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No matter what your sport or your level of competition, your eyes need to be protected. However, the right sunglasses for golfing may not be right for cycling. Consequently, eye care manufacturers allocate significant resources to the testing of sports specific eye care products, in the laboratory and in the field. This has led to significant improvements in performance as well as increasing numbers of product enhancements to specifically address the concerns raised by athletes.
Before their eyewear products hit the slopes, courts or field of play, manufacturers carefully test their frames and lenses for safety and durability. Employing proven technologies, manufacturers simulate conditions such as wind, rain, cold and heat to determine the short and long term effects these elements can have on the performance and lifespan of their products.
Eyewear manufacturers also use wind tunnel testing to ensure that their products withstand extreme wind conditions. For example, because athletes’ head angles are different in road and mountain biking, tests are performed on various types of cycles to determine how wind affects riders at different angles. Wind tunnels are also fitted with UV lamps to check the light protection offered by different lenses.
Objects are thrown at lens surfaces from various angles and distances to test their impact resistance. Frames are also impact tested to measure material durability. Designers are known to intentionally sit and/or step on prototype eye wear to test their ability to survive a variety of "accidents".
However, because nothing matches real-word trials with professional athletes, manufacturers frequently involve sponsored athletes in the development and testing of their eyewear products. Athletes know what they need in order to do well in their sports and their feedback is used to improve existing products as well as to develop new ones. Athletes are interviewed about what they need and want from sports eyewear and eyewear designs are based on the athletes’ specifications. Although athletes may lack optical expertise, they are able to comment on, and request and receive improvements to, the visual acuity (clarity in the periphery and colour differentiation) of the lens as well as the overall comfort of the frame (fit, weight and size). A major issue is ventilation. Fogging of lenses due to sweat is a major negative in the performance of sports eyewear and athletes constantly make recommendations in this critical area.
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