Posts Tagged sunglasses
Bolle Sunglasses and Goggles
“Jackie O!” was what my husband exclaimed when he first saw me sporting my new Bolle sunglasses. Indeed, these shades (style name: Queen) have bigger lenses than I typically wear — but not nearly as oversized as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis did in the 1970’s. I absolutely love the style — I feel rather Hollywood movie star when I’m wearing them out and about. While the sunglasses may not take to the hiking trail or the river quite like my sporty and versatile Native Eyewear shades do, I’d happily wear these sunglasses to the pool and the beach, to shopping malls and city streets. They hug my face, don’t slip down my nose and successfully keep me from squinting in the sunlight.
Not only are the Queen glasses hip, but they protect my eyeballs, too. I appreciate the polarized lenses that reduce glare, as well as the extra anti-reflective coating on the backside of the lens that further reduces eye strain. The polyarbonate lenses are super lightweight and offer 100 percent UVA and UVB protection from the sun’s rays. Thermogrip® rubber temples and nose pads deliver a solid (but comfortable) grip.
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Queen style in dark tortoise (pictured) is $139.99, but I found them on Amazon for $111.99.
I also tested some Bolle goggles on the slopes of Keystone, Colorado, a couple weeks ago. While the bright orange stripes of the Quasar Coral Snake frame with Fire Orange 50 lenses aren’t exactly my first choice of hues and style (should have asked the friendly Bolle marketing rep to please send a pair in solid black without the mirrored lenses), I very much appreciated all the fancy features of this technologically advanced goggle.
First, they cover a lot of my face — which is good when the wind is whipping at 11,000 feet in elevation. In comparison to my years-old Bolle goggles (which are narrower in solid black with rose-colored lenses) they just seem to offer more protection. Though I get the feeling I’m channeling Shaun White, or some other sort of rad teenage snowboarder when I’m wearing them, I do like how “solid” and protective they feel.
Second, in a side-by-side comparison with my older Bolle goggles, the orange Quasars blocked out a lot more of the sun; in my old pair I squinted when facing the setting sun, whereas with the Quasars I didn’t have to. The thick, triple-layer face foam is super comfy and cushy, and special coating on the lenses prevents fogging and most scratching (love that, since somehow we lost the nifty pouch that came with the goggles for storage — darn).
Overall, I appreciate the quality of these goggles, but the style is better suited to boys or men. See my husband sporting the goggles while tubing in this Keystone video — he can pull off the look so much better than this 40-year-old, non-flashy, mother of two.
These Quasar goggles (pictured above) retail for $119.99, but I’ve seen them as low as $79.99 on Amazon.com.
Browse a great selection of Bolle styles (and sale items) at Campmor.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on March 5th, 2010
These Chums Will Help You Keep Your Glasses
The main excuse people give for not buying quality sunglasses is usually this: “I always lose them, so I’m afraid to spend a lot.”
Hey, I’ve said the same thing myself in the past. (Ditto for expensive leather gloves and fancy umbrellas.) There’s nothing worse than losing something nice, as opposed to something cheap and crappy you don’t care about.
There’s one way to better the odds of holding onto good sunglasses though, or your real glasses if that’s the case. You can use an eyewear retainer from Chums. You hook something onto the stems that allows the glasses to hang around your neck. So on or off your face, they’re still on your person.
“But those things are so dorky” or “Do I look like a surfer?” I can hear you saying. Well, there are probably a lot more of these eyewear retainer styles than you thought. The past few weeks I’ve been using a new $10 model from Chums, the ultra light Orbiter. You can barely see them in that photo at the top. That’s because they’re made of very thin coiled wire. They weigh in at less than a gram. A gram! Little rubber nubs on the end stretch to go over the tips of any glasses stems. You forget they’re there until you need them and they’re inconspicuous.
There’s what they call a “halo effect” too, which means they extend a bit to the back and stay off your head. That’s good I guess, but maybe not if you’re trying to lean your head back on a beach chair or someone walks up behind you and gets a wire in the face. Being made of metal, the Orbiter can also get a bit chilly in the cold: better for summer than on the slopes.
If you want something more traditional, you can get other eyeglass retainers in cotton, rope, or neoprene. If you’re a surfer or kayaker, you can even get a floating version.
I also hooked up a kids’ version to the first pair of sunglasses my daughter has ever worn that are worth more than $10. So far she’s gone a month without losing them, which is close to a new record. A highly recommended $6 investment for your junior traveler(s). You gotta like their promise on the package too. It says “Proven to withstand 1) white water rafting, 2) 200 mph freefalls, 3) 10-year-old on sugar.
