| 864 | Native Eyewear Hardtop XP Polarized Sunglasses |
2013-10-02 |
While climbing with my friend Mark, I noticed he was sporting some hip looking sport sunglasses. Well, he lives in Boulder and is the king of fashion, so I asked about the glasses. They were Native Eyewear sunglasses, but he was unsure of the model. He really liked the glasses and in particular the fog-free design.
What? Fog-free design, I doubt that!
I am a sweat-er. When I start exerting energy, I begin to sweat. My glands work overtime, but I do not get hot and in fact I generally function very well in the heat of the day as long as I replace water every now and then. So, when hiking, as soon as I begin to climb a hill, I begin to sweat and any glasses that I am wearing become useless. Oh, the lenses would probably keep the sun out, but they also trap fog. Soon, the glasses are hanging from a retainer because I cannot see through them.
To rid my glasses of fog, I had tried sprays, cloths, salves, and designs, which some of them might work for most people, but they do work on a steam factory. I had resigned myself to not wear glasses when I was climbing, but to have them ready to wear on the descent or in case I needed to pose for a picture. Lucky for me, we generally climb early in the morning when the sun is not an issue.
On Mark's suggestion, I began reading about Native Eyewear glasses. The sports models had holes in the frame to aid in ventilation. Hmm, that might work.
Native Eyewear has several sports models, but after a bit of shopping, we (Amy had to help - she makes sure what I am buying is not too goofy looking) decided on the Hardtop XP model. A little too sporty for me, but if they ventilate, I'm in!
Skeptical, but definitely hopeful, I began wearing the glasses in the Tetons. I wore the glasses on several shorter hikes and then a strenuous endeavor. The sunglasses did not fog up like all my others. For the ultimate test I wore them on the Teton Loop. They did great. Oh, there was a little fog when we stopped moving, but we don't like to stop anyway!
A few sunglass notes ...
The glasses have a rubber like nose and ear pieces. The glasses are comfortable.
With the ventilation system the glasses sit a bit off your face - like using a spacer. The extra space also aids in ventilation.
The glasses are polarized and come with an extra set of low light lens.
The glasses are XP - extra protection. This means the lenses are 20% bigger that the normal ones.
The glasses are light. I hardly notice that I am wearing them.
For those into fashion, the glasses come in gray or brown. I decided on the gray, they match my hair better!
My friend, Jon, said he owned a pair of similar glasses. He had trouble with the rubber like material rotting. Hmm, no problem with that yet.
I had trouble adding a 'Croakie' to the glasses. The rubber-like ear piece did not want to slide into the Croakie's sleeve. This just took a bit of fiddling to fix.
I am very pleased with the sunglasses. For me, they did not eliminate fog, but they did eliminate most of it. The Hardtop XP's were much better than any glasses I have owned. The glasses are designed to ventilate. I was able to wear the glasses almost all of the time. That is remarkable.
Happy Native Eyewear Sunglass trails