Sports sunglasses tend to bear a standard set of characteristics. They’re lightweight and aerodynamic to minimize any effect on speed, as well as comfortable and durable, so they won’t distract from the task at hand. And while any pair of sports sunglasses from the local sports shop will do for your running and cycling activities, elite athletes looking for an edge will always gravitate to whatever pair can push them to the pinnacle of performance. For all intents and purposes, that would probably be Nike’s new Wing sunglasses.
Weighing just 26 grams, it might very well be the lightest pair of sunglasses ever created, ensuring you can easily ignore its presence on your face. Even better, it pairs the light weight with fewer contact points on the head and face than traditional sunglasses, ensuring more comfortable wear than ever before.
The Nike Wing Sunglasses use a lightweight but reinforced frame designed after the structure of human tendons, which they studied for both its flexibility and strength. They pair it to a single-body lens that, like the frame, is designed to curve around the face (the lens wrap past the temples), eliminating the need to use traditional hinges. This design enables air to run past the side of the head instead of being trapped at the temples, as they normally would in traditional sports sunglasses.
Features include a ventilated brow bar to minimize fogging, fractal cuts, a peaked middle to help air flow over the frame, Nike’s Speed Tint for glare reduction, and an adaptable silicone nosepiece. It comes with two sizes of back bands for holding the glasses in place while you’re on the move.
Slated to go on sale later this year, the Nike Wing is priced at a whopping $1,200.