And here’s something you don’t see often on products retailing for a few bucks: “Home grown in the USA.”
See the whole line at Chums.com
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family on February 24th, 2010
Serengeti Sunglasses with Polar PhD Lenses
Serengeti Cetera with polarized PhD lenses
When does one graduate from mall kiosk shades to performance sunglasses? If you’re there yet, check out this new line from Serengeti Eyewear.
When you’re a purist backpacker traveling on a shoestring, scoffing at anything requiring a sizable layout of cash is a necessary survival instinct. You laugh at the rich package tourists who spend more on a week’s hotels than you do for months of nights in guesthouses. You make fun of those “adventure travelers” outfitted in jackets that cost more than your backpack did. And why buy $100+ sunglasses when you can get a pair at the local mercado for three bucks?
When most eventually leave that phase and get a real job, however, the superior attitude fades a bit over time. Staying in a hostel doesn’t have the same appeal when you can easily afford better and you realize people treat you differently when you’re not dressed like a hobo. And wow—things really do look a lot different when you’re wearing good sunglasses!
I’ve been in both camps and still move back and forth between them as a travel writer, but I’ve definitely learned my lesson with the sunglasses as the decades have wore on. I’ve spent the past few weeks wearing one pair only—these Serengeti Cetera ones pictured at the top. Well, except for a few times I did some before and after tests with other shades to compare.
These are, hands down, the most comfortable and lightweight sunglasses I can ever remember wearing, and that’s no fluke. These special polarized PhD lenses “weigh 75% less than glass and 10% less than polycarbonate.” Yet they’re polarized too, so I could see clearly when we got a snow dumping last week and I went sledding and snowman building. I took a walk by a lake and noticed a significant reduction in glare from the water. On top of that they’re photochromic, so they get darker as conditions get brighter. Otherwise, they do what sunglasses should: cut down brightness and glare without changing the colors of what you are seeing. My eyes are protected and comfortable without seeing anything distorted.
Serengeti Maestrale
The tech specs on these lenses fill half a page of copy, but the real differentiators are that the polarizing is built into the back layer of the lenses, not the front, so there’s no risk of degradation from abrasion or other factors. You also get “anti-scratch hard coat, seven layer backside anti-reflective coating, and oleo phobic coating technology for oil and water resistance.” And they’re shatterproof under normal conditions.
All that is well and good, but if you’re going to pay a premium like this (list prices between $150 and $200, but sometimes under $100 at retail), the glasses had better make you look great too. While I’m a big fan of more competitively-priced shades we’ve reviewed here before from the likes of Julbo and Tifosi Optics, these make you think of Milan and Paris, not Boulder and Bariloche. The home page of Serengeti’s website features a winding mountain road on which you should picture yourself in an Italian sportscar, top down, someone beautiful and stylish beside you. We can’t all travel like that, but we can feel like it with their shades on our eyes.
If you want high performance but you want to look fabulous when you make your grand entrance, check out the new Serengeti line with Polar PhD lenses.
Search Serengeti products at SierraTradingPost.com
Posted by Tim in General Gear, Travel Light on February 4th, 2010
Best and Worst Travel Gear of 2009
We’ve been cranking out first-person reviews of travel gear on a daily basis and trying out lots of things as we hike, backpack, explore new cities, and navigate airports. Some items disappoint, some thrill, some defy expectations, so here’s a list of what worked and what didn’t in 2009.
Kara Williams
Item I used on the most trips this year
These Lucy capris pictured above are comfortable and stylish—they can go from the hiking trail to the dinner table. I wore them on the top of the Continental Divide in Colorado, to Maya ruins in Belize, to an ecological preserve in Mexico, and eating lobster in New Hampshire.
Worst piece of crap I gave up on
This battery-operated mosquito repellent is a travel-gear don’t. The blue plastic fan looks like a toy, so it’s dangerous to young children. Plus, it’s dorky and doesn’t work.
Most useful item for $20 or less
The Flip & Tumble bag. A reusable shopping bag that compacts into a tiny, squishy, 3-inch ball is a must-have for any traveler. Use it to tote items to the pool, buy groceries at the local market, or protect packed clothing from dirty shoes on the return trip.
John Gordon
Item I now cannot live without
It took a long time, but I’ve finally found a Bluetooth headset I can love. Motorola’s Endeavor HX1 (pictured at the top) offers excellent audio quality for normal conversations and true bone-conduction technology, like special forces use, to knock out extreme noise. Voice prompts make it easy to use.
Worst “Do we really need this?” item
Some things I just don’t understand, like Planesheets for covering airline seats. Besides the dubious claims of cleanliness, I’d just feel a little weird being the only passenger on the plane sitting in a zebra-stripe seat.
