Oakley Lifestyle Trinity: Gascan, Fuel Cell and Crankshaft

Oakley is one of the leading product design and sport performance brands in the world, chosen by world-class athletes to compete at the highest level possible. To this day, the company holds more than 850 patents for sunglasses and general eyewear. Oakley has positioned itself as the innovator of lens technologies, and has extended its brand into apparel and accessories that appeal to all active consumers.

Here at X-Wear, we carry a wide-range of Oakley sunglasses, from everyday wear to performance. A frequent question we see online and in-store is

“What are the differences between the Gascan and Fuel Cell Oakleys?”

Today, we’re breaking down those two styles, as well as it’s modern relative, the Crankshaft.

Gascan

In 2005, Oakley did a complete 180 in design and traded soft curved designs for straight edges and hard lines. The Gascan style was born and it was Oakley’s first high-wrap lifestyle shade. The Oakley logo also shifted with these iconic shades, to a square “O” design that you see on most styles today.

Key Dimensions:

Lens width: 60 millimeters
Lens height: 35 millimeters
Bridge: 15 millimeters
Arm: 128 millimeters

Fuel Cell

In 2009, the world was introduced to Gascan’s big brother, Fuel Cell. The big difference between the two? Size. The Fuel Cell is a great option for someone who wants the style of Gascan, but needs a larger frame. Fuel Cell also provides slightly more curvature and the bridge dips out instead of being flat.

Key Dimensions:

Lens width: 60 millimeters
Lens height: 38 millimeters
Bridge: 19 millimeters
Arm: 130 millimeters

Crankshaft

Just when we thought we were done, enter the younger sibling, Crankshaft. The Crankshaft is a combination of the Gascan and Fuel Cell designs but turned up a notch. Crankshaft is considered the cleaner, more modern approach to the lifestyle shades collection by Oakley.

Key Dimensions:

Lens width: 60 millimeters
Lens height: 37 millimeters
Bridge: 19 millimeters
Arm: 132 millimeters 

Takeaways:

• Most sunglasses have a slight lift at the bridge, but the Gascan remains totally flat.
• Fuel Cell is slightly larger than Gascan and provides more curvature.
• There are 14 available styles of Gascan, including the limited edition Spectrum, SI, and Infinite Hero collections.
• Fuel Cell has 13 available options, including SI, Infinite Hero, and Desolve Camo collections.
• Crankshaft is only available in two styles, Black Iridium and  Black Iridium Polarized.
• All three are built with O-MATTER™ stress-resistant frame material, both lightweight and durable for all-day comfort and protection
• All three have 100% UV filtering - Plutonite Lenses offer top UV Protection filtering 100% of all UVA, UVB, UVC and harmful blue light up to 400nm
• All three are wrap-style sunglasses that provide premium comfort, while a Three-Point-Fit to keep your vision in precise optical alignment.

These three styles should be worn as an everyday lifestyle pair of shades. For the highly active folks, there are plenty of performance styles that Oakley sells with grips and special lens technology. We recommend coming in and trying on different frames to see which ones agree with your look the best. Cape Cod locals can find us at two locations: Board Stiff 193 Main St, Falmouth, MA 02540 and Board Stiff Provincetown 273 Commercial St, Provincetown, MA 02657.

*Hey, if it's good enough for Hawkeye, it's good enough for us, right?!