Oakley announced positive results from the release of OAKLEY THUMP(tm), the company’s integrated MP3 player sunglass.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Jannard commented, “We believe that OAKLEY THUMP(tm) has generated the highest dollar sales at retail during the first ten days of any launch in the company’s history, based on retail sales to date of OAKLEY THUMP(tm) as compared to other product launches in the company’s recent history. In fact, many of our own retail stores are waiting for additional shipments of our most popular 256MB polarized model. The OAKLEY THUMP(tm) launch has not only been our most successful from an initial retail sales perspective, but it has also been a successful launch from an execution standpoint as evidenced by the coordinated rollout across the country.
Sales at retail of OAKLEY THUMP(tm) from the company’s own retail stores and Circuit City alone have exceeded the $1 million mark since its launch on November 20th of this year. These doors represent a small portion of the company’s account base, and the company has also begun to ship OAKLEY THUMP(tm) to additional doors in the U.S. and other major markets. Although it remains too early to predict long-term consumer acceptance of OAKLEY THUMP(tm), the company has received a number of positive reviews by the likes of USA Today, Time, Wired and CNET.
Based on the initial sell-in of OAKLEY THUMP(tm), the company reiterated that the introduction will have a significant positive effect on the company’s net sales and earnings for the fourth quarter of 2004.
