Climber Jimmy Chin in Revo Highside

REVO HAS REAPPEARED, and the return of one of the world’s great prestige brands is a revolutionary revelation for anyone who cares about performance sunglasses. Remember Revo? You wore Revo back in the late 1980s and the 1990s if you really cared about sharp lenses and super spiffy styling. That logo with the long e at the corner of your eyes meant you “got it.” You understood that sunglasses were more than a fashion statement. They were fashionable. Absolutely. But Revo wearers always coveted the technology that went into the best lenses of the era.

That’s still true. But both styling and technology have been totally updated. I’ve been wearing samples from the line since it was quietly reintroduced, and I’m delighted to report that the resurgent Revo has nailed it. Here’s the scoop:

Everything’s polarized. Why not? The world is full of glare. But polarization is polarization, right? Ahem… You haven’t been reading this site much, have you? High-end polarization like Revo’s is vastly superior to average polarization. Revo starts with the best film on the market, and does the lab testing to make sure that the filters are aligned precisely on the horizontal axis where they belong—and that the two lenses match. On Revo’s glass lenses, the filters are sandwiched inside. On Revo’s polycarbonate lenses, house-branded Serilium, the filter is infused inside the lens material, not applied to it. It effectively becomes one with the lens.

Alexandra Cousteau in Undercut

Super sharp. Revo’s glass lenses are as sharp as any sunglasses on the market, and its polycarbonate lenses are tapered to provide high-res optical quality through every portion of the lens. Trust me: Inexpensive sunglasses are not designed like this. Cheap shades let your eyes and brain do the optical correcting. That takes a toll on both. These are great lenses.

Coated. Revo also adds coatings—a wavelength-attenuation coating resolves diffuse glare, the kind that polarization can’t handle on its own; an antireflective coating means you don’t have to fight vague little reflections that weak havoc on the inside of the lens (again, do you think bargain shades do this?); and the hydrophobic coating banishes water, sweat, oils, and even dripping sunscreen from the surface of the lens.

Protective. The Serilium lens and nylon frame combination is virtually unbreakable and unshatterable.

Cool tints. Both glass and polycarbonate Revos lenses come in three tints. Graphite (gray) is remarkably relaxing. For me, the crazier the situation, the more neutral I want my lens. Revo’s graphite is color-true and has a calming, “ahh…” effect. It’s what I prefer in the mountains and on the trail. Cobalt looks bluish, but the effect from inside is neutral, though a bit more contrasty than the graphite. It’s a great lens around water, although in the polycarbonate version, light transmission is 21%—a bit light for a full day on the open ocean but superb for driving or golf. Finally, bronze, as always, is the most contrasty lens choice—it enhances everything you see, bringing colors to vivid life. Revo’s bronze amps up the world in ways you can’t imagine. It’s the difference between looking at Mars with your naked eye and seeing it in a powerful telescope. Wow. Especially in glass, you’ll never glean a sharper image of the world than through this bronze tint.

THE LINE

Revo Plot in Cobalt

Revo’s Flex line is svelte, lightweight, classy, with titanium frames that are amazingly strong for their gossamer weight. All the Flex models have Serilium (polycarbonate) lenses. I doubt the world has produced lighter sunglasses than these. My personal Flex choice is Plot ($303), but the differences are fine. Flex is supreme for street wear and driving.

Revo Discern in Glass Bronze

Shades in the Metal line have an aviator look. They’re all glass, and Revo hasn’t worked any miracles to make them somehow as light as polycarbonate. They’re noticeably heavier than the Flex line—not my faves for long stints of wearing—but soft nosepieces cushion the blow, and the lenses, remember, are “oh-my” sharp. I’ve been wearing Discern ($253) in bronze, and all I have to say is, “Oh my.”

Revo Highside in Graphite

The Nylon line is a mix of glass and polycarbonate lenses; polycarb models like Red Point, Abyss, and Highside are the best of the line for active sports or for summer at the beach. I feel cozily protected deep inside the high-wrap Highside ($193). (The frames are made of recycled material, by the way.)

Revo Headwall in Bronze

The Acetate line isn’t a line yet: It’s just one model, Headwall ($253), which has a handcrafted-looking frame and glass lenses, a superb fashion glass that embodies all the high-zoot Revo lens tech as well. Wear Headwall to make a statement. You’ll never go back to sunglasses that combine designer names with gas station–quality lenses.

CLICK BELOW TO CHECK OUT THE LINE ON ZAPPOS.COM

Julbo Sunglasses are at home in the mountains.

