Oakley to offer up $4,000 sunglasses

October 26, 2009

How much would you spend on fashionable frames? Oakley is set to launch a new line of sunglasses, called the Oakley Elite C Six, which will retail for $4,000. The shades have already been donned by Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong, and boast 80 layers of carbon fiber, which make them extremely flexible, USA Today reports.

Previously, the most expensive line available from the company was the Pit Boss, which retailed for $600, according to the news source.

Why are they worth such big bucks? Neil Ferrier, Oakley's advanced product development chief, says that these sunglasses, which are designed for athletes, take a lot of man power to produce. Approximately 90 hours of machine time go into crafting each pair, he told the paper.

The company will only offer 200 pairs of the exclusive line this year.

You don't have to drop such a big chunk of change to protect your eyes. The American Optometric Association advises that you protect your eyes from the damaging rays of the sun by sporting sunglasses that offer 99 percent UV protection and feature gray-tinted lenses for proper color recognition.