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| Naked Runner Sol Invictus Sunglasses a the Bad Cow Marathon |
I think there is a weird ‘netherworld’ few have discovered with sports sunglasses. We all have expensive Ray Ban or Oakley sunglasses but at £150 to £300 plus we never really actually wear them for sport for fear of breaking or scratching them. Cheap sunglasses have poor optic quality and worse can be made of dangerous plastic that shatter dangerously into sharp spikes and cause injury.
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| Naked Runner Sol Invictus Sunglasses – pic by Lee-Stuart Evans |
So what about the ‘holy grail’ of sports sunglasses ? A pair cheap enough that you do wear them for sport but good enough that you want to wear them for sport ?
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| Naked Runner Sunglasses at the finish of the fastest known time on the 650 mile Monarchs Way Trail |
Along Came Naked Runner Sunglasses.
I’m a big fan of small boutique companies based in the UK. When I discovered Naked Runner Sunglasses two years ago I was seriously impressed with a number of aspects of their sunglasses and have gone on to recommend them time and time again. Their main advantages are that you can replace the lenses without tools and major cost so when you scratch a lense its easy to replace without having to buy a new pair. Their costs were in the £50 to £100 bracket so they were good enough to use but not so expensive it was like a death in the family when you lost or broke a pair. Best of they weigh a staggering 22g so you don’t notice them on your head.
I’ve been keen for the ‘second generation’ of naked runner sunglasses for a while. I’ve been badgering Stephen Fowler the founder for about a year to make a polarised lense version.
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| Naked Runner Sunglasses running in Egypt |
I recently got my hands on one of the first 2nd Gen pairs with new smoke grey polarising lenses and felt it was time to give these a proper review of their own rather than a mention in dispatches in my kit list blog here
The new ‘Sol Invictus’ model has a few new features. Named after a Roman Sun God they come with polarising options ( we will get to why Im so pleased about that in a bit) and have upgraded frame designs and more importantly for some oval and square lense options to suit more face shapes.
I often joke that my unique superhero power is that all glasses and sunglasses suit me, but I appreciate that people don’t want to look weird in sunglasses so the addition of the two lense shape options gives more choice for more people
As a runner in the Summer months I often find I transition from dark wooded areas to open fields a lot. I also have certain challenges with my eyesight and vision in certain types of light so find polarising lenses suit me the best. They act by reducing glare and increasing clarity of vision rather than simply making everything less bright. A decent pair of polarising sunglasses should be able to help you see better on rainy days when driving in a car, even at night.
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| Yellow Lense Naked Runner Sunglasses for cloudy days |
Extra replacement lenses start at £20 which is amazing, I often take 2 or three types with me on longer runs so that I can change the lense ( with no tools) to suit the conditions . On a cloudy day I opt for yellow tint, for bright light polarising etc etc.
The latest lenses have a new material on them that makes them even more scratch resistant whilst maintaining very good optical clarity.
The Sol Invictus range also come with the option to add prescription lenses to them which is a superb extra feature. You can also adjust the nose pad to suit your face and more importantly find the right balance so that they don’t steam up under heavy workload. I’ve found this to be an issue with other sunglasses I’ve used for running.
Starting at just £65 I genuinely think these are the holy grail balance between price and performance from a passionate boutique UK company.
You can find out more here
