How To Choose

Choosing sports sunglasses & eyewear

The key criteria when choosing sports sunglasses / eyewear is a wrap around style for plenty of eye protection to keep out wind, rain and harmful UVR; lightweight frames for extended wear and impact resistant lenses. This adds up to performance and protection. Virtually all the models sold on our site meet these key criteria. After that the main things to think about are:

- Lens colours & density of tint

- Style off frame

- Use in high glare conditions like watersports

Lens colour choice will depend on light, background colour and the sport they will be used for. Style is very much a personal preference and a high glare environment means polarised lenses should be considered.

Men's, Women's and Unisex styles
As part of the description for each model we have indicated whether the style is aimed mainly at men, women or is unisex. Many of the 'sports' style sunglasses featured are unisex.

Frame & Lens colours
For each brand / model the frame and lens colour can be seen in the picture shown but in most cases we also give the frame colour in the description and in all cases we describe the lens colour.

Polarisation
See the section on 'Eyewear Information' for more detail about polarised lenses and their benefits. To make it easier to quickly identify a model with a polarised lens look for the 'Polarised' symbol (as shown above).

Lens colours and their use

Grey (also called Smoke)
The most popular lens colour. It reduces all light equally, does not increase contrast or alter the colour of objects and is good for most light conditions.

Amber and Brown
Popular colours that increase contrast (objects appear sharper), they provide a warm appearance and work well where judging distance is important (like golf). Good for most weather / light conditions.

Yellow
A light enhancing colour - good for low visibility, dark, hazy and cloudy conditions. Provide exceptional contrast and enhance depth perception. Not suitable in strong sun or high glare conditions.

Clear
For protecting eyes from impact, dust / dirt or abrasion. 

Green
Provides a soothing tone to colours and often used to create the classic aviator style sunglasses. Improves contrast but not as popular as brown or smoke lenses. However, the Grey-Green (Smoke-Green) lens colour is a popular option.

Red, Vermilion (Rose) & Orange
These colours filter blue light - they are high contrast lens colours that will make objects appear sharper. Suitable for most light but especially overcast conditions. Popular with golfers, cyclists and shooting enthusiasts.

Blue

A fashion colour but also helps to "pick out" the colour yellow so is very useful to tennis players. 

Mirror and 'Revo' lenses
The fashionable mirror and revo effect are coatings applied to the front of the lens (usually applied to a base smoke / grey lens). Mirror coatings can come in a wide varety of colours. They are primarily for cosmetic effect but they also limit glare and increase the filtering power by reducing the amount of light interference.

Flash mirror
A flash mirror finish (to the base lens colour) is not a full mirror effect but gives a slight reflection.

Photochromic and Transition lenses

Photochromic lenses are lenses that change colour, depending on light conditions. Typically they start from a light 30% colour and darken to around 70 / 80% (in intense sunlight). More and more sports eyewear manufacturers are introducing models with photochromic lenses and all Serengeti models have these lenses. Originally, they were only available in glass but recent technology means they are now available in plastic / polycarbonate.

Interchangeable lens sets

Interchangeable eyewear sets have become very popular because they give a choice of lenses fitting the same frame. They will typically come with two or three different lenses such as smoke (grey), yellow and red (or orange). It means on a dull winter's day you can put the yellow lens in and leave it in. If the weather is mixed (a mixture of sun and cloud) the red or orange lenses will be good and of course in bright, sunny conditions the smoke lens will be ideal.