Most questionable travel app
iPhone and iPod users are familiar with the marketing line, “There’s an app for that.” Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Without Fear app is supposed to calm white-knuckled flyers. There’s a screen that says, “This is natural. We know you’re scared. You’re going to be OK.” Like that’s going to help.
Never leave home without it
My AT&T Tilt 2 smartphone (same as the HTC Touch Pro2) lets me keep in touch with friends and clients whether I’m at the neighborhood store or in another part of the world. Sure, AT&T sells a lot more iPhones than this model. When the iPhone gets a real keyboard, can tether to my laptop and lets me swap out the battery, I’ll consider it.
Tim Leffel
Worst Case of Greenwashing
There was plenty of greenwashing to go around this year and the “green gear” tag keeps making its way onto things that really aren’t. I debunked plenty of these, but the most obvious one was this Altus Lumen LED light that burns through four AA batteries in an hour. Decent product otherwise, but the bombastic claim of being “the world’s first sustainable portable LED light” turned out to be based on one factor: the shell is 75% recyclable—provided you pry it all apart and separate the pieces when the thing dies.
What I used the most this year
There were plenty of items I tried out and then put on a shelf. The new things I tried that became a permanent part of my ensemble included the Tom Bihn Aeronaut carry-on bag (pictured at the top), my Teva Omnium sandal shoes, and pretty much everything I put on from ExOfficio—including their underwear. And I almost never pack my bags without a pair of Tifosi Optics sunglasses and some kind of Keen Footwear shoes.
Item that caused the most mixed feelings
I have to admit the Starbucks Via instant coffee tastes ten times better than Sanka or Folgers, but at $1 a serving, it sure better! If you already like the over-roasted, burnt taste of Starbucks, you’ll like this stuff. Even if you don’t, instant coffee that’s drinkable would be worth packing on a camping trip or when staying any place where hot water is more readily available than real coffee.
Honorable Mention – Past year’s standout that keeps coming back:
Travel gear item I would gladly do infomercials for
Only real travelers who have used it believe this $99 SteriPEN Traveler is for real. It looks fishy, I’ll admit: you stick this in the water you’re going to drink, the light kills everything, then you can drink away. But I, my wife, and my daughter have used this daily in 9, 6, and 4 countries respectively without getting sick. ‘Nuff said.
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, Business Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on January 1st, 2010
Fashionable Tifosi Salvo Sunglasses with Polarized Lenses
I have a few different pairs of sunglasses lying around the house for different needs and activities. On the water though, there’s one word that can make a huge difference in what works: “polarized.” Putting on a pair of regular sunglasses on the open sea and then putting on a pair of Polarized ones is like the difference between an old small TV and a big flat-screen high-definition one. You can see eliminate most of the glare and see more of what’s happening on or under the water.
Since I was about to head off to the Galapagos Islands for a week on a ship, I jumped at the chance to try out this Salvo model from Tifosi Optics. I’ve got a pair of Tifosis that’s my go-to pair when biking or hiking—the Torrent—and I love them, especially the photochromatic lenses and the little vents that keep your eyes from tearing up at high speeds. This model is more fashionable though, which meant I could take just this one pair with me on the trip and know they would work fine for the deck of a boat and also sightseeing around Quito.
These have metal frames and the polycarbonate lenses are hard enough to make you think they’re real glass, so they feel solid and expensive. They’re extremely comfortable, to the point where I went rooting around for my sunglasses in my bag one day, not realizing I already had them on. They have some give in the frame and the ear stems have spring-loaded hinges that bend out a little without snapping. Rubber accents are placed in contact points to make them more comfortable.
One reason I can so heartily recommend Tifosis though is the price. These are not mall kiosk cheapies, but at a price of $50-$60, they’re quite reasonable. (The more classic aviator-looking Helo model is $34-$45.) That’s a half or third of what some of the more overhyped brands on the market retail for.
Tifosi has lines that are popular with cyclists, golfers, and tennis players, but they’re great for active travelers who just want a good pair of sunglasses that will last. This is especially true since every pair comes with a hard zippered case you can stuff in your bag or a daypack pocket without worry. Inside is an additional soft case that doubles as a lens cleaner. There’s a lifetime warranty against defects too.
For something that straddles the line between form and function, the Helo, which comes in four frame/lens combinations, is a great choice. This one is sized for small to medium faces though, so if you’ve got a big head, search the other options below. Check the Fade or Ridge if you like metal frames.
Browse the whole selection at TifosiOptics.com. Search online prices for Tifosi Salvo or see the dealer locator for independent bike and sports spots that carry this popular line.
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, General Gear on October 22nd, 2009
