Oakley, According to Matthew M. Williams
Just about a year ago, Oakley fronted the cover of Hypebeast Magazine’s 35th issue, the Wavelength Issue.Thematically centered around a lineup of creatives who have charted unparalleled paths guided by their singular creative visions, the Wavelength Issue views worldbuilding as a wave that’s in constant motion, its effects palpable across the entire cultural zeitgeist. Oakley, alongside other cover stars Playboi Carti and Kaytranada, serves as a perfect example of just what authentic and cohesive immersive storytelling looks like in the modern era.The past year, since the Wavelength Issue’s drop, has proven one of the biggest in Oakley’s recent history, the brand having propelled its creative vision to unexplored terrain once again. Last summer, Travis Scott signed on as Oakley’s Chief Visionary Officer, further catapulting the label to peak cultural relevancy and ushering in an expansive new era. The Oakley team felt Scott’s future-facing artistic ethos aligned seamlessly with that of the sportswear imprint and ruled the multihyphenate rapper the first-ever to take the position. Overseeing eyewear and apparel in particular, Scott’s main responsibility is to hone in the brand’s narrative approach, though he’s also stayed busy debuting new models, reviving archival ones, and, at large, integrating Oakley into new spaces across the cultural consciousness.Last week, Oakley announced that another key cultural purveyor would join the team: none other than Scott’s close collaborator, Matthew M. Williams. The 1017 ALYX 9SM designer is officially Oakley’s Creative Director of Apparel, Footwear, and Accessories (otherwise known as AFA), an endeavor that will only, undoubtedly, push the eyewear-led label light years ahead.“What I expect from this merge of Travis and Matthew is nothing less than greatness,” said Caio Amato, Oakley’s President. “Travis is helping us drive a vision of the future that we wouldn't be able to do by ourselves, and Matthew comes in to help turn that vision into practical pieces of gear and AFA that people will want to wear.”Williams and Amato sat down exclusively with Hypebeast to share more on what the new era of Oakley has in store.Matthew, in your own words, what does Oakley by Matthew M. Williams look like?MMW: Exciting. Emotional. I want it to inspire people to go out and engage in activity or in sport, and wear the clothing that we need. I want the next generation to be inspired to create things that deserve to exist. We all know what I'm talking about. I don't want it to be flat.Caio, could you share more about why you chose Matthew for this role? What are some of his traits or skills that drove you to tap him to serve as Oakley’s Creative Director of Apparel, Footwear, and Accessories?CA: Matthew is brilliant at turning people’s feelings into products and stories. We admire his ability to turn the abstract into physical things. In an industry like ours, it’s very hard to find someone who actually captures that well. That was the first thing that brought Matthew close to us.Second, he's an incredibly good person. He is incredibly kind and empathetic towards others, and for us, at Oakley, it's very important that you find people who genuinely want to collaborate and build things together around the vision.The third and most important factor is that Matthew brings a vision that stems far beyond a normal Creative Director’s vision. He’s good at creating products. He’s good at sourcing. He's good at merchandising. He's good with fabrics. He's good at building connections around the world. His 360 vision of the industry is something that is great for a brand like Oakley, where all we want is to go after self-expression and let people self-express through our gear and pieces.Matthew, are there any archival models, references, or past Oakley eras you’re particularly interested in tapping into?MMW: There is just so much to build from. I just spent the past week at Foothill Ranch, Southern California, at the Oakley headquarters, and there's so much material. The brand's been around for 50 years, and a lot of that time, internally, they've been super secretive about a lot of the designs and development, so there's just so much there that I never knew about, and I'm just now getting up to speed on all that's there. I think that will be a big part of my role: to show the world the rich history of Oakley, because so much of it is hidden, and then create new work that expands upon that great foundation. All the Oakley designers who have come before me and who are still there have really contributed to a rich code of design language."A big part of my role will be to show the world the rich history of Oakley, because so much of it is hidden, and then create new work that expands upon that great foundation." As the Creative Director of Apparel, Footwear, and Accessories, what are you excited about innovating in each particular realm, and Caio, which of the three are you most excited to see Matthew work on?MMW: For me, the footwear is something that can really be explored and expanded. I was looking at hand-drawn sketches from the 90s and early 2000s, and even the shoes that were produced early on are really, really cool. There's really a lot of room there to explore and expand. With accessories, between the iconic bags – the Kitchen Sink and the Bathroom Sink – and all that Oakley does in utility and outdoor snow, it's such a playground for innovation. Lifestyle goes without saying. There are whole stores and online curators of solely vintage Oakley. It's really a thing.CA: I'm excited about apparel. In the past years, we’ve started innovating our apparel to our eyewear level, and I think we can bring that same elevation, innovation and expression to the entirety of the AFA (apparel, footwear, and accessories) space. With AFA, we’ve been on a journey of elevation that has been incredible, so I'm looking forward to seeing him take that vision to the next level. He also knows everything about footwear – design, distribution, sourcing, everything. At Oakley, eyewear has always been the main vehicle to express our ethos as a brand, with AFA following it. We don't want AFA to follow it anymore. We want AFA to be elevated to the same level of innovation.”At Oakley, eyewear has always been the main vehicle to express our ethos, with apparel, footwear, and accessories (AFA) following it. We don’t want AFA to follow eyewear anymore. We want AFA