: Sumptuous in media res shots provided to Highsnobiety by Henry Hwu, Scott's tour photographer, show Scott wearing old, new, and unreleased Oakley sunglasses in the Netherlands, in Belgium, in the UK, in Germany, in the Czech Republic, in Spain and beyond.
Scott is also often dripped out in custom Oakley gear, including a particularly wild Oakley moto-style harness and leather Oakley belt, a serious love affair that bleeds over into real life.
There's Scott flexing his Oakley belt while vacationing with Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati, for instance, and flipping up his Oakley sunglasses during a visit to a Portuguese winery.
I can't remember the last time I've seen this exact phenomenon, really. Musicians perpetually flex custom clothes during shows, yes, but in their free time, they typically wear street clothes aside from the occasional guerilla marketing scheme.
That's part of Scott's appeal, I suppose; he effectively dresses the same both on and offstage.
But though Scott has plenty of other designer favorites, he wears none of them as consistently as Oakley. Further, none of his other custom pieces infiltrate his daily wardrobe.
Like, when was the last time you saw Scott wearing his bespoke Givenchy Utopia tee? Answer: not since that one time over a year ago.
Travis Scott has long worn Oakley sunglasses, even taking a pair to Nigeria for a summer 2023 music video shoot
But Scott's suddenly been Oakley-ified in a major way. In fact, it's currently rarer to see Scott not wearing Oakleys. These hyper-sporty shades are now part of his personal brand. It feels like a guerilla marketing push in the vein of A$AP Rocky's Bottega campaign but without the obvious reveal.
And if this is all subliminal marketing, it's flying under the radar of all but the most dedicated fans. Instead, Travis Scott's enthusiastic Oakley endorsement functions better as a state of the Oakley nation.
Needless to say, this level of exposure is a real coup for Oakley, especially coming from a musician with an obsessive fanbase in that coveted 18-to-34 age range.
Oakley is already a fashion contender, you see.
Smart collaborations with neatly aligned labels like Pas Normal and Satisfy have helped normalize Oakley's stylistic inclinations, timed neatly with rising yen for clothes inspired by superfast sports like motocross and F1.
And Oakley's footwear — a true sleeper when it initially released a few decades ago — has been all but revitalized by the Oakley Factory Team project overseen by Brain Dead founder Kyle Ng.
It wasn't always so easy for Oakley to find its fashionable way.
For instance, there was a brief Oakley-fashion flare-up in 2018, engendered by a spate of buzzy collabs with labels like Palace, Kith and, especially, Demna's Vetements.
But that was more of a blip than a continuous ascent, a knowing cash-in on Oakley's then-anti-fashion appeal. Things are different now.
Travis Scott's organic Oakley push is symbolic of Oakley's success in repositioning itself as a prescient purveyor of futuristic sportswear steeze. It's no longer ironically cool to mix Oakley's high-tech eyewear with more casual clothes: it's, simply, cool.
What's odd about all this, though, is that Scott hasn't appeared on the company's social media pages at all. Similarly, Scott hasn't tagged Oakley in any of his own posts.
Again, nearly all of Scott's recent Oakley moments have escaped broader notice, save for a few ardent fans seeking to imitate their idol's style.
You'd think that a much-publicized tie-up between Oakley and Scott, à la Scott's Audemars Piguet collaboration, would be the perfect reflection of Oakley's new era, saying with absolute clarity that Oakley knows that it's got the goods.
There's some appeal in Scott's seemingly organic Oakley boost — it doesn't have the inauthenticity of corporate sponsorship, for one — but the lack of clarity is also weakening the potential punch.
For instance, Scott has so casually worn pairs of Oakley's soon-to-release Plantaris sunglasses for months that it's barely drawn any attention at all. This could be the big boost necessary to ensure the new style makes a proper splash — if anyone notices.
It'd be wise for Oakley to make the most of it. Scott certainly has.
