Gear Review - Vallon Ski Aviators sunglasses

“Who doesn’t love a bit of throwback?” I tried to convince myself as I unbox a pair of Vallon’s decidedly Retro Ski Aviators, in the Wayne Wong special edition white.

Immediately, I no longer needed convincing. The faux leather case popped open to reveal what can only be described as the coolest – ice coldest – pair of skiing sunglasses I had ever seen in my life.

These are the Vallon Ski Aviators, and this is our gear review.

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The Brand 

Vallon are a Swiss brand that have quietly been carving out a corner for themselves in an otherwise crowded and rowdy mid-range goggle market. Their ski goggles have, for some time now, offered high quality sun protection for a decent price and stand out from other brands on the shelf with their unique design.

What a poser! The Vallon Ski Aviators on test in Laax, Switzerland.

The “hot dogging” effect – those two stripes around the strap of their goggle designs – is reminiscent of ski goggles of yesteryear, and that is exactly the vibe that Vallon are going for, a throwback to a golden era of ski fashion (or not, depending on your point of view).

Alongside their goggles, their glacier glasses have provided touring protection, and they are now joined by their ski aviators, offering a more casual, day-to-day look whilst committing to their retro feel, fully in this case.

At this point, it feels right to introduce Wayne Wong, who has lent his design influence and name to this particular pair. Wong is a Canadian and US Hall of Fame skier who pioneered freestyle skiing in the 1970s. And by “freestyle”, we’re not talking about rails, kickers and half-pipes, no. See, freestyle skiing was originally invented before the jumps were, so everyone was doing flips and tricks whilst on the ground. This has led to early freestyle skiing being referred to as ski “ballet”, due to its choreographed resemblance to this art form.

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The Gear

Vallon have therefore fully committed to the send on this one, and the result is a remarkably clean design that looks great on the screen when buying, but even better in your hand.

Did someone say après vibes?

Out of the box, these feel like good quality glasses, the frames made of a solid plastic that feels fairly indestructible in your hand - and prove to be so the amount I've thrown them around this past winter. The lenses are dark, too, confirming that yes these are designed for the slopes, something that isn’t immediately obvious from the more casual look of the thing.

The shape of the lenses is weird, yes, but I actually found this to be useful. I often have trouble getting glasses to fit properly, having a misshaped probiscis (aka nose) following three (at least) breaks over my rugby-playing career. I know that, for example, glacier glasses rarely fit me and I have to be careful with the style of frame to make sure they don’t sit too far down my nose.

Thanks to the unusual shape of these, they fitted perfectly right out of the box. I was really, really impressed, actually, with how well they fitted. As a result of this, and the dark lenses, I took them with me touring, and found them to be ideal out in the bright sunlight of the skin track; not just for casual, about-resort wear – my après outfit suddenly had a massive upgrade - these were stellar when actually skiing, too.

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Drawbacks

One slight drawback is the grip of the arms of the glasses. There’s no tension holding them against your temples, meaning they are liable to slip off when bending down to, say, adjust a boot buckle or clip your toe pin into ski mode, especially if they were perched on your head or peak of your cap rather than on your face. The sturdiness of both the frames and the lenses meant I was never worried about them scratching or becoming damaged, but it was slightly frustrating to have to think about this when doing otherwise mundane tasks.

Thankfully if they did fall off, they were more than tough enough to survive the impact. I can barely notice a scratch on them having lived in them and thrown them around for 30+ ski days last year.

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Final Thoughts

All-in-all, I really enjoyed the Vallon Ski Aviators. They were a lot, lot, lot of fun to wear and to look at, and performed really well both around town and out on the slopes. Radical, dude!