It's easy to be confused by terms like ‘polarized sunglasses’ as the industry evolves with audio glasses, Bluetooth glasses, and smart glasses. Finding the right type of glasses for you involves thinking about your individual needs and the features that best suit them.
We’re sharing everything you need to know to find your perfect fit with glasses that suit your needs and lifestyle. Read on to find out about different lens types, lens coatings, and which features to look out for.
Lenses are the most important part of all types of glasses. While the frames offer style, it’s the lenses that give glasses their functionality. You’ll find different types of lenses suited for certain glasses and conditions.
The most functional type of glasses are prescription lenses. These glasses are designed for vision correction, with each lens addressing certain refractive errors. An optometrist will test your eyesight to determine any abnormalities, including near-sightedness, astigmatism, and farsightedness.
While you can buy prescription glasses over the counter, it’s always recommended to see an optometrist to get an accurate prescription. They can determine if you need specialty lenses, such as polycarbonate lenses, high-index plastic lenses, and photochromic lenses.
Sunglasses aren’t just a fashion statement. They’re as important as wearing your daily SPF. Your eyes are 10 times more sensitive to UV light than your skin. Sunglasses with UV protection protect you against age-related macular degeneration, skin cancer, and cataracts. It’s not just during the summer that sunglasses are essential. UV 100 protection sunglasses help prevent snow blindness (also known as ‘photokeratitis’), which is caused when UV rays reflect off water, ice, or snow.
Wearing sunglasses also protects your vision to improve its clarity, preventing irritation and dryness, while reducing glare. Polarized sunglasses are essential for driving, improving your clarity to increase safety. If you struggle with light sensitivity, sunglasses can help prevent headaches and migraines. An optometrist can recommend the best types of glasses for your specific needs.
Standard sunglasses offer different levels of UV protection and are suited for different activities. UV 400 sunglasses offer the highest level of protection (up to 97%) against UV rays at the top of the spectrum. While these dark lenses are considered too strong for driving, they’re ideal for high elevations. By comparison, UV 100 protection sunglasses have lightly tinted lenses and serve as more of a fashion statement. They’re best suited for days with lower sun exposure as they only block 20 to 57% of UV rays.
The other difference to consider between sunglasses lenses is their material. Most sunglasses are made with either glass or plastic. While glass lenses are less popular, they have the least distortion and are considered more durable. They’re ideal for all-day wear or if you work outdoors. Comparatively, plastic lenses provide great optical quality and are easy to tint to provide UV protection. They’re a more affordable and lightweight alternative to glass lenses, suitable for all ages.
Polarized sunglasses, also known as anti-glare lenses, improve your vision and safety by reducing glare from the sun and eyestrain. They offer protection against light-reflecting surfaces, including glass and snow, making them ideal for year-round wear.
While standard sunglasses will protect your eyes from light, it’s only polarized lenses that reduce glare, changing the way the light reaches your eyes. You can rarely see the difference between standardized vs. polarized lenses until you look through one of the lenses in front of a reflective surface to compare the glare.
Polarized lenses work by having a special film embedded into them, improving your vision clarity by acting like shutters. They only allow light that is vertically polarized to reach your eyes, blocking any horizontally polarized light to reduce glare. Polarized sunglasses are essential if you suffer from eye inflammation (uveitis), age-related macular degeneration, or cataracts. They’re also ideal for helping with light sensitivity.
These polarized lenses are recommended for driving as they stop light reflecting from wet road surfaces. If you’re a fitness enthusiast, polarized sunglasses can enhance your performance by improving your vision while skiing, hiking, fishing, or cycling. You’ll want to shop for wrap-around lenses for the most UV protection and glare reduction.
Whether you ride a motorcycle or you’re training for a marathon, performance and sports sunglasses ensure the sun doesn’t hold you back. Unlike polarized and standardized sunglasses, these types of sunglasses lenses are designed with enhanced durability features.
We offer several sport-specific designs. Our high-performance Ducati collection is inspired by the aerodynamics of Ducati’s bikes and the atmosphere of the MotoGP paddock. These sunglasses are specifically made to be worn under a motorbike helmet with a performance-oriented design, sleek profiles, and technical materials. Our ‘Superlight’ style blends fashion and functionality with a wraparound shape and frames made from titanium and carbon fiber.
Motorsports isn’t the only high-performance activity that often has sunglasses specially tailored. Our range of sports sunglasses for men includes designs enhanced for cycling and running, to help you reach your athletic goals faster. Prioritize your eye health and enhance your performance by incorporating sports sunglasses into your training routine to prevent injury and improve your reaction time.
The eyewear industry has evolved beyond just sunglasses and prescription glasses. As we become more educated about the importance of eye health, more people are choosing to take proactive steps to protect their vision.
Like most of our lives, technology is finding its way into eyewear. These types of glasses are lifestyle-based and can be incorporated into your daily routine. Unlike prescription glasses, you probably won’t wear these all day and instead pick them up for specific activities.
Do your eyes feel strained or dry after sitting in front of a laptop screen? That’s the effect of blue light. It’s something we should all be thinking about. If you work in front of a computer or spend long periods at a screen, you’ll want to start wearing blue light glasses.
When your eyes are constantly exposed to blue light, it can start to damage your retinal cells, creating vision problems. Blue light is linked to eye cancer, cataracts, eye-related macular degeneration, and growths. It’s radiated from LED lights and digital screens and linked to headaches, facial muscle fatigue, and eye irritation.
