If you watched The Last Dance, you'll know that Michael Jordan was a huge Oakley fan. The GOAT, alongside his teammates Scotty Pippen and Dennis Rodman, wore almost every style of sunglasses Oakley made and helped propel the performance-focused brand into the mainstream. But of all the sunglasses Jordan wore, one shape stood out from the rest — the X Metal Romeo. Released in the late '90s these sunglasses quickly reached icon status, thanks to MJ and a brief cameo in Mission Impossible.
Now, Oakley is bringing back the X Metal Romeo, alongside its companion shape the X Metal Juliet. Both sunglasses arrive with a 2021 upgrade (think hand-finished 3D-printed titanium), and a new name, the Muzm Series 1875 X Metal Edition. Keeping within the NBA tradition, the brand has teamed up with Damian Lillard to release a limited-edition set of the two styles. But by limited, Oakley really means limited — only 14 sets were made.
We don't have to tell you that '90s sunglasses are the coolest thing you could buy right now. Despite coming back a few years ago, teeny-tiny sports sunglasses are still the move and Oakley, despite (or maybe because of) its glasses' sometimes bizarre appearance, has firmly cemented its status as the crossover brand for high fashion. As The Cut put it "The ’90 were a magical time for sunglasses. It was like everyone decided, all at once, that they were tired of looking like humans, and they wanted to resemble fun, sporty aliens instead." And who doesn't want to look like an alien?
While Jordan championed the glasses in the '90s, today's athletes are proving the style still works in 2021. Last week, Damian Lillard wore the newly updated X Metal Romeo before a game, matching the tiny shades with an equally tiny mask, while Lucien Clarke gave us futuristic vibes when he wore a similar style from the same "X Metal" series while debuting his LV pro sneaker.
If some of the greatest athletes of our generation can't convince you to wear tiny metal sunglasses, I'm not sure we can. If you're firmly on team X Metal, shop the limited-edition style above and some slightly cheaper eBay gems below.
