Here at Great Outdoors, we are big fans of Oakley and we have been providing our customers with the best of the best that Oakley has to offer, whether you are a professional or casual wearer we always recommend Oakley first.

However it is not as simple as picking up a pair, putting them on, and going, Oakley’s are specifically designed for different tasks and environments, so its good to understand why we are recommending a specific pair for you, so let’s dive into what makes Oakley amazing and give you a little insight into what you’re paying for.

Prizm™

Oakley’s Prizm™ lenses are specifically engineered to fine-tune colors for specific environments to provide greater richness in your visual experience, so you can perform at your best level. Prizm™ Lenses also help to filter Visual noise, which in turn provides you with improved depth perception and added contrast in color wavelengths.

This “added contrast in color wavelengths” is actually quite important. Common sunglasses block out all light levels thus making everything darker, whereas Oakley’s Prizm lenses allow specific color wavelengths to “pop” so using Prizm™ sunglasses for things like Baseball, fishing, golf, skiing, and biking is very ideal.

As you can see displayed here, when testing a pair of traditional grey lenses vs Oakley Prizm™ lenses with a spectrometer you see that traditional lenses just dull all of the color wavelengths being let through, in comparison Oakley Prizm™ focuses on letting the colors that you need to see “pop”.

Check it out for yourself

Polarized vs Non-polarized do you need it

Polarized lenses provide a ton of benefits but there are also some drawbacks to consider before choosing to go Polarized. Polarized lenses help to reduce glare which is created when vertical wavelengths from the sun reflect off a surface, such as water or a car, these vertical wavelengths then combine with horizontal and cause a glare to appear. This is typically why we recommend going for polarized if you are doing water activities.

But it’s important to know the disadvantages too. Some Polarized lenses make it difficult to view LCD screens like your phone or a GPS device, although it might not block off the screen entirely it makes it more difficult to view, and over time constant use will cause strain on the eyes.

Polarized can also make it difficult to distinguish between white colors, this is particularly disadvantageous for Skiing, with the way the lens affects light it can make it quite difficult to tell the difference between snow, hills, and Icey areas, therefore most skiers recommend avoiding polarization.

Even though there are some disadvantages Polarized is extremely effective when using it where it’s designed to be used. As stated, we recommend polarization for those doing water activities and the primary reason for that is their ability to help you see beneath the surface of the water, with the light reflections removed it is extremely easy to view what’s below shown in the example above.

So which Oakley’s should you buy?

Looking to do some water sports? Here are the pairs we recommend.

Splitshot – Woodgrain Prizm Deep Water Polarized

Holbrook Matte Black – Prizm Sapphire polarized lenses

Check out our full water sports range here

Looking to do some winter sports

Encoder – Matte Carbon Prizm 24k

Split Shot – Polished Black – Prizm™ Snow Sapphire Iridium Unisex

Check out our full winter range here

Looking to do some cycling

 Jawbreaker – Spacedust Prizm Snow Sapphire

Radar EV Path – Steel Prizm Road Jade Lenses

 Flak 2.0 XL – Matte Black Prizm Black lenses

Check out our full Cycle range

Looking for casual everyday use

Contrail – Satin Prizm Sapphire Lenses

Frogskins Lite – Matte Black Prizm Sapphire

Limited Edition Frogskins™ Ti Unisex

Check out a list of our top picks