to be elevated to the same level of innovation.”With your seasoned creative collaborator, Travis Scott, in the role of Oakley’s Chief Visionary, how do you anticipate working alongside him as a new Creative Director?MMW: Travis and I really came up together. I was there with him at his first show ever in Paris for 12 people. We worked on Yeezus together. We’ve worked together throughout the years on lots of different projects, whether that's music, Cactus Jack work, or Nike work. We’ve stayed friends through it all. He’s always been a day one supporter of everything I’ve done at Alyx and Givenchy, and vice versa. So it just comes really effortlessly, and it’s been really easy to build together.I just spent the last week with him in LA, hearing his new album, hearing where his head was at with the brand, and hearing all the Cactus Jack projects that they've been releasing. His music is just sounding next level. I can't wait for the world to hear that. I'm really excited to get to build and create with such a good friend of mine, and just continue to bring other creatives into our network to build one of the strongest creative teams in the world. That's my goal. It's not just about me. It's about the group of creatives that will come into this project and really take it into the next decade.Caio, I’d love to hear from you on why it’s been important to bring creatives like Matthew and Travis into the Oakley universe.CA: The first time we talked with Travis about Matthew, his reaction was remarkable. He was like That’s my guy. We started together. They have such a bond and connection that goes beyond aligning on a creative vision. It extends to a personal level, and when we have creatives like them who genuinely connect on such a deep level, the result is always absolutely incredible. So what I expect from this merge of Travis and Matthew is nothing less than greatness. Travis is helping us drive a vision of the future that we wouldn't be able to do by ourselves, and Matthew comes in to help turn that vision into practical pieces of gear and AFA that people will want to wear.Matthew, you and Oakley have each dialed in such a distinct, honed-in design language and ethos. How do you foresee your personal creative vision aligning with Oakleys? How do those two visions come together?MMW: It's hard to plan exactly. That's what's exciting. With Oakley and me both being from Southern California, I think it'll naturally merge. My work is always about timelessness and creating things that are relevant for now. It should kind of let the form and function lead itself through the purpose of what it means for this product or this idea to exist today. I'm about making things that are just hyperrelevant, and I think that it'll be things that we haven't seen before. You might be surprised. It might be a whole new language.“What I expect from this merge of Travis and Matthew is nothing less than greatness. Travis is helping us drive a vision of the future, and Matthew comes in to help turn that vision into practical pieces.”Caio, what is it about Matthew’s creative vision that you feel aligns with Oakley’s creative vision?CA: There are two aspects. The first is what I said earlier about translating people's feelings into products. We want to be the vehicle for self-expression, and therefore, to have someone who understands people's feelings and turns them into art is very important. The second is that at Oakley, we always say we create for the future and deliver to the present. Matthew is a person who is trying to create the new, the unheard, the unseen. At the same time, he's very good at turning the unseen into pieces that people want to express themselves in, so it’s not like he is living in the clouds with crazy ideas. He delivers crazy ideas, but he has the ability to bring those ideas to the ground and make them accessible.Matthew, with your extensive background in high fashion design and Oakley’s sportswear expertise now comingling, how do those two worlds merge?MMW: To me, Oakley isn’t a fashion brand. Oakley started as a motorcycle distributor, making rubber grips, and then expanded into making motorcycle goggles, taking inspiration from wanting greater side vision. The first set of frames that he created had more visibility; he was solving problems and innovating since the beginning. It was an eyewear brand, and then the clothing expanded from that. It's always been clothing supporting the eyewear, not vice versa, which is an amazing challenge for me, because it’s usually the other way around in my past work.“Matthew delivers crazy ideas, but he has the ability to bring those ideas to the ground and make them accessible.”What can we expect to see from you in this role in the near future?MMW: Naturally, hardware. That kind of development is something I always love doing. Things like the Kitchen Sink have that language to expand and play off of, so I'm excited to expand upon that. But some of these things are so great as they are that I don't want to change them. I'd love to be inspired by the hardware on the Kitchen Sink and figure out how to take it into a new direction, or use it in other styles, shapes, or volumes.What can you both tell us about what’s in the pipeline?MMW: The timeline of product development at a sportswear brand is very long. It can be over a year, a year and a half to develop true performance and new products. We're going to look and see what we can do to see if we can get something out to the world a little bit quicker, but that's all TBD, but don’t worry, you’ll know. I will let everybody know when the product that I've been working on is coming out into the world. Hopefully sooner than later, but I'm really looking at this as a long-term role and project that I will be doing for many years, and so it's just about building a strong foundation, step by step, and there's a lot to do.CA: At Oakley, we say: We don’t predict the future, we create the future. That brings a sense of responsibility and accountability. We're not going to fucking wait for anyone to tell us what to do. We are going to create a vision of the future. We define problems, find solutions, and wrap them in art. You can expect a lot of very authentic pieces. It's going to be super disruptive, and it's going to be very innovative as well. Those are the three words that sum up the vision. Click here to view full gallery at Hypebeast
2026-03-31 13:37:46
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