Bullseye: The Chicago Bulls’ Visionary Eyewear in The Last Dance

From Dennis Rodman’s nuclear M-Frames to Michael Jordan’s steampunk Oakley Mars, His Airness and the Bulls not only dominated the hardwood, they also conceived a visionary trajectory for eyewear that’s more relevant than ever in 2020. 

The Holy Grail
When Michael Jordan secured his coveted sixth championship, he celebrated as only the GOAT could: Firing up some 19th century steez. Adopting a steampunk aesthetic, Jordan’s Oakley Mars eclipsed every other eyewear statement in The Last Dance, pairing the sunglasses with a simple Chicago Bulls championship t-shirt and baseball cap. Somehow, the anachronistic mashup worked. 

An Oakley megafan, Jordan had acquired $2 million worth of Oakley stocks when the company originally went public in 1995. Years later, Jordan would collaborate on the highly-limited, retrofuturistic Oakley Mars gold iridium leather sunglasses. 

Landing as an exclusive release in the late 90s, the premium leather accents and detailed stitching meant that the sunglasses never lasted long (something that ironically made the elusive Oakley Mars even more coveted).

But it wasn’t just steampunk that was generating fuel for the Bulls’ optic dominance during the 1990s. Appearing on the tube with Ahmad Rashād in 1993 during the Eastern Conference Finals, Jordan attempted to clear up the ongoing gambling allegations being levelled at him. 

Unfortunately, the colossal black Ray-Bans framing Jordan’s face backfired, giving the whole interview a bizarre, ominous feel that just fuelled more speculative headlines the next day. For the record, Rashād tried to get Jordan to remove the Ray-Bans before the interview started.

20/20 Vision 
Naturally, Jordan’s visionary moves with Oakley inspired the rest of his teammates. Dennis Rodman, who famously only wore sunglasses because he’d seen too many people ‘lie to his face’, took a shine to Oakley’s iconoclastic M-Frame and legendary wrap-arounds. 

The supersonic M-Frame, later adopted by cricketers and cyclists, somehow maintained perfect aesthetic coherence within Rodman’s utterly unique mashup of rave, emo, fetishwear and kitsch. Indeed, Rodman’s prescient 90s style preempted the weird sartorial wormhole that many  SoundCloud rappers and hipsters seem destined to barrel down in 2020. 

As one recent viral tweet neatly observed, ‘Everyone in 2019 looks like Dennis Rodman in 1996’.

The M-Frames, along with other Bulls’ favourites like the Oakley Trenchcoat (a precursor to Jordan’s legendary Mars) and the ultra-tough, industrialised Oakley Romeo, which were the first 3D sculpted, all-metal frames of their kind, formed an aggressive eyewear aesthetic in the 90s. 

Blindingly radiant on and off the court, the Chicago Bulls also plotted a cultural flight path well beyond basketball and fashion. 

In a recent AMA with Reddit, Horace Grant elaborated on why he chose to wear basketball goggles long after Lasik surgery repaired his eyesight. ‘I had parents come up to me and thank me for wearing them. Their kids and grandkids would get made fun of by wearing protective eyewear playing sports.’

Prescription eyewear or not, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls of the 90s flaunted unshakeable 20/20 vision when it came to style choices, their sartorial insight still having an impact more than 20 years later. 

So, which sunglasses will define the 2020s?