With warmer temps and elevated sun angles creeping in to extend our New England ski days during March and April, it is the perfect time to assess our eyewear and ensure that we’re dialed in with performance, protection and style.
Keep your springtime turns on the slopes and in the courtyard on point with some of the latest styles and tech.
Here are some slope-savvy goggles and glasses worthy of a gear checkup.
Let’s look in.
Smith’s BirdsEye Vision technology has expanded the field of view in goggles across their lines, but the 4D Mag takes it to the next level. A new design feature rounds the bottom of the lens to provide Smith’s widest field of view available. This enhanced peripheral vision combined with ChromaPol lens technology provides a game-changing read on the terrain in all conditions. The goggles come with two lenses — ChromaPop Sun Red Mirror and ChromaPop Storm Yellow Flash for low light conditions — that can be quickly swapped out with Smith’s easy-to-use lens-change tech magnets.
Oakley also has expanded the field of view and stylistic choices by working with a couple of well-known professional racers — Aleksander Kilde and Mikaela Shiffrin. The Kilde-inspired Flight Path L maximizes field of view at all angles, and its Ridgelock EV lens construction provides greater upward visibility, allowing for an unobstructed viewing when in an aggressive skiing position. Inspired by the helmet visors of fighter pilots, Oakley’s Flight Deck M is available in Shiffrin’s signature “abstract blue,” and the goggle is engineered for seamless compatibility with the helmet of your choice. Both Oakley goggles are designed with Ridgelock Technology, allowing for quick lens changes that maintain a complete lens seal.
The 1970s and ’80s are making a comeback with new color releases in classic sunglasses and goggles collections by Vallon. Choices include Ski Aviators in Tricolor Red that pay homage to the most iconic ski sunglasses design ever made. They are updated with exceptionally clear V52 lenses and a modified design allowing for a modern fit. Two goggles options — Stairways and Freebirds — are modern versions of early ’80s styles that have been upgraded with expanded field of vision and optics developed by Carl Zeiss. The Stairways come in the new White Sky color, while the Freebirds are now available in both Red Silver and Black Neon.
The oversize aesthetic of the M5 and toric lens design — a shape that more closely follows the contours of your face to provide better optics — serves up a wide field of view and enhanced peripheral vision. The goggle boasts a comfortable helmet-to-goggle fit and quick, magnetic lens-change technology with Anon’s Magna-Tech. Perceive optics provide high-contrast performance and anti-fog treatment. The Anons also come with Magnetic Facemask integration, providing a seamless face mask attachment that is vented to eliminate goggle fogging.
In partnership with Zeiss, Giro created its patented Vivid technology to optimize vision in all snow environments by blocking out the spectrum of light that creates flat light conditions. At the same time, blue spectrum light is allowed through, which improves contrast to sharpen terrain details. Expanded View technology boosts peripheral vision, Toric Sperical shape mimics the form of the human eye, and a new foam Evak Vent technology minimizes fogging while fortifying the barrier from the elements.
The Cloudfall combines Zeal’s patented Rail Lock System lens interchange with a distortion-free field of view through its Observation Deck Technology. The expanded view is augmented by a polarized lens collection engineered to cut glare and block 100 percent of harmful UVA/B/C rays and 95 percent of HEV light while boosting color to help you see definition and detail on the mountain.
The Adapt 2 is Glade’s most popular goggle, constructed around the idea of a one-goggle quiver that never requires you to changes lenses. It accomplishes this with Reveal photochromatic lens technology that automatically changes tint as the conditions change, from bluebird to whiteout. All Reveal lenses feature the same tint-adjusting visible light transition range of 61 percent to 16 percent. The Adapt 2 also is fog-free and comes with a silicone-backed, dual-adjustable strap to dial in fit.
Both the frame and the adjusters of Bolle’s Eco Torus are bio-based, made with renewable castor oil. The strap is made of 65 percent recycled polyester and integrates 100 percent recycled patches. Eco Torus’s toric shape provides an extra wide but distortion-free field of view, and the goggle features Bolle’s Volt technology, a high-contrast lens formulated through AI testing that evaluated more than 4 million color enhancement possibilities.
