Sunglasses

Prescription Sunglasses
A number of quality manufacturers now produce their sunspecs with genuine lenses made to prescription. This ensures that you are getting the best possible glare reduction made to your prescription, and not simply a dip dyed pair of normal lenses (when you see adverts for Free sunglasses as a second pair, they are ALWAYS dip dyed lenses). When finished, the genuine lenses look exactly like the standard non-prescription version, but you can see!

The best examples include - Maui Jim and Tag Heuer.

Sunglass Repairs
Almost all of the Sunspecs we sell have an excellent spares and repairs service, with genuine parts available, even after many years, in some cases. Most products are warranted against defects for twelve months.

Lens Types
Like prescription lenses, sunglasses can be fitted with two types of lens, either glass, or a plastic polymer. Quality glass lenses are made from toughened material, which is safer in an accident as it resists splintering, and have the added bonus of being very scratch resistant as well as being easy to clean. Optical quality tends to be assured with the best glass lenses from reputable manufacturers, such as Ray Ban and Persol. They are, however, generally two to three times as heavy as plastic lenses, so the styles tend towards the conservative.

Plastic polymers are much lighter and virtually unbreakable in some cases, and therefore are the lens type of choice for most (but by no means all) sports and rimless eyewear. Quality can vary enormously, but the best plastic lenses can offer optical quality approaching that of glass, and we would particularly recommend lenses from Maui Jim and Tag Heuer as representing the pinnacle of current polymer lens technologies.

Coatings
Fundamentally, sunglass lenses are designed to reduce visible and invisible glare, making the user more comfortable and safe in bright conditions, but there are also surface coatings that can further improve performance and useability. These are:

•  Anti reflection coating, normally placed on the inside of the lens to reduce back reflections
•  Anti scratch coating, a finish applied to both sides of a plastic lens
•  Hydrophobic layer, similar to a waxed layer on a car, water and grease cannot easily adhere to the surface, keeping the lens cleaner for longer, and especially suited for skiing and watersports.

Frames
Fashion sunglasses from leading brands are usually made to the same high standard as the equivalent prescription range i.e. optical quality. They may, however, only come in one size! Suitable for normal wear, they should prove sufficiently well made to last with only routine periodic adjustment. The majority of 'Designer' brands fall into this category.

Performance brands are designed for specific sporting applications, and will often be constructed from flexible or unbreakable metals or plastic, such as titanium or nylon. Often designed with special corrosion resistance properties, or with features to prevent them slipping off, they are usually made in a wrap around design to maximise field of view. These brands usually offer several different types of lenses for each design, so as to be more sports specific.

Children
Our children have the most sensitive eyes of all, yet are often forced to wear scratched hand-me-down glasses and goggles, or worse, none at all. Several premium companies have made high quality goggles and sunglasses for juniors, and it's worth looking at Julbo and Ray Ban, for example. We also sell ski helmets which can be accurately sized to fit your child.

Cost
Fashion costs, performance costs, exclusivity costs, we all know this. Cheap sunglasses are often worse than none at all, similarly, wearing expensive fashion sunglasses up a mountain is hardly any better. Tell us your requirements, and your budget, and we will do our best to satisfy your requirements. Fashion sunspecs can cost from about £50 rising to nearly £1000!, whilst you should budget on around £70 plus for performance eyewear. Childrens ranges are obviously cheaper, and VAT free.