Mountaineers call it “dazzle.” It’s that crazy cumulative effect of direct and reflected light that hammers your eyes when you’re traversing highly reflective environments such as snow fields, glaciers, or exposed granite. It’s uncomfortable and it’s dangerous. The higher you go, the worse it gets. Ultraviolet radiation increases 4% for every 1,000 feet of altitude you gain, and UV gets reflected right along with visible light.

And remember, cloud cover is no great friend. While clouds may reduce reflections and ease the stab of visible light, UV rays dance right on through. You still need to wear shades.

If you compromise on your mountaineering sunglasses, the consequences can be dire. Snow blindness, aka ultraviolet keratitis or photokeratitis—a searing of the cornea—can render you effectively blind for a day or more. It often takes a full day for snow blindness to kick in. Forgoing your shades will catch up to you later.

If you’re going to be exposed to serious dazzle, you need special-purpose sunglasses—glacier glasses—with these criteria:

• UV protection of 100%. Naturally. All decent sunglasses offer it.

• Visible light transmission of less than 10%. (5% is just right.) That’s dark. Too dark for almost any other activity. Too dark for driving, certainly.

• Wrap: 6- or 8-base. The degree of wrap is less a consideration with special-purpose mountaineering sunglasses if they come with side shields.

• Side shields—removable shields that protect your eyes from peripheral intrusion. Remember, in a dazzle situation, light is coming from everywhere. I prefer the modern plastic side shields to the old-fashioned leather/faux leather, which gets brittle and can crack after a lot of use.

• Polycarbonate or NXT lenses. Some traditionalists still wear glass, but I wouldn’t risk having lenses shatter on me. Rockfall can happen. You can fall.

• Strong nylon frame. Forget wire frames; they’re bendy and transmit cold to your face.

• Built-in lanyard. Nice to have. Not a flimsy add-on lanyard, but one that directly attaches to the earpiece. You don’t want to knock your shades with an ice ax and see them tumble to the bottom of a crevasse when you have two weeks of climbing ahead of you.

• Polarization. Nice to have, but not mandatory. Polarization works best when glare is reflected off a flat plane, and that’s obviously not the case in a mountain-dazzle situation.

Finally, be sure to carry a backup pair. Your backups could permit a bit more visible light than your primary pair so you’d have lighter shades for cloudy days.

Julbo has been the eyewear of choice for mountaineers for more than 100 years—and still is. Unfortunately, the French company’s marketing message is a bit confusing. They offer an array of models that meet all or most of the criteria above, but they toss in all sorts of strange proprietary names for their lenses (Spectron? Arc? Camel?) And they rate their visible-light transmission Euro-style—e.g., Category 3, Category 4—rather than simply stating it as a percentage..

Julbo Argot Decoded

• Category 4 is Eurospeak for lenses suitable for mountaineering. Visible-light transmission is somewhere between 3% and 8%.

• Spectron means polycarbonate. A solid choice and good value. Spectron 4 means polycarbonate and Cat 4; again, a solid choice.

• Camel means NXT lenses—a plastic with great optical clarity. Camel is also photochromic—it starts at 16% visible-light transmission and darkens to 5% (Cat 3 to Cat 4)—and polarized. It’s a premium, pricy lens.

• Alti Arc means glass, and wouldn’t be my choice for mountaineering.

Bottom line: Choose a Julbo model with side shields and Cat 4 Spectron or Camel lenses.

REI and Zappos both carry a good selection of Julbos. Both have good prices and excellent customer service.

REI Camping & Hiking

Zappos

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, 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. Frames Direct has a great selection of Maui Jims and offers a free protective hard case and microfiber cloth with every pair.

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

Julbo Trail

French-made Julbo sunglasses have long been fixtures in extreme settings like the sun-pummeled, glaciated slopes of Mont Blanc. More recently, the darling brand of mountaineers has expanded its offerings to sports folk who are less extremely inclined. Case in point is the Trail, a great choice for trail running and hiking—for two strong reasons. First, its amber photochromic lens (dubbed Zebra) changes its stripes, er, visible light transmission from a very light 40.7 percent to a very dark 6.6 percent (although I must say, the lens never seems THAT dark). If you’re out for a long hike or run, you don’t have to think about swapping lenses; you have what you need for almost any situation. Second, Trail comes with the best retaining system I’ve seen—far more secure than any aftermarket retainer you can buy, because a broad adjustable elastic band snaps onto the front of the temples, making these sunglasses as secure as goggles. Another nice touch is Trail’s easily adjustable rubber nosepiece. I call it an “instant optician” feature. Julbo was among the first shades makers to use NXT lenses, a highly impact-resistant alternative to polycarbonate originally developed for helicopter windshields. It’s a fine lens, but in Trail, not put to its best use. For some reason, Trail is designed to fit into its frame only toward the center, leaving the flanks of the lenses free floating. If a flying object were to meet the lens, that flexy outer portion crunches right into your face. The lens wouldn’t shatter, but I want more protection than that for mountain biking or rock climbing—situations where a rock could induce that lens to meet the corners of my eyes. For more benign pursuits, Trail serves very nicely. $160, but Zappos has it for $152, and you always get free shipping at zappos.com

