The Mainsail is amazingly lightweight, and you gotta love that blue.
The polycarbonate Mainsail is one of my absolute favorite everyday, all-round sunglasses, which is saying a lot, given that Costa makes some of the best glass lenses in the business. Click here to read about the spiffy glass Hammerhead. But no glass lenses come close to the gossamer essence of Mainsail, the kind of shades you simply forget are on your face. Until you take them off, that is, and glare and wildly scattered light are restored to their cornea-stabbing norm. Mainsail may be wondrously lightweight, but its gently curved rimless nylon frame with supersoft rubberized nosepiece holds this pup firmly in place throughout any active pursuit—I gave myself whiplash trying to jettison it. Behind the spiffy blue mirrored lenses is a gray base tint that delivers a realistic world view along with just a smidgen of exterior attitude. The lenses are polarized, of course, and permit 10 percent visible light transmission—just right for long days anywhere but atop K-2. I’m already ruing the day that Mainsail acquires a scratch, but Costa’s standard hard case, lens cloth, and sunglass retainer increase the odds of Mainsail’s living a long and active life. Not Rx-able. $169 from Frames Direct. Click here for free shipping.
Maui Jim Kapena: Bronze God
When it comes to fine sunglass lenses, glass is the gold standard. Glass imparts a crispness of vision that other materials can only dream of. Covet the Maui Jim Kapena with the same reverence and self-satisfaction as you would a Rolex watch—but happily, Kapena’s craftsmanship and cachet come at a fraction of the price. Kapena is a bargain for what you get: vision that improves on reality. I’ve been wearing it in MJ’s polarized, high-contrast bronze tint with 12% visible light transmission, and I love what I see. Astounding detail. Brilliant contrast. A way of resolving chaos into clarity, such as the day I drove into a thunderstorm while a brilliant late sun was stabbing my eyes and creating crazy road glare. None of that was a match for Kapena, which set everything right, eliminated the glare, made sense of the road, the traffic, and the setting sun. Bronze’s high contrast is a great advantage in those situations when technically, there isn’t much light, but what light there is wreaking visual mischief. And, of course, when the sun is at full mast as well. I also dig Kapena’s updated aviator flair (
click here to see it on your friendly reviewer), its spring-loaded nickel/silver hinges, and its adjustable nosepieces. Caveat: Although Maui Jim uses super-thin glass, Kapena is heavier than an equivalent polycarbonate model (not that anything is quite its equal), and can take a toll on a sensitive nose. And, of course, glass can shatter; don’t wear Kapena in any circumstance that could entail impact to your face. Nice bonus: A Kapena bundle includes a stalwart hard case, lens cloth, and sunglass retainer. Rx-able. Buy it for $273 from Zappos, which always provides free shipping:
Maui Jim Kapena (Matte Bronze/HCL Bronze Lens)
Carter Wears Julbo Shades
My nephew Carter gets it. He knows that shades make him look cool. The chicks dig ‘em, even more than that tat on his arm. But he also knows that UV exposure is a cumulative thing. The damage starts in infancy, and he’d no sooner head out into the Rocky Mountain sunshine without his shades on than he would sunbathe sans sunscreen. Babies need sunglasses. Kids need sunglasses. Carter wears sunglasses. His shades of choice are the Julbo Looping 1 infant sunglasses with 100% UV, adult-quality lenses in a kid-friendly configuration. Now, Carter’s a smart dude for a three-month-old, but occasionally he does things like put his shoes on the wrong foot or his sunglasses upside-down. No prob with the latter, because these puppies are symmetrical. Upside-down is right-side up. Are you thinking he’ll lose them? Nope. They come with a comfy head strap. Break them? I doubt it, but we’ll do a full review when Carter’s had a chance to thrash these things a bit. My guess is that they’ll stand up to the abuse. They’re $34, and you always get free shipping at zappos.com 
Got a license to be hip? Then you can legally wear Tron. But you’ll give up nothing optically in the course of making your stand for total coolness. Tron boasts a shield look that’s increasingly popular on the street—that is, a one-piece lens crosses over the nose bridge, and though the wrap is 6-base (seems more like 8), it protects your eyes with gogglelike aplomb. The nonpolarized CR-39 lens with gray base tint is tapered—that is, thinner to the sides of the optical center (see “Optical Clarity” in our handy Glossary). It’s not a lens for super rough stuff, but my, is it at once sharp and restful. But the real reason you want Tron is for its frame detailing—namely, gala side temples, huge and louvered, and outrageously decorated. Mine was black with a splatter paint job, but behold here Tron in pink. And then some. $125. Buy it: Free Shipping at Zappos
Click here for tips on buying the right shades for summer beachgoing.
If your beachgoing sojourns might include stints of sailfishing off Isla Mujeres, Hammerhead is for you. Costa is all-polarized, all the time, and they’ve got that act down very well. Hammerhead is a supreme tamer of glare. Especially in our test shade, featuring Costa’s premium 580 glass lenses in a soothing yet thrillingly crisp gray base tint. The “580” stands for the ability of the Rx-able multicoated glass to block annoying yellow light around the 580-nanometer wavelength. Not that you’d know it per se, but you do know that colors appear saturated and the eye just plain feels good looking through. The shiny wrapped 8-base frame has beefy temples for side protection and spring hinges for rough-stuff durability. I could wish for an adjustable nosepiece or at least some nonslip features, but I couldn’t wish for better glass. $149 from Frames Direct: Click here for free shipping.
