Sunglasses are one of those things that are nearly impossible to find without a 2000% markup. I'm too lazy to do the research. Tell me your nerd secrets.
Every pair of sunglasses I’ve ever owned I purchased at a gas station or dollar store for $5 or less
Listen to Mr Fancy pants here, with his $5 fancy glasses.
buck fiddy from Ali Express not good enough for you boy ?
Never bought sunglasses with enough forethought to order from Ali Express, I always buy them while already on a road trip/on the way to the beach when I go “oh fuck I wish I had sunglasses”
Are they still under $5 these days? At drug stores they're like $10-20. They junk quickly, and I can probably get ten of something similar in quality on AliExpress for $1.
I'm looking to spend a little bit more for something more robust and stylish. I thought there was some secret website for sunglasses but maybe that's just prescription glasses I'm thinking of.
- Show
I got these for like $7.99 at a 7/11 a few months back.
At least for me, I’m gonna accidentally break any pair of sunglasses eventually. The more expensive ones are never worth it in my opinion. Maybe I’m just a klutz but they seem to break just as easily.
I have prescription glasses, so to get sunglasses it's either a super high markup for photochromic lenses, or a super high markup for a second pair of glasses with tint.
Either that, or wear contacts, which are also expensive and hellish for people like me with dry eyes
Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY UNPOLARIZED GLASSES. They basically fool your eyes into thinking it's dark, so the pupils open more. But the glasses aren't actually stopping the harmful light passing through to your now enlarged pupils.
I wear Goodr glasses like Maturin mentioned. They're like $20-$30
ackshually this isn’t quite right
The dangerous thing is to buy tinted glasses that are not UV protective. Your pupils will dilate in response to reduced visible light, in turn increasing your exposure to UV light.
Unpolarized glasses are safe. Indeed many expensive sunglasses are unpolarized, for example those worn by athletes or pilots.
What polarization does is cut down on glare by using a vertically polarized filter, letting in only light near vertical (and dimming like the sine of the angle from vertical). Light that reflects off surfaces like roads and water will be horizontally polarized and therefore almost completely blocked. This helps with comfort, but that’s about it.
I get mine in the hipster neighborhood. Pro? Tip- buy the dorky ones. The absurd ones. Don't by the ones that look 'cool', buy the ones that look insane.
There is some misinfo on polarized glasses here. Polarized glasses are good for reducing glare but polarization doesn't make them more safe. I like to get polarized glasses because it reduces glare on water which is handy for fishing. One reason not to get polarized lenses is the polarization can affect how well you see screens. LCDs work based on polarization so polarized sunglasses can interact with that.
Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY UNPOLARIZED GLASSES. They basically fool your eyes into thinking it's dark, so the pupils open more. But the glasses aren't actually stopping the harmful light passing through to your now enlarged pupils.
I wear Goodr glasses like Maturin mentioned. They're like $20-$30
Oh, shit. Is that why my eyes feel "tired" after wearing my current pair of sunglasses?
I need prescription glasses so I also buy prescription sunglasses from Zenni Optical and they have all been pretty dang good.
Uh oh, Hexabear is going on a double comment spree, I almost submitted this three times
You should look into independent glass makers. Stop giving money to the Essilor-Luxottica and Safilo duopoly. And please, be it from Aliexpress or a luxury French brand, please check if they're polarized, or else you're better off throwing them in the dustbin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Eyewear_retailers
When Wikipedia footer templates are structured around monopoly relationships you know its bad
That list is good enough but misleading in the sense that there's a whole bunch of EssilorLuxottica like brands, like Safilo, Ermenegildo Zegna and Marchon.
Slightly better brands include (this is not a comprehensive list, sadly):
- Etnia Barcelona (Italian)
- Salvatore Ferragamo (Italian)
- Rodenstock (British VC owned, German brand)
- Redele (Italian)
- Rag-bone (USian)
- Prodesign (Finnish)
- Sunday Somewhere (Australian)
- Yohji Yamamoto (Japanese)
- Jhane Barnes
- Kaleos
- Kate Spade
- Matsuda (Japanese)
- Jins (Japanese)
- 999.9 (Japanese)
- Dita (Japanese)
- Kaneko (Japanese)
- Masunaga (Japanese)
- Miyama (Japanese)
- Gotti (Swiss)
I should really get better ones, myself. I'll tell you what I think I should do and maybe that will be good advice?
Like others have mentioned, you should get polarized sunglasses. Also UV blocking. The polarization will help with the UV itself and will perform better, allowing you to, e.g., see through the surface of bodies of water much better (rivers, lakes, oceans). The UV blocking is essential for making it so that you don't basically sunburn your eyes.
It's pretty easy to test polarization yourself if you have two pairs. The polarization should be horizontal (linear) so if you overlap the lenses at a 90 degree angle it should turn more or less black, blocking a ton of light.
It is not as easy to test for UV blocking. You would need a UV detecting device and a UV emitter. So I would probably rely on online testing experience for this. I would, specifically, focus in Chinese-made stuff available on AliExpress that has been tested by various YouTube nerds and probably reviewed by a sunglasses - obsessed niche consumer forum or subreddit and figure out what is cheapest while passing those tests. Most likely it will be a knockoff of some popular brand's design but luckily 50 people will have purchased UV emitters/detectors, tested exactly those glasses, and reported how you can buy them for $20 or whatever.
If you have a UV lamp and UV paint, you could use them to test. If you're the sort of person who has both those things
That might work! I think testers usually try to distinguish the UV-A and UV-B spectra but maybe the paint would be good enough.
I wonder if different paint colours respond differently. I only mentioned it because I have some for warhammer.
Polarization is a preference thing but once I got a good pair of RX sunglasses with good anti reflective properties and polarization I can't drive (or stand to be outside in summer) without them.
Costco has some good ones at a reasonable price, they usually include a case and a microfiber cleaning cloth.
I’ve been buying a bunch off of aliexpress lately. They’re not the best, but they are super cheap and similar quality to Goodr or knock around of w/e $20-$30 ones, but cost like $3
I buy all of my sunglasses from Amazon lately, can get stylish looking cheap polarized ones for $15-ish CAD easily. Can probably get the same ones on Aliexpress for a few dollars less if so inclined.
I’m far too good at leaving them on a patio to spring for anything more than that.
polycarbonate safety glass will stop uv rays if you already own a pair of safety glasses