Wearing blue light glasses is a proactive step to product your eye health by reducing digital eye strain. These types of glasses can help enhance your sleep quality by regulating your sleep-wake cycle by improving hormone regulation and alertness. If you’re starting to deal with the effects of blue light, look for types of glasses with blue light filter coatings.
Smart glasses create an immersive experience, from being virtual assistants to creating augmented realities. These glasses offer wearable technology and represent the future of health monitoring, learning, and even gaming. Certain industries can benefit from the use of smart glasses, from manufacturing for more accurate results to healthcare for faster diagnosis.
Our Alexa smart glasses represent the future of eyewear. We’re blending our bold styling with Alexa’s innovation and intelligence to create smart glasses that enhance your everyday life. Make a call, create a playlist, or listen to your audiobook – all without taking out your phone. These smart sunglasses have premium lenses, allowing you to choose between gradient, polarized, and blue light filtering lens options.
The future of smart glasses is exciting, but it’s not without challenges. Mass accessibility and usage are a long way off, but just like smartwatches, these lifestyle glasses are set to become more common in the years to come. Next-gen smart glasses will offer enhanced functionality when issues like battery life can be solved.
It’s not just everyday glasses that are getting a technical upgrade. In our Alexa smart glasses range, our UV 400 sunglasses have an anti-reflective coating and are IPX4 water and sweat-resistant to withstand the elements.
Smart sunglasses add extra functionality, combining technology with UV protection by integrating features you’d use every day on your smartphone. Stay on your calls while out jogging or get directions to your destination without having to look at your phone screen. While traditional sunglasses are more lightweight, the functionality of smart glasses is ideal for people who find themselves using their phones while out and about.
Now we’ve covered types of glasses and sunglasses, it’s time to focus on the type of lenses for glasses. Lenses are often the most under-appreciated part of glasses as much of your attention is on the frame. You’ll want to consider your lifestyle needs and aesthetic preferences when choosing the right lenses.
Enhancing Performance: Anti-Reflective Coating
Anti-reflective coating helps to reduce glare and reflections, making it ideal for driving to improve your visual clarity. They improve transparency in your lenses by giving you sharper visuals. Anti-reflective coating can be added to prescription and non-prescription lenses to protect your eyes from LED and artificial light, as well as sunlight. These lenses enhance the performance of your glasses, especially at night.
Durability and Protection: Scratch-Resistant Coating
If you’re wearing glasses or sunglasses for long periods, you want to consider lenses with a scratch-resistant coating. It helps to prolong the lifespan of your lenses to maintain their clarity and optical performance. While this coating won’t guarantee that your lenses remain fully scratch-free, it’ll improve the durability of your lenses.
A scratch-resistant coating is a clear film that can make your lenses look more appealing and long-lasting. Most optometrists will recommend scratch-resistant coating for everyday prescription glasses.
Defying Elements: Hydrophobic Coating
Your glasses and sunglasses are the hardest working accessories you own. They need to be able to work in all conditions, including in the dirt and rain. Hydrophobic coatings on lenses reduce visual distortion when you’re near water or in the rain.These lenses are ideal for everyday use and suitable to sports sunglasses for cycling or hiking to support your performance. A hydrophobic coating makes your lenses more stain-resistant and repeals fingerprints and grease, allowing you to clean your lenses more easily. If you wear your sunglasses or glasses daily, a hydrophobic coating will help expand their lifespan and make them easier to maintain.
UV protection is crucial – and not just in the summer months. The types of sunglasses are those with the highest UV protection. UV 400 sunglasses are a must-have for when you’re in direct sunlight. While UV 100 sunglasses are suitable for cloudy days, you’ll get the best protection from UV 400 lenses.
Visible Light Transmission (VLT) is crucial for choosing the right sunglasses for various environments and activities. VLT measures how much light lenses allow through, helping you select sunglasses that offer optimal protection and comfort.
High levels of visible light can penetrate your eye tissues, increasing the risk of eye damage and irritation. Over time, exposure to intense light can contribute to the development of eye conditions such as cataracts. You can take proactive steps to prevent these issues by wearing sunglasses year-round. Understanding the four categories of lenses based on VLT (Visible Light Transmission) helps you choose the right sunglasses for your needs:
Choosing the appropriate VLT for your environment helps reduce glare, enhance visual comfort, and protect your eyes from harsh light conditions. Whether you're enjoying a sunny day at the beach, hiking in the mountains, or simply navigating a cloudy day, the right VLT ensures your eyes are well-protected and comfortable.
By understanding and utilizing VLT categories, you can make informed decisions about your eyewear, ensuring you have the perfect pair of sunglasses for every situation.
UV light can penetrate your eye tissues more easily than visible light, increasing your risk of eye damage and irritation. Although eye cancers and cataracts can take years to develop, you can take proactive steps to prevent them by swearing sunglasses year-round. There are four categories of lenses for sunglasses:
Wearing UV-protective eyewear can help with anti-aging as UVA and UVB rays damage the skin’s collagen and elastin, which is crucial for your skin’s elasticity and firmness. Just like wearing a daily SPF, UV protective sunglasses can help you stay looking youthful for longer.
There is a perfect type of sunglasses and glasses for everyone. Some features help to improve your visual clarity, while others enhance your sun protection. You want to consider your daily needs, lifestyle, and design preferences when searching for the best glasses to invest in.
At Carrera, we’re committed to innovation, offering sunglasses that allow you to express your personality and improve your daily life with intuitive features and technological advancements. Shop our best-selling sunglasses to get inspiration for your next purchase.
