Grey or Brown?

10th August 2015

The most popular sunglass colour is grey and the majority of sunglasses sold, especially those you might categorise as ‘designer’ and ‘fashion’ styles have grey lenses or grey-green lenses (as favoured by Ray-Ban). It’s always a surprise to us when we do shows that there are so many people that have never tried sunglasses with brown lenses, the most obvious option to grey. Both grey and brown lenses are typically Category 3, that is they provide the same (high) protection against strong sunlight – the same level of tint. But there is a big difference in what you will see. A grey lens only dulls light – it doesn’t change the colour of objects. A brown lens on the other hand adds contrast and gives a ‘warm’ appearance. Importantly everything in the field of view will appear ‘sharper’ than with a grey lens. Often it will come down to personal preference but it you are not familiar with brown lenses give them a try – you might be surprised at how contrast can help with vision. Incidentally, as we have mentioned before, the level of tint or the darkness of the lens has nothing to do with UV protection. The UV filter applied to lenses is actually clear so a clear lenses can be UV400 rated – the maximum protection from harmful UVR.