FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., Feb. 27, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Oakley, Inc. (NYSE: OO) today announced that a total of 52 medals were awarded to Olympic athletes who relied on the clarity and protection of the company's goggles and performance eyewear featuring High Definition Optics(R) (HDO(R)). More than 150 competitors from over 20 countries took advantage of Oakley technologies at the 2006 Winter Games. Gold medals were awarded to 17 Oakley-wearing Olympians. An additional 19 silver and 16 bronze medals were awarded to athletes wearing the company's eyewear inventions.
"We were the dominate player in eyewear at the 2006 Winter Olympics - one of every five athletes who medaled at Torino wore Oakley," said Colin Baden, president of Oakley. "The athletes' accomplishments are the product of decades of training and commitment. Likewise, our HDO(R) technology is the culmination of decades of research, development and refinement, and we are honored that they chose to rely on our innovations as essential gear en route to some of the greatest performances of their careers."
Snowboarding
Topping 44 competitors, Shaun White (USA) brought home gold in the Men's Halfpipe snowboarding competition while wearing the Oakley A FRAME(R) goggle. The goggle offers unbeatable clarity and protection thanks to HDO(R) and features dual vented lenses with Oakley's F3 anti-fog technology. Oakley's Gretchen Bleiler (USA) also took advantage of the A FRAME(R) during her silver medal performance in the Women's Halfpipe snowboarding competition and charmed Torino with a sneak-peek at the Oakley DART(TM) sunglass from the company's upcoming exclusive new women's eyewear collection. The third Oakley athlete to stand on the Women's Halfpipe snowboarding podium was Kjersti Buaas (Norway), who utilized the A FRAME(R) in her bronze medal run.
Speedskating
A total of 39 medals were awarded to athletes wearing Oakley eyewear in speedskating competitions. The majority of the medalists in this category chose the Oakley M FRAME(R) and PRO M FRAME(R), eyewear inventions that combine the unbeatable clarity of HDO(R) with the comfort of lightweight architecture that offers unsurpassed impact protection.
Cindy Klassen (Canada) tied a winter Olympics record earning five medals in one game - gold in the women's 1500m, silver in both the women's 1000m and Team Pursuit and bronze medals in the 3000m and 5000m. She competed wearing HALF JACKET(R), Oakley eyewear that combines an open-edge lens design with interchangeable lenses that offer the clarity and protection of HDO(R).
All top three finishers and medalists in every women's speedskating event (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and Team Pursuit) wore Oakley eyewear with notable gold medal performances by Svetlana Zhurova (Russia-500m), Marianne Timmer (Netherlands-1000m), Irene Wust (Netherlands-3000m), Clara Hughes (Canada-5000m) and the German team of Anni Friesinger, Daniela Anschuetz Thoms and Lucille Opitz who took the top prize in the Team Pursuit.
In Short Track competition, Mena Wang (China) earned gold in the women's 500m race and Sun-Yu Jin (South Korea) took home three gold medals in the women's 1000m, 1500m and 3000m Team Relay competitions. In the men's competition Hyun-Soo Ahn (South Korea) took home four medals - gold in the men's 1000m and 1500m, a bronze in the 500m and then another gold in the South Korean team victory in the 5000m Relay.
Freestyle Skiing
The Oakley CROWBAR goggle was the choice of gold medalist Jennifer Heil (Canada) and bronze medalist Toby Dawson (USA) in their freestyle skiing mogul events. Like the A FRAME(R) goggle, CROWBAR utilizes patented XYZ Optics(R), an HDO(R) technology that optimizes clarity at all angles of vision to maximize peripheral and downward view. Freestyle aerialists Han Xiaopeng (China) and Dmitry Dashinski (Belarus) took gold and silver in the men's competition pin-pointing their landings at more than 50 feet. China's Nina Li of China earned a silver medal in the women's aerial event.
Cross-country Skiing
Katerina Neumannova (Czech Republic) took home gold in the 30k cross-country skiing Mass Start and silver in the 15k cross-country skiing Pursuit while wearing the PRO M FRAME(R), an Oakley sunglass that has been a mainstay in athletics for many years.
Ice Hockey
Deemed the 'Superbowl of Scandanavia,' the men's gold medal game between Sweden and Finland featured a number of players wearing Oakley hockey shields including Sweden's gold medalists: Daniel Alfredsson, Peter Forsberg, Mikael Samuelsson, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin. Finland's silver medalists included: Teemu Selanne, Mikko Koivu, Saku Koivu, Olli Jokinen and Antti-Jussi Niemi.
