The essential accessory for your sports performance!

Sports glasses are an integral part of the sportsman's panoply, that's why it is essential to choose them well. If poorly adapted to your morphology or your sport, they will quickly become a constraint which will decrease your comfort and thus your performance: As you understood, the choice of sports glasses is not only an aesthetic question (even if that counts...), it is above all a technical choice!

The first function that we ask them is to protect you against the elements. Of course the sun but also the rain and the wind. Then, they must provide "mechanical" protection of the eyes and face against branches, dust, gravel, and insects (cyclists who ride without sports glasses have not yet had the joy of taking a fly in the eye at 35km/h.... great moment. We even won’t be talking about gravel). Finally, the best performing sports glasses will significantly improve your performance: indeed, a well-adapted frame with lenses that perfectly match the requirements of your sport and the weather conditions will be a great asset! We will talk about it in "How to choose your lenses"...

At last, professional athletes will tell you that the moment when you put on your sports glasses is a mental preparation for the effort you will have to make to reach your goal. It is a real mental preparation, you are in your bubble, ready to go!

So how do you choose them?

Before jumping headlong into the existential choice of your future best ally, you must first understand what we are talking about and what the challenges are.

The frames will sit on 3 points of support which are the nose and the top of the ears. These are the only places where your frame must be in contact with your face!

The first thing to check: the contact with the cheeks. If, when you force your best smile, the glasses come off from your nose, that means that they are not adapted to your face shape. It is necessary to change for a model less high, more horizontal...

Then, you must check the contact point at the level of the ears. This small diagram enables you to see the anatomy of the head and in particular the position of the Superficial Temporal Veins and Arteries (n°9)! They are located along the temples and will not support being compressed by your frames!

Check these two lateral fitting points carefully because, during exercise, the diameter of these veins and arteries will increase to meet the body's oxygen needs, and therefore, if your frames compress these areas when you are at rest, they will become unbearable during exercise!

On top of that, as the shape of our skull is rather oval, frames that are too small will tend to be ejected forward and therefore they will have to be constantly pushed back on the nose!  

The big family of sports glasses!

Sports glasses have in common a geometry adapted to the morphology of the head. They are curved to follow the curve of the face. Technically, we talk about frames of base 6 or 8. The higher the number, the greater the curve. Here again, you must be careful when choosing them: ideally, the frame should follow your face as closely as possible, without ever touching it, even when you talk or grimace... We saw it, it can quickly become annoying!

Then, there are 3 types of sports glasses. Each of them have their own specificities:

The full-rim frames

As their name indicates, the frame goes completely around the lenses. These are the most "closed" frames that will enable you to protect yourself very well from the sun and the reflection. Consequently, they are also less ventilated and therefore more prone to fogging. They are generally used for climbing, mountaineering and water sports.

Dual-lens frames with interchangeable lenses

Introduced at the end of the ‘90s with the OAKLEY Half Jacket, these sports glasses are certainly the best compromise for multisport athletes. Indeed, they are very covering but sufficiently ventilated to avoid fogging. They're ideal for running, mountain biking, golfing, playing tennis, and all the low-speed sports.

Monoshields

Mono lenses are the ultimate sports eyewear. They are the windshield that will protect you from all the hazards encountered during your Iron Man or your cyclosportive! The surface of the shield is wide enough to enable a clear 180° view without having to turn your head, but the criteria for checking the size are the same as for other frames: no contact with the face, that's the golden rule!

Because they are very closed, they are perfect for fast-moving sports such as road biking, cross-country skiing, or sailing. The fast movement enables natural ventilation and prevents fogging.

In summary...

As you can see, the choice of glasses is not as futile as it seems and this object should not only be considered as a social marker or accessory, even if it is its official category; it must above all meet the anatomical constraints of the face, the protection requirements and participate in the improvement of sports performance.

Since the quality of vision is an integral part of the performance, we have developed optical solutions for the best models in each category. You can find them in our frames catalogue!