Sports Eyewear for the Weekend Warrior

The past 18 months has been filled with inspiring sporting achievements for Australians – from Cadel Evans’ historic Tour de France victory, to the outstanding results of the Australian Olympic Team’s campaign in London.

Australian Olympic rower Hannah Every-Hall, in answer to the question “the one thing I can’t live without would be…” said “my sunglasses” (after her family, of course!). She’s not alone.

Advances in lens and frame technology have created opportunities for practices that cater to the growing market of weekend warriors. While larger corporates and chains dominate some parts of our industry, independents can create their own niche and increase revenue by focusing on sports eyewear, sports vision and, most importantly, offering customers a more comprehensive eyewear solution. Emerging boutique retailers can provide a complete package (frame and lens) or have a lens fitted by a chosen supplier.

The one thing I can’t live without would be… my sunglasses

Sporting enthusiasts who require a prescription no longer find themselves at a disadvantage because the practice of having prescription lenses fitted directly into frames is fast becoming the ‘norm’. Helping your ‘weekend warrior’ identify the right choice for his/her sport can become one of the main focuses in your practice.

Identify Your Market

When you’re collecting patient data be sure to ask: “What sports or hobbies do you participate in?” “Do you currently wear protective eyewear when you play sports?” or even, “Did you know that you could get sports prescription eyewear?”

To find new customers, approach your local sporting clubs. Create club focused marketing campaigns and sponsor prizes for their events and let them know you can fit prescription lenses into sports eyewear. This will build a new, loyal customer base and demonstrate your support for the community.

Sporting Displays

Unless you intend to focus heavily on sports, it is possible to cater for this market without changing your shop fit-out. Suppliers will often provide custom-made display cabinets to promote their sports eyewear and keep stock safe. A display in your window or in store during local and televised sporting events can demonstrate your practice caters for the sports market, and entice window shoppers.

Brand Selection

There is no hard and fast rule for picking sports brands but if you know your patients’ sporting interests, it is easier to get your stock selection right.

For other ideas, read through local newspapers to identify common sports in your area and look at the brands being worn by popular athletes. Most elite athletes are sponsored by brands that spend big dollars on marketing – so take advantage of the awareness they’ve already created for you.

Staff Involvement

Getting staff involved in sports dispensing can be a great opportunity to boost morale and education. Most frame suppliers will have training modules and can organise information evenings to brief your staff on technical aspects of the products and encourage sales.

The Frame Itself

Your ‘weekend warrior’ needs their sports frames to be rugged, survive extreme temperatures and climates, meet safety standards and be impact resistant.

New materials have enabled amazing advances in frame technology. Injection moulded plastics like grilamide provide opportunities for frame designers to reach new frontiers in style and function that were not previously available.

Form and Function

It’s essential for a frame to look good, hold lenses in place during the most demanding tasks, and fit comfortably because many endurance sports require athletes to wear their eyewear for hours on end.

Sports frames use a three-point fitting system – one for the nose and one for each of the temples. For customer comfort, it is important to ensure the frames don’t put too much pressure on these areas during prolonged use. Some sports glasses offer adjustable bridges and temples with a flexible wire enclosed in silicone rubber. This is particularly beneficial when glasses need to be worn under a helmet. A good tip for comfortable fitting is to get the customer to bring their helmet, or other protective equipment that may impact fit, into your store when they try on frames.

Grip is also important because keeping the frame in place and maintaining comfort while playing sport is the ultimate aim. When choosing a frame for your customer, consider how it grips onto their head during dynamic wearing.

Lens Performance

The new generation of polycarbonate materials has enabled lens casters and frame manufacturers to become much more creative than days gone by.

Manufacturers are using new technology to grind the prescriptions into lenses in less time than ever before – and without any negative effect on lens performance. Prescription lenses with mirror coatings and back surface AR are completely achievable.

High wrap lenses with great peripheral vision and protection from kamikaze bugs and flying debris can now be delivered in optimised single vision and multifocal lenses too.

Lens inserts are still used by some manufacturers when the curve or size of the lens can’t be fitted with prescription lenses directly. This is also a good option for prescriptions outside the frame/lens manufacturer’s recommendations.

With adventure sports being played regardless of the weather, having the option to interchange lenses is also an important factor to consider, however budget can play a part in the decision process. When this is the case, photochromic prescription lenses are a good solution, allowing your patient to engage in their regular daily life, and chosen sports worry free, regardless of the light conditions with the one pair of glasses.

Take the Opportunity

From the mountains to the beach, customers are increasingly interested in sports. And that means you have an invaluable opportunity to build your practice by providing them with the sports and adventure eyewear they need.

Work with your staff on just some of the ideas we’ve written about here and not only will you develop strong and loyal relationships with customers and your local sporting community… you’ll also succeed in differentiating your practice from your competition. There’s no doubt, this could be your winning move.

The Importance of UV Protection

UV light is extremely harmful to the eyes, accelerating eye aging and the appearance of cataracts. But what many people don’t realize, is that it’s as important to protect the eyes from UV rays in the early morning and late afternoon as it is in the middle of the day.

“The majority of UV exposure to the eyes comes when the sun is low to the horizon,” says Essilor Professional Services Manager Helen Venturato. She added that a greater proportion of UV radiation reaches the eyes from scattered light, from clouds and from reflected surfaces.

While most UV lenses cut between 95–100 per cent of UV passing through the front of the lens, UV coming from the back and sides, and reflected into the eye, accounts for between 10–50 per cent of total exposure.

“Whenever you see the claim ‘100 per cent UV protection’, this relates to transmission only… for full UVR (ultraviolet radiation) blocking, the lens needs to block UVR transmitted through the lens and UVR reflected off the back surface.”

Cycling

With road cycling, as for driving, polarised filters provide great benefit to the wearer by reducing reflected glare from various road surfaces. While the colour of the lens will vary according to personal taste and most choose a grey or G15 lens tint for its colour neutral effect, depth perception and contrast can be enhanced with an amber or brown-based lens colour. Most off-road riders find a polarising filter can get in the way during a fast-paced bash through the bush, where every detail must be seen to avoid becoming unstuck. Runners and adventure racers can also fit into both of these categories. Remember to use impact resistant lenses in all sporting applications.

Water Sports / Fishing

No sport needs a polarising filter more than water sports to reduce intense glare reflected from the horizontal surface. Ask any fisherman and they’ll swear by it – they can actually spot fish through the surface of the water, something not possible without a polarising filter.

Reflections and glare from the sun’s rays bouncing off the waves enhance the risk for eye damage and can lead to vision loss. Sunglasses with large lenses, that not only completely cover the eye, but also curve around it, are most effective for blocking damaging rays.For clear vision at sea, a green or blue based colour is the filter of choice.

Golf

A green-based colour sunglass filter helps golfers see the ball better by enhancing its contrast against the background of the fairway and the sky above, as well as reducing discomfort from bright conditions. Polarising is not recommended – subtle fluctuations in the surface mean it can’t be “read” as well because the polarising filter can block reflected glare from particular angles of the surface.

Shooting and Target Based Sports

Most shooters opt for a yellow or amber based colour to aid them in contrast and depth perception when lining up a shot. Polarised lenses are an option here but most do without, again it can be distracting if part of the field of view is obscured.

Chris Savage is an emerging frame designer and experienced Optical Dispenser. Over more than a decade he has worked for a variety of optical retailers. He is also the Director of Performanceeyewear.com.au and Vision Ink. Melanie Kell is a senior writer at mivision.