starfly
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Aug 14, 2013
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Are you looking specifically for sport optics? The brands that compete in the impact protection niche vs the consumer niche are often different. For good optics that are also impact resistant (similar to Oakley), I would recommend Rudy Project. Their polycarbonate lenses seem to be a little clearer than Oakley to me (and their mirror coatings don't cause as many reflections as some of the Iridium tints). The Impactx lenses are even better, being made from a Trivex based material. Also, if your principle concern is polarization making LCD screens unreadable, Rudy Project has some kind of slightly different polarization filter that is meant to allow reading of electronics but still cut glare. It will darken LCD screens at certain angles from my experience, but not fully black them out.
The only sport optic I've found that I like better than Rudy Project is Pilla, but they're very expensive and targeted towards particular sporting niches. Most of their designs aren't something most people would wear every day because they are strictly utilitarian, and the majority of the tints are for very narrow applications (such as muting green and boosting orange for clay shooting against trees). That being said, the frame quality is a notch above the typical injection molded plastic frames for those types of glasses, and the lenses are built with no expense spared. They also use Trivex, but they pour them into polished glass molds and let them cure for a day to ensure surfaces that have fewer defects and optics that aren't distorted by stresses in the materials. They also have antireflective coatings, which is a rarity for sport glasses.
Randolph Engineering's metal frames in their Ranger series would also be worth a look, but I haven't owned anything from that particular line to comment in more detail. I did have a pair of their signature aviators and found the quality to be functionally impeccable, although obviously not as cosmetically perfect as a metal frame from a high end brand.
No, not specifically sport optics as I really don't like the look of those functional sporty sunglasses (I think they're ugly). What I have now is an Oakley Square Wire, so a metal wire frame. I definitely lean more towards the fashionable side, something I can wear with a suit as well as with shorts and sneakers. But at the same time don't want something that's too flashy either. I like the understated look.
I actually tried a Randolph Engineering Raptor, and agree that the workmanship is excellent, but it didn't really fit my face (I have a narrow face which always makes finding the right sunglasses more challenging, most are too wide for me).