We spend an terrible lot of time within the fly fishing house — and I’m as responsible as anybody — fawning over the latest rods, reels, strains, packs, waders, boots, and myriad different items of drugs. We don’t pay practically sufficient consideration to the one merchandise that truly impacts what we see whereas fishing — our sun shades. That’s possible partially as a result of size of time between new sunglass tech hitting the market. New tints and frames are at all times being launched, however extra important improvements are few and much between.
Smith thinks it’s providing anglers a type of bigger leaps with its latest lenses. These new lenses are literally a mix of present Smith expertise (largely, however not precisely, extra on that later), introduced collectively in a single lens for the primary time. The ChromaPop Glass PolarChromic lenses mix Smith’s ChromaPop polarization expertise with their PolarChromic lenses, which alter their tint based mostly on how a lot UV mild hits the glass.
Allie Flake, Eyewear Class Supervisor for Smith, advised me it took two years of improvement to get these new lenses to market.
“Making these lenses from glass made (the method) extra difficult,” Flake stated. “Lens enhancement tech in glass could be troublesome. However I knew there was a possibility for Smith to be first to market with this, so I took it.”
Flake advised me that a lot of the method concerned testing, verification, and validation with the governing physique that oversees sun shades (sure, such a factor exists), in addition to in depth time within the area with professionals. “We ship the lenses out for suggestions, then tweak them, then change them,” Flake stated of Smith’s improvement course of.
The event of those lenses is the primary main innovation Smith has made since patenting their ChromaPop polarization expertise over a decade in the past, which happened throughout what Flake referred to as the “coloured lens enhancement race.” Smith, Costa, and Oakley have been among the many main gamers trying to patent as a lot of the polarization course of as potential.
“That’s when 580 got here out at Costa, Prizm got here out at Oakley,” Flake stated. “We actually needed to see who might patent what, what was patentable, what could possibly be developed, what was potential.”
After these lens applied sciences have been developed, innovation “got here to a screeching halt since you might solely patent so many dips within the VLT,” Flake stated.
VLT is a vital idea to know. It stands for “Seen Gentle Transmission” and it tells you ways a lot mild is filtered by a lens to your eye. A lens with a 23 p.c VLT, for instance, solely permits in 23 p.c of all seen mild.
The brand new ChromaPop Glass PolarChromic lenses have been constructed from the ground-up by Smith, and so they personal all of the expertise included. These new lenses are a step up from the corporate’s earlier PolarChromic tech, which wasn’t their very own and was available from lens suppliers. With these new lenses, Flake stated she and her crew actually targeted on delivering one thing that met the calls for of anglers.
“We got down to reimagine the VLT proportion vary and actually tailor it to that angling shopper,” she stated.
Smith presently affords the lenses in two colours — Yellow Blue Mirror and Brown Inexperienced Mirror. The Yellow Blue Mirror lenses have a VLT vary from 11-23%, whereas the Brown Inexperienced Mirror lenses vary from 11-20%. Meaning, based mostly on how a lot UV mild hits the lenses, they’ll alter tint to let in wherever from 11 – 23% of all mild.
That broad VLT vary means these lenses primarily perform as three lenses in a single, one other characteristic Flake stated was vital throughout the product improvement. A lot of Smith’s merchandise characteristic interchangeable lenses, however that’s powerful to do with glass lenses, which provide the perfect readability. So, the broad VLT vary of those new lenses give anglers a wider vary of visibility with out the necessity to carry two pairs of glasses.
This new expertise is embedded into the lenses, which suggests it could possibly’t be scratched off, eliminated, or deteriorate over time. Baking the tech into the lenses ensures anglers get their advantages for so long as they’ve the sun shades. That wasn’t at all times the case with color-enhanced lenses, particularly within the early days of polarization.
“Polarization wasn’t nice to start with,” Flake stated. “It was a twig on the lenses, or like a movie. Now it’s a lot better.”
This mix of ChromaPop and PolarChromic expertise remains to be new, in fact, and Smith plans to speculate closely in optimizing it over time. That features including new tints to the lineup in 2025.
“It’s an unmatched expertise we would like individuals to lastly have,” Flake stated. “We have been simply sort of getting misplaced within the weeds with different eyewear manufacturers, nothing was setting us aside.”
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