Oakley, one of the leading global sports brands, launched its BEYOND REASON campaign on April 17 with a star-studded experience in New York City. The evening’s event at the Oakley SoHo store featured 2008 Olympic gold medalist decathlete Bryan Clay and prominent artist Natalie Frank premiering a specially-commissioned BEYOND REASON art piece to showcase creatively how elite athletes approach their performance through a distinct, personal lens.

During the 100 days leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Oakley will partner its family of athletes with artists from every corner of the world to launch BEYOND REASON. The campaign teams sport champions with creative minds that share the same convictions. Like the athletes, the artists are innovative and groundbreaking visionaries who reject conventional ideas to deliver the unexpected.

Photo: Bryan Clay and Natalie Frank preview a specially-commissioned Oakley BEYOND REASON art piece

BEYOND REASON exemplifies the driving attitude that fuels and fires Oakley athletes to exceed the limits of possibility. In addition to Clay and Frank’s partnership, other Olympians participating in the BEYOND REASON campaign include U.S. sprinter Lolo Jones, U.S. beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh, British cyclist Mark Cavendish, South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, Australian cyclist Cadel Evans and Spanish triathlete Javier Gomez.

Alongside the launch of the brand’s BEYOND REASON campaign, Oakley will debut RadarLock, a revolutionary performance sunglass designed to deliver comfort, performance and protection for athletes at any level. Switchlock Technology featured in RadarLock empowers athletes with the performance advantage of fast and easy lens changing, enabling them to match their vision to the environment.

As part of the lead-up to the BEYOND REASON unveiling, Clay and Frank spent time discussing passion points and motivations that fuel Clay’s iconic performances. Frank’s ‘Portrait (Shot Put)’ represents Clay’s embodiment of the surreal, defiant and continual transformation of consciousness needed to become the greatest athlete in the world.

“This portrait reaches BEYOND REASON, to a place where representation and abstraction, specificity and the symbolic collide,” said artist Natalie Frank, an endorser of Oakley. “To capture Bryan is to look at what is, and to see what can be.” Frank added, “Working in collaboration with Bryan and Oakley on this gave me my own BEYOND REASON opportunity to test my limits.”

Throughout spring 2012, Oakley will continue to partner its athletes with artists around the world. The art pieces inspired by each athlete’s BEYOND REASON vision will come together at the London Design Museum on July 26, the night before the opening ceremonies, for a special gala to celebrate BEYOND REASON and the Oakley athletes competing in the 2012 Olympics.

In addition to the Bryan Clay / Natalie Frank collaboration, Oakley will unveil an artistic collaboration between Lolo Jones and Sarah Olson. The creation is titled, ‘Run Lolo Run.’