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June 8, 2016 Comments (1) Featured, Gear Reviews

Summer sunglasses reviews


With warming temperatures and longer daylight comes the need for effective eye wear.

These sunglasses made our heads turn and will make your runs pop. Enjoy and give us your feedback. 

 


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Julbo Aero 

Julbo Aero

Overall – 4.75

Visibility – 4.5
Motion – 4.5
Appearance – 5
Comfort – 4.5

Price – $180

The Julbo Aero is part of the Zebra Light collection. These performance sunglasses offer a comfortable fit, anti-fog, and photochromic lens with an SPF rating from 1-3 (depending on lens darkness). The 3D fit nosepiece offers the ability to mold the fit to the wearers face and the flexible rubber earpiece sits lightly around the wearers head. These lightweight, versatile sunglasses are the perfect piece for a long day on the trails, even if you’re starting early.
“What better way to test a pair of sunglasses then on the Zion Traverse, a day that started early in the chilly morning air and lasted until after sunset. I was able to wear the glasses even before the sun was directly on us. The photochromic lenses allowed for almost clear viewing all the way up onto the East Rim trail. I didn’t notice any issues with fogging or heat. Once we were running down into Echo Canyon and all the way up onto Angels Landing and the West Rim trail, when the sun was directly on us the lenses turned very dark and gave me plenty of protection. I never noticed any pressure spots throughout the day and I wore them for nearly 15 hours. These have become my new racing glasses, something I choose very carefully.”
  • Profile of the Julbo Aero
  • Craig All smiles
  • Craig in the Julbo Aero
  • Contrasting Light of the Julbo Aero

Julbo Breeze 

 

Julbo Breeze

Overall – 3.9

Visibility – 4.5
Motion – 3.75
Appearance – 3.5
Comfort – 4.0

Price – $180

The Breeze is a new light weight performance lens designed specifically for female runners, or men with smaller frames. Featuring the Zebra Light technology, the lens are Photochromic and boost an Anti-fog ability. These wide lens sunglasses give trail runners the full coverage needed with no blaring spots and a broad field of vision.

We were exceptionally excited about testing these new sunglasses. The Category 2 to 4 Photochromic lens is amazing. Our testers loved the coverage and the clarity of the light. Unfortunately, the lens was much larger then hoped for and the adjustable nose pads did little to stabilize the glasses on extremely aggressive and volatile runs. We love the Zebra lens, the adjustability of the temples and great coverage of these glasses.
  • Zebra light
  • Julbo Breeze
  • Julbo Breeze

 


 

Native Eyewear Logo

Native Kannah 

Native Eyewear Kannah

Overall – 4.2

Visibility – 4.5
Motion – 4.0
Appearance – 4.0
Comfort – 4.25

Price – $129

If you are looking for an all around good lens, look no further. The Kannah is stylish, durable and versatile for everyday wear or a run on the trails. Inspired by the rugged Kannah Creek in Colorado, these sunglasses will make you want to have fun in the sun. We loved testing these sunglasses out and had a difficult time taking them off. The performed well on 30 mile trail runs, grabbing a cup of coffee and looking dapper in and out of interviews.
The Kannah sunglasses feature a Bronzed polarized lens, great for blocking UV rays and keeping you looking good. The frames were super durable and are built of Rhyno Tuff materials. Our two year old even challenged the cam actioned hinges and they handled pretty well. Our only critic, is that these are obviously not intended to be your performance high end glasses. Therefore, they did occasionally fog on high octane runs.
  • Shouldn't the glasses be on Craig
  • Native Eyewear Kannah
  • Native Kannah
  • Native Kannah
  • Native Eyewear Kannah Contrast
  • Kannah fun

Native Hardtop Ultra XP

Native Eyewear Hardtop Ultra XP

Overall – 4.0

Visibility – 4.0
Motion – 4.25
Appearance – 4.0
Comfort – 3.8

Price – $129

The Hardtop Ultra XP is in the Native Hardtop line. With many of the same features plus the additional coverage all for the same relatively low price. This is one of the best bangs for your buck. The XP offers the same flexible nose pad system, Rhyno Tuff frame, N3 Polarized lens, interchangeable lens and optimized venting for performance. All for the price of $129. BAM! The XP filters out UV without filtering out your wallet.

In the field, these gems did the job. We loved the durable frames and cam actioned hinges. While the contrast in the lighting wasn’t the best, the venting and coverage was fantastic. The testers found that the metal nose pad adjusted preciously, but did feel odd at first. Like most people, we tended to stick with one set of lens the whole time, but having an option was nice.

 

  • Large XP frames
  • Native Hardtop Ultra XP contrast
  • Native Hardtop Ultra XP

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Bahias – Floating | Polarized

Screen Shot 2016-05-31 at 12.38.59 PMOverall – 4.5

Visibility – 5.0
Motion – 5.0
Appearance – 4.0
Comfort – 4.0

Price – $49.99

 

Great looks, excellent visibility through the polarized lenses, and reflective mirror fronts give these glasses a very sharp look – and that price! Not everyone will enjoy the green color of the frames, but they make them look very outdoorsy. Bahia’s are very light weight and fit very well. While wearing them around town and while running, there was no bouncing at all. I could barely feel that they were on. Due to their full frames, these glasses do fog up a little bit while running in the mornings while temperature is changing. I did not experience this at all during daily wear. These shades to have a darker tint, so would be most suited for bright sunny days.

For all your outdoor adventures from hiking, biking, running and watersports, Bahia could be the glasses that fit all those categories. They are not running specific, but they are well rounded outdoor glasses. Bonus feature, they float in water, so no worries about dropping them on your next water adventure.

 

 

One Response to Summer sunglasses reviews

  1. Tim says:

    Drop the “appearance” rating and this would be more useful. We all have preferences for what looks good on us, and I can’t see how you came up with that number. Based on the pictures of how they look on people’s faces, I would skip that part.

    If you do drop the appearance rating and add in a weighting for price then the rheos bahias seem to be the highest rated and best option. Except for not knowing how to pronounce the name. 🙂

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