Nike (NYSE:NKE) is to tennis shoes what Oakley (NYSE:OO) is to sunglasses. Given its cutting-edge position, it should be no surprise that Oakley is once again pushing the eyewear envelope with a new product jointly produced with Motorola (NYSE:MOT). The Bluetooth-inspired line of eyeglasses called RAZRWire allows users to answer and place wireless phone calls via an Oakley frame.

RAZRWire comes on the heels of the company's previous innovation, the Oakley Thump. No, the Thump is not a new dance sweeping the club scene. It's a product that is smartly tapping into the amazing portable music player success led by Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod. The Thump integrates cool shades with a digital music player, allowing the wearer to listen to tunes without having to tote around a separate MP3 device. Imagine listening to an Audible (NASDAQ:ADBL) book while doing your daily jog. You can see why Oakley is enthusiastic about its new product offering.

But it's one thing to design new high-tech, slim-and-shady eyewear so you can bounce to the beat of Slim Shady's latest hits; it's a completely different thing to translate "cool" into cash. Let's take a look at Oakley's latest quarterly highlights to see whether it is connecting the cool-to-cash dots.

The company attributed a significant portion of its fourth-quarter comparable same-store sale growth to the successful contributions of its Thump eyewear line. As a result, Oakley produced strong sales of $153 million -- a 24.5% increase compared with the same period a year ago. Likewise, its net income climbed 213% to $10 million.

Its successful quarter capped off annual 2004 revenues that reached $585.5 million -- a 10.9% year-over-year increase. The company's earnings for the year grew 8.9% to $41.6 million (or $0.60 in earnings per share).

While its sales and earnings are increasing, unfortunately the same cannot be said of Oakley's operating margins. For 2004, those margins slipped to 9% from the 9.4% in 2003. As expected, slim margins are contributing to minuscule year-over-year improvement in its structural free cash flow (SFCF).

Challenging profit margin growth is one hurdle a prospective investor faces, but it's not the only one. At a price of about $13, its stock currently bears a price-to-earnings ratio of 22. With the company's guidance of 10% to 15% growth for 2005, its stock carries a steep price tag at the current level.

This is a good time to practice patience. This Fool's opinion: Be cool in your Oakley techno shades, and wait for a better deal before buying.

Fool contributor Jeremy MacNealy does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.