If the statement you want to make in a sport shade is “My eyes are REALLY worth protecting,” check out the Wiley X PT-3. Brad Pitt won’t be wearing these sunglasses on the Academy runway, but PT-3 makes no fashion pretenses. The wrapped, single-lens shield is cut tall and wide for great eye coverage, and features three snap-in polycarbonate lenses built to the highest military specifications—as in ballistic protection, as in wear it if shell fragments are flying up around you, the sand’s blowing, and you can’t afford to lose an eye. And yes, it’ll serve just fine on your next mountain bike foray, too. The only downside to such a large shield is heat buildup—when you’re moving slowly but working hard, it gets a bit roasty behind PT-3. The three lenses switch out with remarkable ease: a gray with 20% visible light transmission for bright sun; rust (53%); and clear (89%), which add up to 24/7 protection. $90, but Zappos has it for $82.80, and you always get free shipping at zappos.com

I know you think I look incredibly rad in Radar with the Positive Red Iridium lens. You look pretty rad yourself, reflected in my shield’s shimmering red exterior. But if you assume my world is all crimson and mirrors, you’re wrong. Oakley’s iridium coating is all about working in concert with the lens’s infused polarization—which is in the lens, not affixed to it or sandwiched inside layers—to knock back glare. Inside, my world is calm and peaceful. The lens and has a neutral gray base tint, rendering colors true and images crisp, but the prevailing mood is soothing. That’s why this lens is so popular with performance athletes—competitive cyclists, triathletes, volleyball players, and so on. The lens keeps them dialed in to the task at hand regardless of surrounding chaos. With 18% visible light transmission, it’s suited to sunny extremes. It’s also the ultimate protective lens, made of Oakley’s Plutonite, a high-grade polycarbonate that is shatterproof, tapered optically to provide crisp vision despite its radical wrap, and coated with an oleophobic treatment that prevents sweat (and, presumably, margarine) buildup or streaking. With this lens plus the frame’s cushy nosepiece and love-hug temples, Radar is truly the gold standard for performance sports shades. $190. Buy it: Free Shipping at Oakley.com on orders of $50 or more.

Whatever mayhem is occurring around you, everything is calm behind MicroEdge, a wrapped single-lens shield that not only protects you from the vagaries of wind and dust (heck, hurricanes), but also speaks to you in soothing tones, reminding you to stay focused, watch the trail, and all is beautiful. It’s an elegant, minimalist design—frameless, nothing but lens but for the necessities of temples and nosepiece (both rubberized and adjustable) to keep it facebound. I wore it in Bollé’s superb modulator amber tint, a photochromic lens that starts life at fog-friendly 45% visible light transmission and darkens to 14%—greater range than you see on most sport shades, though you do trade away polarization for the privilege. But that range means outstanding versatility and makes me question why I’d ever want to fiddle with interchangeable lenses—MicroEdge does the changing for me. The polycarbonate lens is shatterproof, too. Apart from the glaring (heh) exceptions of sailing or flatwater paddling, there’s no sport I wouldn’t wear MicroEdge for. $135, but discounted considerably online at FramesDirect. Buy ‘em: Bollé MicroEdge Sunglasses

Optic Nerve has, well, a lot of nerve. For bargain prices, they crank out spiffy, functional designs that play well in the ’hood of far pricier shades. A case in point is the Autovaughn. Talk about functional: It’s a snug-fitting wrap with a nonslip nosepiece, temples with subtle but grippy rubber inserts at the tips, and ventilation openings at the corners of the lenses for antifog airflow. That last feature is much appreciated when you’re barely staying afloat on a steep mountain biking gradient; the last thing you want then is a foggy whiteout. All this is delivered in a style that’ll let you hold your head up high on street as well as the trail—no jocky geek factor. The copper lens is a smart choice. It lets in 27% of visible light rays—on the light side, and not what you want for a day traversing the Wapta Icefields in bright sunlight, but fine for shoulder seasons and hikes or runs that dart in and out of the woods. But don’t look to $59 sunglasses for brilliant optical quality. Passable and protective is what you get—and pay for. Eastern Mountain Sports carries the Optic Nerve line: