cheatin’ (optical edition)

i am nothing if not brand loyal…

…seriously. just look in my driveway.

same with shoes. almost exclusively nike. yeah, there’s some oakley si stuff for cold weather, and some vintage shit for the rare long pants day as well. but, for the most part, it’s swoosh country. same could be said with my glasses – when’s the last time you saw me NOT wearing oakley’s? well, that would be yesterday. i got sucked in by an ad campaign…

referring to the versace sunglasses made famous by the notorious b.i.g. back in the 90’s…

the problem was the emblems on the side. yeah, they’re iconic as fuck. but they’re also ostentatious as fuck. they’re also pricey. like, $350 kinda pricey, and that’s before i add in the prescription lenses. but then i found out they made a black out version, so i decided to try it when we ran to the outlet mall a bit ago. turns out my head is “bigger than biggie”, or at least i was led to believe, as i needed the “xl version” to fit me right. in addition to that, they didn’t have the blacked out in an xl, so i had to try on the whited out version to insure fit. while those looked okay, blacked out will match 90% of my wardrobe. fortunately, salesman ego kicked in nicely…

“sir, we don’t have the blacked out in your size, so i wrote down the product code and my rep number, so if you go to our website you can order there, and when they ask if you had any help, you can put in my rep number so i still get the commission!”

sure thing, junior…

what he didn’t know was i ALWAYS get the product number so i can find it lower online. done it for years, just typically with oakley shit (and, in the case of nik’s needs, tiffany shit) but this time it was just HANDED to me, which made it all the easier. $350 on their site was under $150 elsewhere, which means i’ll be fully reimbursed for them by vision insurance, which also covered the exams and lenses, so my “biggie price” was $15 out of pocket for the tint.

pimp life on a welfare budget!