Oakley has acquired five Optica retail locations through Iacon, Oakley's wholly owned sunglass specialty subsidiary. These optical stores are located in Southern California, Boston, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. Specific terms of the Optica acquisition agreement were not disclosed.

“Optica has had great success with these prestigious, high traffic mall locations, making them an attractive complement to Iacon's retail expansion strategy,” said Cos Lykos, vice president of business development for Oakley. “Each location we add to Iacon's stable of retail stores strengthens our connection to the core eyewear consumer.”

“This addition underscores our goal to selectively acquire premier specialty locations,” said Iacon President Jeff Obstfeld. “We intend to use two of these locations to test-market prescription eyewear offerings in high-end optical stores, a new opportunity for expansion of our retail base.”

The South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, California) and Boston Prudential Center locations will retain the Optica trade name, which will be licensed to Iacon as part of the acquisition agreement and will serve as Iacon's flagship locations to test-market prescription eyewear offerings. The remaining locations will be converted to sunglass specialty stores under existing Iacon trade names. In Las Vegas, the Fashion Show store will become “Sunglass Designs” and the Las Vegas Outlet Center store will be renamed “Sunglass Club”. The Plaza Las Americas location in Puerto Rico will be renamed “Sunglass Designs” and is significant as Iacon's first entry into the international market.

This latest acquisition follows the company's November 2004 purchase of the Shades of California store (now Sunglass Designs) located in the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.