'COOL' not enough for me
Sometimes bullet-proof ain’t enough. And come to think of it, style isn’t everything either. So, when it comes to optics for anglers, I can’t tell you how disappointed I was after hanging around the show for the WileyX press conference this past Thursday.
Yeah, they’ve got our Skeet Reese; they’ve got the other Mark Davis; but as an optics manufacturer, they’ve also got short-sightedness (pun intended.)
It was a couple of seasons back when I asked Wiley’s Mark Fisher (in the face of Ono and Costa Del Mar’s introductions of bifocal, polarized glasses) when Wiley might have a similar offering. Last Thursday, Fisher told the media that such a product was well down on the company priorities list.
Maybe he thought the offer of a free pair of WileyX’s to all who were present would mask the obvious; that we’d all overlook this gap in the product line. But I heard murmuring as the room emptied.
Hey, I like Reese and Davis; they’re both dynamic figures. But not everybody is in the MTV demographic. Reese, by his own admission, is 20 years in the fishing business and now 40 years old. He’s no kid and the fact his only contribution to the Wiley forum was, “I just wanted them to build a cool set of glasses,” doesn’t have me rushing to the eyewear counter. Heck, forget about that safety element Wiley likes to tout, Skeet doesn’t even use the protective inserts!
Maybe somebody forgot to tell him, it’s in your 40′s that your near vision starts to go South. But that’s also when your earning power starts to rise. People buy $200 eyewear for a lot of reasons. But having the multiple benefits of being able to fish in all light conditions, see up close and also be able to afford it, are some issues in front of him (his sponsor) and a good portion of the market.
Sure, I want our military to have the best. They need all the safety gear available. But that’s not the issue here. If Wiley doesn’t particularly care about me and my fishing experience–or yours (in that 40 and up category)–where does that leave us?
Frankly, somewhere else.
3 Responses to “ICAST blast: WileyX’s big disappointment”
I’m sure you’re absolutely right, Brian. 
I’ve had my pair of oakley sunglasses for nearly a month fishing, cycling and jogging. Now I can’t leave the house without them!
When Skeet’s vision is so bad that he can’t tie a knot is when he will ask Wiley to design a bifocal lens. Then it will be “cool”.