Oakley High Definition Optics(R) (HDO(R))
"Olympic athletes can hone every muscle but when it comes to vision, there is no training regimen," said Baden. "Even those with perfect vision need the technologies of HDO(R) for the competitive edge of precise visual clarity."
Oakley HDO(R) is a collective platform of patented innovations that offer unbeatable optical performance. Tests developed specifically for eyewear by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) have proven Oakley eyewear with HDO(R) to be superior to all other eyewear brands tested. ANSI is the yardstick of performance in the eyewear industry, and three of its optical tests - clarity, refractive power and prism - show the superiority of Oakley technology. Pure Plutonite(R) lens material filters out the damaging rays of UV including 100% of all UVA, UVB, UVC and harmful blue light up to 400nm.
More information on Oakley medalists in the 2006 Winter Olympics, as well as the technologies behind the company's HDO(R) breakthroughs, can be found at www.oakley.com.
About Oakley, Inc.
Oakley, Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance sunglasses, prescription lenses and frames, goggles and technology-enabled eyewear that utilize the company's High Definition Optics(R) (HDO(R)), a collective platform of patented technologies that offer unbeatable optical performance. The company also produces technical and active apparel, footwear and accessories. Trailing-12-month net sales through December 31, 2005 totaled US $648.1 million. Oakley, Inc. press releases, SEC filings and the company's annual report are available at investor.oakley.com.
Safe Harbor Disclaimer
This press release contains certain statements of a forward-looking nature. Such statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include, but are limited to growth and strategies, future operating and financial results, financial expectations and current business indicators and typically identified by the use of terms such as "look," "may," "will," "should," "might," "believe," "plan," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate" and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. The accuracy of such statements may be affected by a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including but not limited to: risks related to the successful implementation and operation of the company's multi-branded eyewear growth strategy, the company's ability to optimize manufacturing processes, incorporate Oakley's High Definition Optics and expand the brands into additional international markets; the company's ability to integrate the acquisition and benefit from accretive earnings in 2006; the company's ability to manage rapid growth; risks related to the limited visibility of future sunglass orders associated with the company's "at once" production and fulfillment business model; the ability to identify qualified manufacturing partners; the ability to coordinate product development and production processes with those partners; the ability of those manufacturing partners and the company's internal production operations to increase production volumes on raw materials and finished goods in a timely fashion in response to increasing demand and enable the company to achieve timely delivery of finished goods to its retail customers; the ability to provide adequate fixturing to existing and future retail customers to meet anticipated needs and schedules; the dependence on eyewear sales to Luxottica Group S.p.A, which, as a major competitor, could materially alter or terminate its relationship with the company; the company's ability to expand and grow its distribution channels and its own retail operations; unanticipated changes in general market conditions or other factors, which may result in cancellations of advance orders or a reduction in the rate of reorders placed by retailers; a weakening of economic conditions could continue to reduce demand for products sold by the company and could adversely affect profitability, especially of the company's retail operations; terrorist acts, or the threat thereof, could adversely affect consumer confidence and spending, could interrupt production and distribution of product and raw materials and could, as a result, adversely affect the company's operations and financial performance; the ability of the company to integrate licensing arrangements without adversely affecting operations and the success of such initiatives; the ability to continue to develop and produce innovative new products and introduce them in a timely manner; the acceptance in the marketplace of the company's new products and changes in consumer preferences; reductions in sales of products, either as the result of economic or other conditions or reduced consumer acceptance of a product, could result in a buildup of inventory; the ability to source raw materials and finished products at favorable prices to the company; the potential impact of periodic power crises on the company's operations including temporary blackouts at the company's facilities; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; earthquakes or other natural disasters; the company's ability to identify and execute successfully cost control initiatives; and other risks outlined in the company's SEC filings, including but not limited to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, its Quarterly Report on From 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 and other filings made periodically by the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to update this forward-looking information, except as it is required to do so by securities laws. Nonetheless, the company reserves the right to make such updates from time to time by press release, periodic report or other method of public disclosure without the need for specific reference to this press release. No such update shall be deemed to indicate that other statements not addressed by such update remain correct or create an obligation to provide any other updates.
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