Snow-sports Top 10

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BOLLE - Cobalt

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WILEY X - Echo

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JULBO - Venus

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10 of the Best Snowsports Sunglasses for 2021 and What You Might Want to Consider When Picking Your Running Sunglasses in 2021

What you need to Consider

When Skiers and Snowboarders need heightened contrast to read the undulations on the slope and to spot moguls.  Cross country skiers need lenses that can react quickly to different light conditions as they move in and out of forests or valleys.

As well as protection from the harsh elements throughout the day such as bright sunshine, to heavy glare and snow. By reducing glare and brightness, sports sunglasses allow you to see more comfortably and relax your eyes. In addition, choosing the right tints, frame shape and type of prescription, if you have one, can really enhance your vision and enjoyment when participating in snow sports. 

Below we have provided advice on selecting the best sunglasses for snow sports and our recommended top 10 sunglasses ranges for 2021 based on their excellent performance and reliability. Typically lightweight and strong, with excellent optical qualities and performance coated lenses, the brands are trusted and worn by the Pros. Only the highest standards are good enough, and you should expect the best.

Key Frame Considerations for Snow Sports Sunglasses:   

• Wrap around frame - 6 or 8 base curved frames (curved and highly curved lenses respectively) provides protection against the elements and a wide field of vision. It also provides protection from the wind and snow and helps minimise glare by blocking out light from the sides.
• Wide field of vision - this is especially important for snow sports, a wide field of vision will give excellent coverage of the terrain and other skiers in your peripheral vision as well as ensuring that they do not bounce or shift during activity.
• Plastic - These perform much better than metal frames. Metal frames can become brittle in the cold and may snap.
• Side protectors - These are usually removable and can help minimise glare and reflections off the back of the lens blocking out light from the sides of the lens. 
• Anti-slip nose pads - Help stop your sunglasses sliding down your nose when you are moving your head.
• Frame Ventilation - Helps reduce fog or condensation.

Key Lens Considerations for Snow Sports Sunglasses:  

• 100% UV protection - For protection from UV radiation
• Photochromic - These lenses will change colour with the light, becoming darker in bright sunlight, and lighter in an overcast sky. They avoid you having to change lenses or sunglasses in different light conditions as they will adjust to providing you with the optimum vision for the light available.
• Mirror coating - Reflects the intensity of the suns glare and is an absolutely must for skiing and snowboarding as they reduce the overall brilliance of light, such as the sunlight on the snow.  As mirror coatings cut some but not all glare you should be able to sport those icy patches. Note if you are getting a prescription lens with a mirrored coating the back reflectance can be more noticeable with a mirror coating so an Anti-Reflective (AR) coating on the lens is a great idea. 
• Anti-fog coating - These are a good extra to look for if it is available on the frame you like. But anti-fog coatings are be no means a must there are plenty of great anti-fog gels and sprays coatings CLICK HERE to choose  

Tip: We often get asked about POLARISED lenses for snow sports these have both advantages and disadvantages. Yes they prevent glare and absorb around 98% of glare you get when skiing and snowboarding as glare is most noticeable on high reflective surfaces like water and snow. However its success is also a hinderance as it prevents you from distinguishing patches of ice from regular snow. So we always recommend you chose mirror coating if you are worried about glare rather than a polarised lens. 

Best Lens Colours to Consider for Snow Sports Sunglasses:     

• Grey/smoke - Block out light without losing the natural colour perception and are great for sunny weather use.
• Brown - High contrast browns and coppers will enhance the perception and provide a sharp contrast on road and track surfaces in bright light.
• Rose - A rose lenses are best in overcast or varying conditions. They improve contrast on the snow by enhancing the soft grey that mark shadows on the ski slopes allowing skiers to distinguish the ridges or bumps in the surface.
• Orange/Amber - For partly sunny conditions they help increase contrast to enable you to read the terrain better.
• Yellow - It’s more effective in low light conditions or overcast days. It is superior in contrast enhancement. 

Prescription Considerations

There are 2 types prescription you can get for snowsports either a clip in (for behind your skiing goggles) or a direct prescription for your sunglasses.

Recommend for Clip in Prescriptions:

For most people who go skiing or snowboarding once a year we recommend getting a clip in to fit behind your goggles. This is a lot cheaper than full direct prescription sunglasses so it can be updated more often as and when you need it. We have a BLOG POST on varifocal clip ins if you want more info you.

