Protection from the Sun

2010-04-22

One of the most popular equipment categories, despite the challenging economy, has been sunglasses/eyewear. Insiders say that there’s not a lot of sharing of sales data, but the segment continues to grow – as does awareness of the sun’s effects on the eyes. Golfers have many more choices these days in golf-specific eyewear than they did even just a few years ago. How much truly new technology some of those models bring to the table is questionable. But at the very least, they collectively offer golfers plenty of fashion options.

“More and more golf brands are entering the eyewear space, but not many are actually bringing anything unique to the market,” says Steve Jarvis, vision design director for Nike. “We have been told that the younger school-age players entering the game, and their parents, are better educated about the risk of long-term exposure to UV rays on the course. People are comfortable with applying sunscreen to prevent burn, and now they are taking better care of their eyes.”

Experts concur that Oakley is the largest golf eyewear manufacturer. The company undertakes a huge research and development effort before putting products into the market. Two other large companies tin this field – Nike Golf and adidas Golf – get to reply on the added strength of their brand names, and researchers in general. All are offering new products this year, after creating and testing hundreds of prototypes with tour professionals and serious amateur golfers in what can amount to three-year process.
Nike’s Victory golf frame aims to maximize field of view by minimizing the lightweight magnesium frame and nose interference. The nose and temple arms are fully adjustable.
“In all of our research into golf, we found that one of the most critical performance criteria was to avoid any visual interference,” says Jarvis. “The ideal sunglasses should provide all of the sun coverage needed while feeling like you’re wearing nothing at all. The biggest challenge with many golfers is to get someone to wear sunglasses while playing the game as opposed to just walking between holes.”

That’s one reason that the new model has a flying lens construction that combines comfort, flexibility and zero visual interference across a large full coverage lens, plus Nike Max Optics, to give golfers wearing it a performance advantage. “Many competitors assume that the geometric center of the lens is also the best optical zone of the lens, but this is often wrong and can lead to distortion,” says Jarvis, who adds that the de-centered Nike Max Optics lens is “distortion-free optics straight ahead and superior distortion control across the complete curve of the lens when compared with our competitors’ lenses.”

Based on the fact that Tiger Woods was wearing them at last month’s Masters, Nike’s Seige 2 sunglasses received – and will continue to receive – a lot of attention. Their high-tech Nike Maxadapt photochromic lenses adjust automatically to ambient light conditions. The Siege 2 model features hybrid construction for a rugged yet ultra-light frame.

Nike also re-engineered its performance lens tints to enhance details of the fairway and green, and suppressing unnecessary visual information while amplifying the white of the ball to help golfers track shots. In fact, the company custom-fits tour professionals for glasses at two PGA Tour events each year, as well as perpetually at its headquarters. “These fittings are very important to our athletes because of the amount of time spent in the sun and win on the PGA Tour,” says Steve Stach, Nike Golf field rep. “To dial in the correct lens, frame and look while they are out on the course is a tremendous advantage.”
Meanwhile, adidas Golf is banking on its new retego eyewear, that promises to greatly enhance a golfer’s vision during a round. “As we brought Justin Rose into wearing our products, we collaborated with him for 18 months and that led to retego,” says Rocky Fresh, U.S. brand manager of adidas eyewear. “He was really an inspiration for it. And it came out of the fact that he wanted something edgier and more aggressive, but still provided everything he needed on the course. And that’s how we evolved to thicker temples than we’ve ever had before in a performance product, and the lens shape and color combinations that also work off the course.”

Fresh says the fact that more young players are coming into the PGA Tour and wearing sunglasses provides his company the opportunity to convert Tour players to using protective eyewear.

“It’s growing all the time,” says Fresh, who has had the likes of Kenny Perry, Rory Sabbatini, Jason Day, Chris Couch and Martin Laird all wearing adidas sunglasses for the past year. “All equipment is driven by tour acceptance. We’re seeing our most successful year on tour now, and it’s made a big difference. There are more younger golfers wearing sunglasses all the time on the course. You’ll find that 33 percent of golfers wear sunglasses, no matter what the playing level. But we’re seeing more and more better players wearing them, and that’s the difference. It’s becoming a more accepted part of your equipment, because of protection and relaxation.

“Once you get used to wearing them and they reduce your eye fatigue, it’s something you can appreciate. You’ll stop squinting and having visual fatigue that can affect you later in the round. All of that is made possible because lens technology has gotten so much better. Having a distortion-free lens, having a frame that’s comfortable enough to allow you to wear it for an entire round and experience the benefits of it is really key.”

Interesting, Natalie Gulbis has adidas sunglasses in five or six colors to match her outfits, and she reportedly takes care of them as if they’re valuable jewelry. By contrast, some PGA Tour professionals burn through a pair every week. As for amateurs, it depends on how much they pay for the glasses. “They protect them more if they invested more in them,” says Fresh. “The ability to switch out lenses is essential. But in the end, there are financial considerations. Which is why with retego we’ve tried to design something with all the performance benefits but still had off-course and street appeal. It’s a half-rim performance piece, but still looks like really cool glasses.” And it’s loaded with lens and frame technology.

But Fresh adds that “design and beauty are essential. No one cares how your stuff works if it doesn’t look great. That’s especially true with something you’re asking people to put on their face. They don’t want to have to explain it, they just want to enjoy it. No matter how much you tell a player how much he agrees with that, the first thing they do when they put it on their face is ask where the mirror is.”

Will Nike or adidas ever dominate the eyewear market the way they do other categories? Time will tell. “Oakley is the biggest, by far, says Fresh. “And they’ve worked really hard to establish that. They’re preeminent in the marketplace. We just try to keep coming up with better product and working with more influential tour players, so that we can have a challenge there.”