Oakley’s brand new Airbrake MX goggle has recently been released in Australia, a revolutionary product that’s made headlines worldwide.

MotoOnline.com.au spoke to Oakley South Pacific optics category manager Marcus Floyd about the Airbrake MX at the national launch.

Marcus Floyd introduces the Oakley Airbrake MX at the Australian launch. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

It’s pretty unique for you to launch the Airbrake MX here at the MX Nationals season opener under the CDR Yamaha team awning. It must be a pretty exciting time for Oakley?

Absolutely, we’ve been part of Motocross as a foundational product since we started in 1975. We found it really important to launch the most important revolution in goggles at the opening round, where everyone’s here, there’s a buzz, there’s an excitement, there’s a strong presence from the industry.

The timing was right, it was launched a week and a half [before the local launch] in the US and we’re just behind that. We’re stoked to have product ready to ship out our doors from next week.

As far as the actual product goes, tell us a couple of the highlights of the goggle that you are really excited about.

I think this is all about clarity, optics and the impact protection. We’ve stepped it up to a new level with the material we use with the design process of the goggle, it’s a rigid frame around the goggle, and has the switch-like technology.

Motocross is one of those things where you do change lenses. There hasn’t been a goggle with the clarity, impact protection and all the other components we put in there, as well as the two-step process which makes it simple to change a lens.

If you have an advantage out there with your optics on a track that is getting rutted up and getting hammered as the day goes on, why wouldn’t you take that as a racer, or even as a trail rider getting amongst it in the bush, spotting something that could be an obstacle that you may not pick up with other goggles.

The goggle is that little bit more expensive than the Mayhem. Is that due to the durability and ability to switch parts?

Absolutely. If you look at the price it is a step up, it is a $180 versus $129 which is our next most expensive. The average goggle on the market is probably under a hundred dollars, so we know it’s a big investment for people, but you only get one set of eyes.

Impact protection is absolutely paramount for Oakley, and clarity, providing those benefits to performance mentioned, are the things that really set this apart.

People are out there spending thousands of dollars on every other component of gear, whether it’s carbon knee braces, helmets, all the best armour – if you can’t see, you can’t ride. I think that is the fundamental difference and the change that will make this product become hopefully the standard. It’s a game-changer, for sure.

Oakley has invested a lot of money into the development of this goggle. We’ve already seen the Airbrake snow version, but the motocross version is especially developed for moto, isn’t it?

We were developing these two goggles side by side for a while, and very early in the piece it became evident that we just couldn’t utilise any component from the current Airbrake, aside from the strap. The requirement we put on ourselves to build a better product for racers alike, meant that everything else had to change. It was a big change, but I think the engineering and design quality of the product really shines through.

Your MX Nationals riders, Jay Marmont, Lawson Bopping, and others, are absolutely loving it from what we hear. What’s their feedback been?

Jay mentioned to me last night that he doesn’t like change, especially in equipment. He said he was a little bit superstitious. We gave him a goggle about 10 days before round one, he came back in from his first practice run and said it is just that much better.

I’m absolutely confident that the other guys will love it. Testament to the product, they’ve only really had the goggle for a week and they’re out there racing it already.

Click here to read more about the Oakley Airbrake MX or click here to watch the six-part video series on the goggle.