• 1.5 index or lifestyle lens index - because this will sit behind your ski/snowboarding goggles protective lens you don’t need to have an impact resistant lens if you don’t want to. 
• Crystal Vision Coating (our most recommend coating*) - This includes our FREE anti-scratch coating but will at hydrophobic (like the wax coating on your car this will ensure rain rolls off your lenses), anti-reflective (this is coated front and back and will help decrease glare and reflection off the lens and easy clean/ oleophobic (this helps eliminate dust and smudges on your lenses making them easy to clean and less likely to get dirty in the first place) 
• Anti-fog Gel - You can find this in our accessories CLICK HERE. As your clip in is behind another lens we usually find that fogging can be a problem with this lens. So coating both sides of the lenses and the goggle lens with anti-fog gel. 

Tip: Anti-fog coating- This is not something we usually recommend. We only added the coating to our prescription range due to requests. Our main reason is that we do not think it off the bests value for money as our Crystal Vision as you can add an ant-fog gel but you cannot have any other coatings when you have a anti-fog coating. There are plenty of great anti-fog gels and sprays coatings CLICK HERE to buy an anti-fog spray or gel.

For those of you that are doing snow-sports a lot more than once a year that or want to choose a prescription lens that you could perhaps use for cycling/ hiking as well here’s what we recommend.

Recommended for Direct Sunglasses Prescriptions:

• Polycarbonate / NXT - Always choose an impact resistant lens material for sports especially cycling this will stop the impact of any loose stone that may flick up into your eyes. polycarbonate and NXT are both great options to choose. NXT is clearer, strong and has better clarity than polycarbonate but is not available for all sunglasses and high prescriptions.
• Photochromic - These lenses will change colour with the light, becoming darker in bright sunlight, and lighter in an overcast sky. They avoid you having to change lenses or sunglasses in different light conditions as they will adjust to providing you with the optimum vision for the light available. We usually recommend a photochromic lens as it can be used in more light conditions and overall even though it has a higher cost for you to initially invest in you are more likely to get more use out of it and it makes it a much better value. For Snow-sports you generally want either a category of 0-3/1-3 (with a flash mirror coating) or a 2-4. Because category 4 is the darkest you can get the lens it’s not necessary to have a mirror coating although many people still like the added comfort you get from a mirrored- and of course they look great. 
• Mirror/ flash mirror coated - Reflects the intensity of the suns glare and is an absolutely must for skiing and snowboarding as they reduce the overall brilliance of light, such as the sunlight on the snow.  As mirror coatings cut some but not all glare you should be able to sport those icy patches. Note if you are getting a prescription lens with a mirrored coating the back reflectance can be more noticeable with a mirror coating so an Anti-Reflective (AR) coating on the lens is a great idea. (The difference between a full mirror and a flash mirror is when you have a flash mirror coating applied to your lens someone looking at you can still see your eyes as it is more of a reflective sheen).
• Crystal Clear Coating (our most recommend coating*) - This includes our FREE anti-scratch coating but will at hydrophobic (like the wax coating on your car this will ensure rain rolls off your lenses), anti-reflective (this is coated front and back and will help decrease glare and reflection off the lens and easy clean/ oleophobic (this helps eliminate dust and smudges on your lenses making them easy to clean and less likely to get dirty in the first place) 
• Wrap sunglasses - Can select prescriptions that will fit directly into 6 base curved wrap frames or below only. For 8 base wrap frames, select one that will fit a clip-in prescription or a direct clip lens.

Tip: Anti-fog coating- This is not something we usually recommend we only added the coating to our prescription range due to requests. There are many different reasons for this but the main reason are the crystal clear coating is a much better value coating and can be used for more things, the anti-fog coating does not have as long life span can often peel (especially if it is being used in hot and cold environments) and it often looks smudgy  There are plenty of great anti-fog gels and sprays coatings CLICK HERE to buy anti-fog sprays and gel.

Tip: We often get asked about POLARISED lenses for snow sports these have both advantages and disadvantages. Yes they prevent glare and absorb around 98% of glare you get when skiing and snowboarding as glare is most noticeable on high reflective surfaces like water and snow. However its success is also a hinderance as it prevents you from distinguishing patches of ice from regular snow. So we always recommend you chose mirror coating if you are worried about glare rather than a polarised lens.  

(All products and brands are genuine and authentic. All prescription lenses are made in UK to EU rules and regulations and safety standards. We also check all frames and prescriptions before leaving our practice to ensure they meet your requirements.)