SportRx Prescription Sunglasses Review

SportRX Prescription Sunglasses

Having worn glasses for more than half my life, I spend an inordinate amount of time on eyeball management before I play any sport. From yoga and surfing to my main sports of cycling and sailing, the question always becomes: “How am I going to be able to see well while I am doing this?” Sometimes I use contacts and other times just stick to glasses and squint. In the most dire of conditions, I suck it up and go without.

You can imagine how intrigued I was when I heard about SportRx, an online company who specialize in creating prescription sport glasses in their high tech Southern California lab. I had tried prescription sunglasses in the past through my optometrist, but they were inevitably fashion sunglasses that could not take the beating of 3 days of dinghy racing on San Francisco Bay. Worse, most of these sunglasses were not wraparounds, meaning 3 hour rides on the bike left me squinting for days.

When I tried wraparounds in the past, the distortion resulting from the prescription lens left me feeling like I had one too many drinks the night before. While out riding, the simple act of looking down at my cycling computer left me feeling like my handlebars were 10 feet away. 

Enter SportRx. SportRx make it incredibly easy to decide which prescription sunglasses will work best for you. You start by picking the sport, along with style or brand of sunglasses that interest you. The company even sells prescription snow goggles. Using livechat, the phone, or an online tool, SportRx can recommend the best lenses and tints based on your prescription and desired sport.

Once I had scanned in my prescription and decided on a pair of white Rudy Project Zyon sunglasses, SportRx recommended polarization for time on the water, along with a rose tint to help with picking up rocks and roots when mountain biking around the trails of Southern Marin. Upon completion of my order, the prescription sunglasses arrived within 3 days.

The Rudy Project Zyon frame is particularly well suited to a number of outdoor activities. The frame is lightweight (1 oz.) with numerous helpful features like fully adjustable nose pads, temple lock to fit any head shape, and removable side shields for high glare activities like sailing or skiing. Most importantly, the frames are RX compatible despite the curvature of frame.

When putting the sunglasses on, the first thing I noticed was the absolute lack of distortion from the lenses. Thanks to the rose colored tint and crystal clear optics, I could easily pick up subtle changes in the pavement as I headed down Mt. Tam on one Alpine Dam loop ride.

The Zyons are so well made, I forgot I was wearing them. I simply enjoyed my surroundings- whether it was riding through a grove of Sequoias, along the vast open stretch of Panoramic, or spotting a brown pelican diving into the Bay.

Bottom Line: If you currently suffer through outdoor sports wearing glasses, check out SportRx. You need a valid prescription from your optometrist, and prices vary depending on your frame, prescription, and lens coating. 

Terry Doyle

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