Most of you ski in ski goggles. This is a good thing, as goggles play a really key role in keeping you safe. By protecting your eyes from sunlight and harmful UV rays, as well as providing a barrier to wind, snow, rain and debris that could all hit you when you ski, they are an as essential part of your set-up as your boots and skis.
A comparatively simple bit of kit, there is a lot that goes into a ski goggle. And it can seem mindboggling that goggles go for a couple of hundred pounds a pair! But often there is some really fun tech that’s working hard behind the scenes to deliver a really fun look and feel, and that, to me, is worth exploring!
I’ll cover three key areas, exploring how the market is divided into three parts to make it accessible for everyone, the different colours and their meaning or roles, and some of the really fun tech that has come along in recent years to make goggles far less of an afterthought! Welcome to Skiing Unlocked's guide to buying ski goggles
The Goggle Market
There are, broadly speaking, three bands to the market in the UK – an entry level range, designed for people just getting their toe in the water or looking for a good quality pair of effective goggles; mid-market for those who are comfortably into the sport and have a little but more money to spend on something that looks and feels a bit better; and finally High-Tech, expensive but with a bit more tech going on.
The entry level market has expanded and caught up with some of the other levels in recent years but have kept their price points really competitive to stay in this corner of the market. Here we are talking quite basic tech, so a siliconised strap, rubber frame, and a cylindrical lens.
A cylindrical lens is an important feature in keeping the price point low; the lens is curved horizontally around the face, contrasted to a spherical lens which is curved both horizontally and vertically. It is more expensive to manufacture spherical lenses, but they provide greater clarity of vision than a cylindrical lens – noticeable perhaps only to a few, but it is there, nonetheless.
In this band, Bollé’s Royal and particularly Smith’s Frontier and Squad ranges have long been the stalwarts, coming in at around or under £55 a pair. These are excellent quality, from a reputable brand, and come in at a price point perfect for beginners or those watching their spend.
In the middle, competition between brands is most intense. Here you will seethe start of spherical lenses, tougher plastics for the frame and lenses, and a great mix of tech and colours. You might also find a couple of goggles with interchangeable lenses, although these tend to appear mostly in the upper end. This is the perfect mid-point, combining a really good look, bright colours, and a good feel with enough tech to keep you very happy for a long time.
The choice here is almost endless. Dragon, Volcom, Panda Optics, Anon, upper end styles of Bollé and Smith, and the lower end of Oakley such as their Lineminer range all fit into this category. Expect to be paying between £100 and £150, maybe a bit more, for a good quality pair of goggles in this range.
Finally, the upper range of the market. This is verging into the “unnecessary” range of the market, encompassing brands and looks you are paying for having for the sake of having, but there is some really fun tech here, too. Traditionally, goggles with interchangeable lenses have sat here, but more recently you are getting colour optimisation technology such as Oakley’s Prizm tech in there. Expect to pay big bucks, upwards of £200 and easily £250 for goggles in this band, which includes most of Oakley’s products!
Lens Tint & Mirroring
There is a big worry amongst skiers about the colour of their lens, and how effective it is in different light levels.
Generally, yellow, copper or amber is what you should look at for skiing in low light conditions; blues, greens and reds for mixed, and platinums, blacks and reds for high-light conditions.
Of course, if you have a fixed lens, you can’t necessarily be carrying around multiple goggles with you as you go. Therefore, it is important to get the right goggle for the conditions in which you ski, which will most likely be … all of them; stick to blues, greens or reds, which will cover the broadest ranges. In some situations, skiers have been known to ski with a extra pair of cheap low-light goggles stuff in their pack, only because really low, flat light is an absolute pig to ski in.
Should you buy a mirrored lens? This is something that is less important that colour, I believe. Mirroring provides better protection against bright sunshine, so again should be considered for highlight days, but on a practical level it is not sensible to carry around multiple pairs of goggles. Also, and let’s be really honest here, mirrored lenses just look cool, so have at it I say!
Then we come to interchangeable lenses. I’m a big fan of having a goggle with interchangeable lenses, as they work to solve the problems above. If you have a goggle with interchangeable lenses, aim to carry a mid-range lens that will cover as many different light conditions as possible, then a spare low-light lens for those really awful flat light conditions. Most lens changing systems aren’t the most ergonomic, so don’t expect to be changing lenses every thirty seconds, but if the light changes in the afternoon you can take two minutes on a lift to swap out.
Photochromatic lenses really aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, either changing to slow to have an instant impact or being of poorer quality in terms of light protection provided than simply having two lenses. Similarly, you don’t want Polarised lenses for skiing; you need to see the changes in light reflection off the snow – something polarised tech takes away – in order to know what you are skiing over.
High-Tech – Colour Optimisation Technology
When I was working at Ellis Brigham, approaching ten years ago now, Oakley launched their Prizm technology, the first of a new wave of lens technology sometimes referred to, terribly, as colour optimisation technology.
Oakley spent a lot of money on R&D to work out that, of the visible light spectrum, only certain spectrums of light impacted people in different environments: by isolating and blocking only these colour spectrums, and allowing the rest of the spectrum through, you could do wonders for what a skier sees when skiing.
Prizm achieves four things for skiers: each lens tint covers a broader band of light, meaning one lens can now do high light conditions as well as low; the depiction of detailed and colours is enhanced – quite literally the red of London buses and green of the trees is enhanced around you; you can pick out detail on the slopes much better, including patches of crud and ice; and the transition between shade and light is much, much better.
There’s some discussion as to whether Prizm is worth the spend, but I wholeheartedly agree that it is. In my personal opinion, Prizm has been one of the greatest technological innovations of the last ten years. The difference between a Prizm lens and others, including other brands’ attempts at colour optimised tints, is spectacular, and I try to only buy Prizm in any sun eyewear I buy – snow goggles or daily sunglasses. I ski in a mid-range Prizm Sapphire, with a Prizm Rose on hand for low-light days.
Oakley are expensive, and Prizm has only made them more expensive. But for me, Prizm is so good that they are one of the few brands worth paying the money for.
Final Thoughts
Goggles don’t have to cost the earth. There are some really good accessible pieces out there for any budget, but you want to spend a bit more you are really spoiled for choice. Plenty of brands will deliver a sufficient amount of tech and a cool, stylish design to make anyone look good and feel good on the slopes! But for those that want it, sometimes paying the big bucks can bring excellent results.
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