Oakley X TradeBeyond: The Stuff Legends are Made Of

Business Situation

Generally in the Apparel sector, an Acceptance Quality Limit (AQL) of 2.5 is standard. But at Oakley, the expectation was to maintain an AQL of 1.0 with all factory partners. Managing quality manually to this high standard across Asia, Europe, Central and South America was arduous, challenging, and ineffective. Defect rates were high, leading to shortages for retail clients, causing the brand to lose credibility.

Built with athlete input and rigorous field testing, Oakley’s technical products cannot fail—especially in extreme sports. Xavier Laforge, Oakley’s Global Quality Manager, built the team and established quality procedures. They needed real-time supplier info exchange and a configurable turnkey platform that would not disrupt the business.

Before Pivot88 (TradeBeyond), our Quality Leaders could only conduct an onsite audit once per season.

Xavier Laforge
Global Quality Manager, Oakley

Solution

Oakley’s journey with TradeBeyond began February 2020, just before the COVID pandemic, to ensure that quality was part and parcel with supply chain activities. Implementation had to be global, multi-lingual and easy. It could NOT disrupt the business. The Oakley Apparel, Footwear and Accessories (AFA) Quality Assurance (QA) team relied on excel files to manage quality. These excel files were only sent and received on a weekly basis. Implementation was regional and led by Quality Leaders in production countries.

After one year of use, defective products arriving at distribution centers were reduced by 50%, and overall DC defect rates dropped 62%. Oakley also launched the Transparency module to ensure CSR compliance. Suppliers began performing self audits to protect the supply chain. Every factory must now be audited before qualifying as an Oakley production partner.

Oakley expanded usage to Test and Trace, integrating raw material testing, finished goods testing, and athlete wearer trials—captured directly inside TradeBeyond. Oakley chose TradeBeyond to help ensure their products don’t fail.

Results

For Oakley, stronger brand-supplier relationships means:

• Operational excellence

• Faster resolution of inline and end-of-line quality issues

• Vendor scorecards that boost confidence in developing new product

• Fewer chargebacks

• Better OTIF

• Transparency across the extended supply chain

• Real-time analytics for factory & DC performance

• SKU-level integration with PLM & SAP

All quality, inspections and audits were managed on paper and reported on weekly spreadsheets. We couldn’t react quickly or course correct immediately. So digitizing the manual process was step one. We chose Pivot88 (TradeBeyond)’s Resilience solution because it allowed us to structure and standardize our supply chain while allowing us to track what was happening globally.

Xavier Laforge
Global Quality Manager, Oakley

About Oakley

BMX took off in 1970s Southern California, but no one was making gear for these extreme cyclists. In 1975, with $300, Jim Jannard began selling “Oakley Grip” cycle grips from his garage and car, later expanding into gloves, guards, goggles, and sunglasses for BMX and motocross. Oakley’s profile surged when Tour de France champion Greg LeMond chose their eyewear.

In 2007, Luxottica acquired Oakley for $2.1 billion. Today, Oakley is a global leader in performance equipment, eyewear, apparel, and accessories, designed in Milan and produced across 40 countries, with more than 200 material and design patents. Built with athlete input and rigorous field testing,