Performance and Sport Sunglasses

Sports sunwear and prescription eyewear for the sports enthusiast are so specifically and strategically constructed that virtually every activity is covered by a product. There is sports sunwear specially made for skiers, and other product designed with cyclists in mind. Consider there are now sunwear lenses that enhance the user's ability to see golf balls in motion. To add to the mystique, it's all fashion forward, with a diversity of colors, shapes, and styles.

Sunwear for sports has evolved technologically, just like sneakers and other sports-related products. The good news is that today's casual or dedicated sports enthusiasts have an abundance of excellent choices.

Whether it's lighter and more durable frame materials, interchangeable lenses, or colored tints for different sports, performance sunwear has taken a dramatic upward turn. Serious-minded sports enthusiasts are looking to upgrade their sunwear as it becomes more and more a part of their gear and eyewear manufacturers are responding to this phenomenon in full force.

Lighter Frame Materials

There are a wide variety of frame materials which can impact performance, durability and comfort such as magnesium, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, carbon fiber, nylon composites, and injected alloy. These reduce weight, increase flexibility, and add strength. Style features such as non-slip bridges, gripper temples, spring hinges, shields, wraps and venting systems add value and comfort and pump up your performance at the same time. Sun clips and sunwear that fits directly over prescription eyewear are also available to meet specific needs.

And while the newer, innovative frame materials and high-tech finishes make them look appealing, but it's the lenses that really make them sizzle and complete the eyewear's allure. Whether it's a mirror coating, or a new and improved anti-reflective (AR) or scratch coating, the lenses provide function and top off the attitude.

Lenses Provide the Function

In high-tech sports sunwear, it is not only the frame that is high tech. The lenses boast newer, more advanced coatings to complete the look and attitude of today's sports sunwear.

Interchangeable lenses have become more popular than ever, allowing consumers to have more choices.

AR is an essential lens option for any pair of glasses. It's beneficial on sports eyewear because the lenses are usually tinted, often to a dark color. The most disturbing lens reflection is from the back, where the surface of the lens acts like a mirror. This leads some patients to complain that they can see their eyes in the backs of the lenses. Dark-colored lenses and mirror coatings accentuate this effect, while AR coatings reduce or eliminate it.

Performance sports eyewear has to be able to be almost as rugged as the sports themselves, making an excellent hard coating essential. Hydrophobic coatings facilitate water droplet runoff from lens surfaces, thereby offering distortion-free vision.

Depending on your sport, certain tints are more appropriate than others. Dark, UV protection lenses are great for baseball and other outdoor sports. Golfers can benefit from gray-brown tinted lenses which make it easier to outline the course. Even if you don't normally wear glasses, non-prescription sports lenses can benefit your performance. Some people think that lenses prevent the wearer from seeing the action, but many sports lenses have anti-fog, glare reduction, and scratch resistant properties. Some are also designed to maximize peripheral vision.

Talk to your eye doctor for recommendations on sports sunwear that fits your active lifestyle.