If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the snow ski and snowboard lovers in your life, a new pair of goggles will have them itching to get to the slopes.
EZContacts offers ski goggles at a range of prices, so we’ve got you covered for different budgets. Before you make your purchase though, take into consideration the conditions of the slopes.
It’s all about the tint
The lens tint is the most important thing when choosing goggles for the slopes. Weather, activity, and terrain are all worthy of consideration. The perfect goggles will provide you with a tint that offers depth perception, color definition, contrast, and protection against eye fatigue.
Visible light transmission (VLT) is a way to describe how much light the lens will allow through to your eyes. A low VLT number such as 25% means less eye fatigue on sunny days and the goggles are great for bright conditions. While 70% means more light goes through the lenses for better depth and color perception on low-light days.
The color of the lenses is also important to consider when shopping for goggles.
On sale for less than $40 (2021).
Low-light skiing
- Gold, amber, and yellow lenses filter out blue light in low light. This will help emphasize shadows in the snow to help identify bumps easier. Orange and yellow colored lenses enhance the contrast so they are best for low to moderate visibility conditions.
- Light rose and copper rose lenses work the best on low-light days. Gold filtered blue light to give contrast and define shadows in cloudy, overcast, or low visibility conditions.
- Green lenses increase contrast in stormy and low visibility conditions so you can see bumps and trees.
Bright days on the slopes
- Dark gray and black lenses are a great option for still allowing you to see accurate colors, but block light out making it perfect for a bright sunny day.
- Dark tints like dark gray, dark brown, copper and dark green will help keep your eyes more comfortable while they create increased contrast in bright light.
- Flash or mirror coating enhances the effectiveness of tinted lenses by reflecting sunlight so it doesn’t penetrate the lenses. This effect lowers the VLT of the lens and makes it a great choice for bright, sunny days.
Going downhill later in the day
- If you’re looking to ski or snowboard at night or at sunset, clear lenses offer the highest VLT which will allow the most light to come into your eyes.
Protect your eyes
Polarized lenses protect against sunlight reflecting off the snow. You’ll also want to consider UVA and UVB protection. Exposure to the sun’s harmful rays can cause sunburn or longer-term conditions like photokeratitis. Look for goggles (and sunglasses too) which block 100 percent of UV rays to protect your eyes—even on cloudy days.
After you choose the lens tint, you’ll move on to choosing the lens shape. There are two primary types of lens shapes.
- Traditional goggle lens appear “flat” and are cylindrical.
- Modern technologies have advanced goggle lenses allowing them to be shaped both vertically and horizontally to create the spherical lens, which increases optical clarity becasue they mimic the shape of the eye to reduce overall distortion.
All of our goggles are in-stock and ready to ship the next day—including these beauties from Smith…
